Greetings from Atlanta. I’m down here at the IEEE Visions, Innovation and Challenges Summit, which is the major awards ceremony for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) . I’m down here at the request of IBM to help present two awards  that the company is sponsoring.  I got there early , so I had a chance to meet face to face an old freind that I’ve only video conference with in the past. Boglárka (Bogi) E. I met Bogi a couple of years back via an IBM colleague in Hungary..  We’ve talked fairly regularly since then about AI and career stuff. She’s now a 2nd year student at GA Tech studying Comp Sci.    we took a walk and grabbed a quick lunch.. It was great meeting her in person.

Later this afternoon was  the opening of the event of the VICS conference. It  was held at the beautiful Atlanta Aquarium . The awardees and sponsors got a ‘cooks tour’ of the machinery that keeps the aquarium running.  Evidently its the largest saltwater aquarium in the world.  It was great getting to see how the machinery that keeps the water clean worked . 

After the tour there was a very nice  reception where we got   to meet the awardees and hang out with my IBM friends Andy and Laura. THe reception room had huge floor to ceiling windows that looked intot he aquarium.. cool and surreal !

It was really nice seeing so many old and new friends !

nite all, nite sam

-me

We’d been looking forward to today.. Today our friend Jeremy brought his tool bus by for a planning session. Jeremy s a recent WPI grad and several year intern veteran of BETA. With BETA’s help he has assembled an amazing mobile makerspace in an old school bus. Inside he’s artfully arranged a 3D printer, Laser cutter,  5 axis cnc mill, manual multool lathe/mill combo, tig welder, cnc router, robotic arm (used for tatoing and many other things)… and every hand tool known to humans. Its amazing.. and he’s amazing,. He’s a very able builder(see http://jetbuilds.com/ and a very nice guy. He’s going to be working with us  to layer a  BETA experience  that uses the toolbus that we can take to schools. events, makerfairs, etc . It’s going to be amazing. 

 

Look for us soon at a school near you !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Friend Rebar (aka Aaron) is certifiably the nicest person at BETA (we had him tested). His birthday was a day (or so ?) ago.. but he’d been out of town. Today we held the worst kept secret surprise party for him. Shannon had grabbed an ice cream cake in honor of the occasion. The  subterfuge for  the surprise was a meeting with DIane.. we invited her in to talk about some  wall art we are planning. Rebar was invited, as were lots of his friends.. I don’t  think Rebar was surprised, but he was happy to be the birthday party. 

He is much loved !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Happy May Day everyone.. Today was beautiful./ feels really like spring is here. Mid morning, Conor. Caleb, Maggie and Maggies parents came by Beta for a tour. Conor and Caleb’s dad, Jim decided to stay home. They’ve been surrounded by friends and relatives who were in for Conor and Caleb’s ‘s mom Rose’s funeral this weekend. The whole family was tired and in need of some. I was happy to show them around BETA.  .. 

I  was very happy to give them something fun to do.  The whole family is very much in our thoughts. 

nite all, nite sam

-me