This was a very fun and busy day.. It actually started shortly after midnight.   We stayed up late to watch a rocket launch. Our good friend Doreen,Max’s future mother  in law spent her whole career at NASA designing satellites. Even though Doreen retired a few years back.. She and her husband (and our good friend) George back to watch the launch of her final project, the TEMPO spaced-based spectrometer for measuring pollution. It was going up on a  satellite being launched by a SpaceX Falcon reusable rocket.   Doreen sent this pic of her and George by the rocket

The launch was scheduled for about 12:20 AM. we watched in ton the NASA streaming service.. SO coooooool !

We watched the launch , the watched the amazing Falcon rocket land its 1st stage  back on a robotic ship.

It was great watching.. but I needed to get some sleep.. I woke up at 5 to drive  down 3 hours to Springfield MA watch our Rookie FIRST Robotics Team 9101 Green Mountain Robotics compete int he New England Regional Championship.. It was so exciting !

I headed home about 3… but learned on the way hoem that our team 9101 had been chosen as Rookie of the Year and was invited tot eh World Championship in Houston in 2 weeks. So proud of the team !

I got home to Jonesville around 6:30 .. Our friends Henrik and Johannes had already arrived. Hendrik is my good friend (and mentor) from MIT-IBM.. Johannes is his super nice  partner. He just finished his PhD and will be beginning a post doc at Harvard in AI Visualization.. a pretty hot topic now.  It was great to see them both !.. We’re goign to show them BuETA and Burlington tomorrow. 

Fun day !

-jc

Today was relatively calm compared to all the activity yesterday. Started with a nice workout.. .. we saw some red wing blackbirds which means its really spring !

spent  the last part of the afternoon at generator helping Shannon with the  BETALab program that she and Tyler are leading. We worked with some great kids from Spaulding high school on a project to fabricate a electric motor demo. I was really impressed with the kids creativity. 

got home in time   for a walk //still a dusting of snow.. 
Wonderful sunset !

ahhhh

nite all, nite sam

-me

After the relative peace of yesterday. today was a complete .. and very fun.. whirlwind. 

It started early. with a visit to my freind Chri’s dad /John Cleary to unload the fire organ.  John and his wife Jean operate Cleary Stone on Gov Peck roat.  They’ve kindly offered ot let me park the fire organ there until we have the time to asswmble it. 

Chris’s freind Alex works wiht John and is an absolute artist with a forklift and highlift.  Hey was able to unload the 600 pound fire organ in a couple of minutes and park it neatly in John’s shop.. I don’t know what I could have done with out their help !

From there I headed to BETA. It was a very exciting day for us. Dr. Jill Biden. The First Lady of the US was coming to visit us along with Education Secretary Miguel Cordona, Senator Peter  Welch. Congresswoman Becca Ballant. Sen. Bernie Sanders wife Jane Sanders, Burlington Mayer Miro Weinberger, . In addition Vermont Governor Phil Scott was there with nearly his whole cabinet .. It was pretty amazing. The whole building had been secured and the hanger was cleared of all but our Alia SN 1 and SN-2 and an electric car demo from a local Tech Center.    Space was limited so  60 of us had gotten invited by lottery to attend the event in person.. The rest of the company watched remotely. The places was crawling with secret service and bomb sniffing dogs.. It was exciting !

We all waited outside until the doors opened and we went through security. 

 

All of us headed upstairs to the  standup table while we waited for Airforce One. We could look down in the hanger and see some of the folks there to meet the visitors. My friend and studyhall intern Phoebe was one of two interns chosen to speak with the First Lady directly.. we got to watch her get interviewed.. so fun !

We waited for about an hour and then we heard Air Force one roll up to our hanger… I’m betting there aren’t many companies where they can land and drive to the back door 🙂 

Atthat point about half the group upstairs were secorted down to the hanger floor  while the rest of us watched through the upstairs hanger windows.
We all cheered when Dr Biden and her team came in the hanger.. it was so amazing to see !

We were able to see and hear them upstairs…  Then a funny thing happened.. The First Lady looked up at us cheering from the upstairs window.. She asked why we were upstairs and not down with her.. talked to her team.. to the secret service and to the Beta folks.. and a few minutes later a secret service team escorted the rest of us down to floor of the hanger.,

Then  we got tot hear short which is all the dignitaries on the same subjects…. I particuallry liked the commnets of Secretary of Ed Cordona an, Governor Scott and Dr Biden.  Dr. Biden was traveling around the country promoting the Biden Harris education agenda. That includes two years of community college for any student who wants it and also other initiatives which make alternate pathways to allow people to grow skills. There was a lot of discussions about technical education centers and community college which I really liked.… Another theme was bipartisanship. Vermont has a very popular Republican governor… Governor Scott… he’s a huge supporter of public education in a huge supporter of beta. Both the governor Scott and Dr. Biden talked about the issues of education were not democratic issues or Republican issues they were American issues… That drew huge claws. I was really proud to be a Vermonter because  democracy still works here. 

Afterwards Dr Biden, Sec’y Cordona , and Gov Scott came down and shook all of our hands who were on the first row.. pretty cool !

I found this picture of Dr Biden on the white house instagram.. 

Gov Scott and his cabinet lined up for a picture next to Alia.. so I took soem too. I got a chance to talk to a few of my firends in the cabinet. 

 

I also got a chance to talk to  the  Governor a bit about our work with FIRST robotics.. Our teams visited him at the state house 3 weeks ago.. and he’s very excited about helping us.. My friend Abby from the gov’s office is working with us on the FIRST interactions with the state and she sent me this pic of the conversation.. so great !

Dr Biden then rounded up her group.. left the hanger and a few minutes later was in the air. We all filed out happy and smiling !

Such a great day!

Such a great day !
nite all, nite sam

-me

After 4 different beds in as many days, diane and I are happy to be home. I had a simple and productive day at work… nothing of note happened..

ain’t that great !

nite all, nite sam

-me