NSF Awakens to Maker Movement

My apologies for the lack of posts over the last few months. Cool stuff is occurring on campus. One bit of news has an embargo placed upon it so I am not at liberty to discuss. However, that bit of news is quite exciting and I am hoping a broad announcement will be forthcoming any week.

A bit of news I can share is the new LightBoard available through the Faculty Development Center (FDC). If you are not familiar with what a LightBoard is and what a LightBoard can do, here is a short demonstration video from the folks at Stanford University.

The LightBoard is a cool, innovative technology used for providing and enhancing online course content. The Murray State University LightBoard was made in-house by Jim Barnett (J-CSET) with student assistance, and Justin Patton (Media Support Technician, CHFA). I'll see if I can get my hands on a Murray State demonstration video and post. In the meantime, direct your questions about the use of the LightBoard to Justin Patton.

I subscribe to the CampusTechnology email newsletter, and find many pertinent items, interesting news, and thought-provoking ideas. In the last email, CT has a story concerning a recent NSF grant awarded to investigators at Indiana University and University of Michigan. These researchers are to study the Maker Movement in the United States and China over the next four years.

One of the researchers, Shaowen Bardzell is interested in innovation and Maker support in the U.S. Midwest:

Similar support exists in the United States, but primarily on the coasts, not in the middle of the country, where, Bardzell observes, "there's a proud tradition of manufacturing." The next generation of products, she said, "from cars and dishwashers to clothing and medical devices" will be tied to manufacturing innovation. "We see potential for everything from prototyping to mass production in the region."

(Source: Dian Schaffhauser; "Maker Movement To Get Professional Makeover in Midwest;" CampusTechnology, 9-11-2015) 

I have to say I agree with her. Following many Maker, DIY, and Spark accounts on Twitter, I learn nearly every day the coasts are recipients of most of the attention as far as innovation, fabrication, and technology are concerned. For example, I recently learned the White House is making an investment in wearable technology due to the president's fascination with his Fitbit. The Department of Defense is contributing $75 million dollars to a pool of private funding, bringing the total investment to about $171 million. The site of this new investment is, of course, San Jose, home of Silicon Valley, and on the West Coast, the pinnacle of U.S. technopoles. (White House Fact Sheet, 8-28-2015)

I am hoping to learn more from the research findings of the NSF-sponsored investigation. I think I sort of know what the findings will be, but surmising from anecdotes is not the same as having evidence, right?

IEEE Students To Meet, Plan for SoutheastCon 2015

The Murray State University student chapter of IEEE will have a Spring 2015 Kickoff / planning meeting Wednesday, January 21st, 2015 at 3.30 p.m., 135 Blackburn.

The meeting will discuss details pertaining to the formation of a Robot Team. The Robot Team will compete at the SoutheastCon 2015 Student Hardware Competition to be held in Fort Lauderdale, FL, April 9th - April 12th, 2015.

The IEEE Robot Team needs members with the following experience or background:

1. Electrical engineering

2. Mechanical engineering

3. Computer programming

All interested Engineering Physics students plus IET majors are encouraged to attend.

Free pizza and drinks will be available.

For more information, please contact Dr. Leedy at aleedy@murraystate.edu

Mapping Nobel Prize Winning Women

After the recent passing of author Doris Lessing (1919-2013) I became curious how many women have received the Nobel Prize since 1901. Not that many I have come to discover. Of the 851 individual Laureates, 45 have been women, or roughly 5%. According to NobelPrize.org, 25 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Prize, as well. Examples of organizations include Bangladesh's Grameen Bank (2006), Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, 1999), Amnesty International (1977), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF, 1965).

The connection between education for women and girls and economic progress and development is clear. Investments in education for women and girls in developing and underdeveloped countries results in positive economic and social progress. Around the world, from the United States to Africa and Southwest Asia, investment in education, and especially STEM education, improves wages, improves health care, reduces child mortality, and increases political action and commitment.

My hopes are the map may help inspire people to improve the recognition of the contributions of women throughout all segments of global society. 

Click "Legend" to open the map's legend. The pins are color-coded by the Nobel award, green for chemistry, red for physics, silver for economics, and so forth. Click on a pin and the information for a particular Nobel winner will appear. When the window opens, scroll to the bottom. I added a link to the winner's entry on NobelPrize.org and used a link to their Wikipedia.org entry for a picture, if one was available. I assigned the colors, by the way. The interactive map above was created from a simple spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is very simple to create. A little forethought must be given to how the data is organized. As I tell my students, you don't have to be an expert in the topic, but you do have to understand how to organize information. In this case, I mapped the winners by their place of birth. However, in many cases, the winners did not their award in their home country. Before and during World War Two, a mass exodus of people from Western, Central, and Eastern Europe occurred in advance of Nazi Germany influence. In some cases, the location does not note the place of birth but the country of residence at the time of the award. This special circumstance might make for an interesting lesson plan for middle or high school students, by the way. Both men and women Nobel Prize awards for the 1940's exhibited considerably disruption due to the war.

As the above spreadsheet illustrates, nothing fancy is going on. Year, Winner's Name, City, Country, Prize Category, etc. A couple of special notes; for the data to be mapped, some information about location must be provided. Now, I have provided "city" and "country." I could use a technique called "geocoding," but this process comes at a real cost. Some processes included with ArcGIS Online come with a real dollar amount attached and cost real money. Geocoding is one of those processes. I opted not to charge geocoding against our account and elected to use geographic coordinates instead. Thus, the "x" and "y" are latitude and longitude. The ArcGIS Online dashboard comes equipped to handle data attached to geographic coordinates at no cost to the user. The upload process is also smart enough to identify geographic coordinates in a spreadsheet in the event an unsophisticated user provided unusual field headings, like "peanut_butter" and "jelly." The data within the record is often enough to offset unfortunate headings.

There are two columns missing from the above graphic. The first missing field is "image_LNK." This is a reserved field name. Use this field to provide a link to an online image. The field must contain the fully qualified URL to the image. The second missing field is "wiki_LINK." This field contains the URL to pertinent Wikipedia page. I believe adding other custom fields is possible, though I have not explored this potential. To provide better coverage, below is the rest of the spreadsheet.

This is not a precise tutorial for putting data online. The process is not more involved than what I have described, though. ArcGIS Online maps can be shared with selected Murray State people or Murray State groups, or can even be made public. And, as you have see above, can even be embedded in a website.

The same potential for building map applications similar to the two maps I have posted exists for kids in kindergarten through high school in Kentucky. Sponsored by the Kentucky Geographic Alliance, all K-12 schools in Kentucky have at their disposal ArcGIS Online for Education. Check out connected.esri.com for complete details.

For more information about ESRI's ArcGIS Online for Education at Murray State contact Michael Busby at the Mid-America Remote sensing Center (MARC.)

Archaeology Prints Its First Object

In early August, Dr. Kit Wesler was finally able to get his Cubify CubeX Duo up-and-running. Not through any fault of his own; several work orders were stacked up to bring electric and networking to his Terrain Modeling Laboratory. Once the CubeX Duo had a firmware update, a test file was uploaded to the printer. The CubeX Duo is only connected to computer to receive firmware updates. Print files (.STL) are moved to the 3D printer via a USB drive. The onboard computer and menu system provides access to printing specific print files. The short video below shows the printer in action.

The Cubify CubeX Duo was purchased along with a 3D scanner as part of a long-term project to generate models of archaeological artifacts. A collection of model archaeological artifacts would be assembled into interpretive collections for distribution to local primary and secondary schools to enhance students knowledge of local history and culture. These model artifacts would represent primarily the Mississippian culture which existed throughout much of the southeast United States from about 800 A.D. to approximately 1600 A.D. (New Georgia Encyclopedia)

So, what was printed? A rook, the test file provided by Cubify (above). The Murray State coaster and dime (on the coaster) provide scale. The print job took about 4 hours. The level of detail is pretty cool; not seen in the image is the spiral staircase running from the floor to roof inside the rook. Many of these 3D printers create very impressive levels of details even as seen from the outside. If one were to examine these objects closer, the interiors of most objects also contain high amounts fine details only visible by close scrutiny.

3D printing and scanning, outrageously expensive a mere 5 years ago, are becoming nearly commonplace. Such vendors as Cubify, Makerbot, and Printrbot provide entry level printers affordable to home enthusiasts. Some models are less than a $1000, putting them within reach of individuals, schools, and small businesses. 3D printing and scanning is rapidly becoming the basis of DIY, entrepreneurial fabrication, and a necessary tool for the Maker movement.

Kentucky Academy of Technology Education at Murray State Brings NAO to Western Kentucky

Parts of this post are borrowed from the WKMS coverage of KATE's latest technology endeavor, the NAO programmable robot. I include portions of the interview to ensure continued coverage of innovative and STEM-related topics which promote local efforts to integrate emerging technologies in education and entrepreneurship.

Kate Lochte and WKMS sat down with Dr. Robert Lyons, Ginny Kelly, and Dwayne Buchanan to discuss the introduction of emerging technologies within Primary and Secondary Education. The newest technology promoted by KATE (Kentucky Academy of Technology Education) is the NAO robot. NAO is a French-made programmable robot developed specifically for educating young minds - and perhaps older minds, too - in the field of robotics and programming.

The NAO, designed and built by Aldebaran, is programmable using a collection of images to move the robot through a set of behaviors. NAO can also be customized by students by learning C++ and create their own set of custom behaviors.

"This is the second year the NAO robot is utilized in the Kentucky Academy of Technology Education program. A middle school in Bullitt County was the first to conduct a trial run. Students were selected to already had an interest in computer programming to try the software and the robot. They took their learning experience to a nearby elementary school for a demonstration. Because of the interest in robots, students who were not necessarily leaders in the classroom stepped forward and became leaders in the project. Feedback shows that 80% of the kids in the trial had gone on to take another programming class in STEM." (WKMS; http://wkms.org/post/how-murray-state-introducing-kids-emerging-world-robotics; August 15th, 2014)

Ginny, Robert, and Dwayne also did a great job of incorporating Make and D-I-Y activities into their discussion.

Please listen to the entire interview at WKMS here.

Nashville Mini Maker Faire

Nashville Mini Maker Faire

September 13th, 2014

Adventure Science Center

10 am to 5 pm

The second annual Nashville Mini Maker Faire is coming up soon! September 13 at the Adventure Science Center, over 30 exhibits and 3,000 people will take part in Nashville's Maker Movement.

This year's Crafter's Challenge theme is "cycle."When you hear “cycle”, what do you see? Recycle? Bicycle? Water cycle? Baseball cycle? Now put your vision into a crafted piece and enter the Nashville Mini Maker Faire Crafters’ Challenge. All types of creative crafted pieces are welcome, from sculptures to paintings to quilts to wearables to designs and more. Entries will be displayed at the Faire and winners will be chosen by celebrity judges and popular votes. Thousands of people will see your creation. There are only two simple rules:

Rule #1: Your artwork must incorporate your interpretation of the word “cycle”.

Rule #2: You must fill out a Maker application and indicate you are entering the Crafters’ Challenge.

(From MAKE Blog, 7/30/2014) 

The first annual Nashville Maker Faire featured the Full Scale Millennium Falcon Project, the Official R2-D2 Builders Club, and Master Builder Chris Lee.

Here is a YouTube video of Nashville's 2013 Maker Faire, every exhibit in 2 minutes:

For more information, click the graphic below, or visit NashvilleMakerFaire.com

Dr. Brandi King Presenting LEGO Robotics Workshop to Regional K-12 Educators.

From "Roundabout Murray" for June 12, 2014.

An upcoming opportunity to learn how to integrate LEGO® robotics in the classroom will provide K-12 teachers from Murray State University’s 18-county service region tools to diversify teaching strategies and address Kentucky Common Core STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) standards. The Office of Regional Outreach is partnering with Dr. Brandi King in the College of Education to present a free two-day LEGO® robotics education workshop for K-12 teachers in the region on June 26-27.

According to King, this training opportunity will “prepare teachers to work with students using LEGO® robotics kits. Participants will be expected to use the kits with students in the classroom, in an after-school club setting or coach a First LEGO® League team, which is for students ages 9-14.”

King’s passion for robotics prompted her to direct robotics summer camps for kids on Murray State’s campus and, more recently, to provide teachers with more hands-on instruction options. “The more teachers who have this technology at their fingertips, the more children who can be exposed to it in the classroom since not all kids can attend the camps,” King noted.

All participants will be loaned the use of one LEGO® robotics kit for one school year. Homeschool teachers are encouraged to sign up as well.

To register, contact King at bking11@murraystate.edu or call Regional Outreach at 270.809.5888

And if you have time, check out this LEGO video showcasing how LEGO robotics addresses Common Core Science Standards.

Kickstart a Makerspace

Adapted from "Kickstart A Kid's Makerspace," by James Floyd Kelly; Make Magazine; Vol. 38; April/May 2014.

When I run across a good idea I occasionally take exception to parts of the idea's premise. Take this article by Mr. Kelly. He has an awesome idea. He states, "Young makers grow up to become world-changing engineers and leaders." I agree wholeheartedly. So, why would I take exception to his idea?

Because I don't think it should be limited exclusively to kids.

Many people have great ideas. Some people are late bloomers, and don't get an original idea until later in life, in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. Why should brilliant technology be provided exclusively to the young? Aren't we really interested in fostering ideas, regardless of age, gender, or race, or religion?

Blacktooth laser cutter

 The notion of placing technology in the hands of our youth makes complete sense. After all, we adults want to raise thoughtful adults to take care of us in our old age, after our days of making and creating have been replaced by sipping cool drinks on the beach reading our favorite yarn. But, like I said, placing tech and ideas in the hands of more than our youth seems like a good idea, especially those college-aged youth who never had an opportunity to be creative, and adults back-in-college who may want to be entrepreneurs and create jobs.

Kelly outlines a couple of paths to follow, a low-cost Makerspace valued at about $11,000; and a higher-cost Makerspace, valued at about $24,000.

CNC router

I don't want to re-create Kelly's great article here; we can all read and evaluate. We should all consider the long-term value in investing in such technologies from a variety of perspectives. Nothing bad, and much good can from these experiences.

If you don't read Make magazine, you should.

Also, check out makezine.com for thousands of ideas for making, creating, building, wiring, and programming.





 

2014 Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative Conference

The 2014 Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative Conference Committee invites you and your female students to come take part in an extremely exciting and hands-on experience!

The "Health Sciences and Other Interesting Careers for Girls Conference" offers a plethora of educational ideas for educators and counselors, as well as several exciting activities for girls in grades 5 - 12 who are interested in the STEM fields.

Dress casually comfortable as Lesha Shumpert gets the day started off with Zumba exercise for everyone!

Pre-registration is required and lunch is included.

Adult registration can be completed on this page. 
For Student Registration, please visit this page.

Deadline: 6/9/2014. $30.00 (adults) (No charge for students - Lockheed Martin provided a generous donation covering student registration fees for the 2014 KGSC Conference).

Date: Friday, June 13, 2014 - 8:30am - 3:45pm
Where: Murray State University Crisp Center, 4430 Sunset Avenue, Paducah, KY 42001
Phone: (270)534-3111 or (800)669-7654
Fax: (270) 534-6292

Websites:
Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative
National Girls Collaborative Project

Murray State to Host Local "SharkTank"

Murray State University is hosting a SharkTank-type entrepreneurial pitch contest this month. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 17, 11:00 a.m., inside Heritage Hall. The competition is sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurship within the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, along with the Kentucky Angels Network and the Kentucky Innovation Network.

Loretta Daniel, Director of the Innovation and Commercialization Center (ICC) at Heritage Hall, said the competition is open to teams of three-to-four people with the winner in Murray taking home $1,000. The winning team will also advance to a competition this fall in Frankfort, where team members will pitch their idea directly to the entire Kentucky Angel Investors Network (Kentucky Angels).

The competition is open to the public, and will be a good way for local inventors to mingled, meet, and network.

Anyone wishing to enter the pitch competition should visit www.kyinnovation.com or contact Daniel at 270-809-6071.

Capturing Bugs and Measuring Nitrogen with Arduino and RaspberryPi

Professor James Hardin's (JCSET) research interests lie at the "intersection of sensors and engineering design." (Personal website) In pursuit of those interests, James is working on a couple projects integrating his research interests with biology and the natural environment.

One project (left) is a simple nitrogen sensor. Using an optical contact sensor and some Arduino hardware, James and an undergraduate student created a nitrogen sensor for measuring nitrogen within a leaf. Merely lay the leaf atop the sensor (the small, white cylinder), and the microcomputer will measure and report the nitrogen bound within the leaf.

The second project is far more complicated. A field biologist needs to conduct an insect inventory of a test site. Perhaps the field biologist is looking for a collection of diagnostic insects, or perhaps, is looking for a certain insect.

Today, a field biologist would have to spend days upon days in the field, setting traps, shaking bushes, etc., and hope to collect some good samples.

What if ... what if the biologist could set a number of automated traps? These traps would collect an insect, trap the insect long enough to snap a pic, and release the insect back into the wild. The insect snapshot would be processed digitally, a form of facial recognition image processing technique applied, and the insect species would be identified and the pic classified. The pic and info would be transmitted via MMS/SMS to the biologist comfortably sitting in a field office or lab.

Dr. Hardin is working on a prototype of this insect trap. As shown (left), the white PVC Y-joint serves as the basis for mounting trap components. A RaspberryPi controller operates the mechanism for trapping the insect long enough to capture an image. Attached to the trap is an Android phone (right), the brains of the device.

The phone captures the image, processes and classifies the image, and provides a means to geolocate the insect. Once processed, the data is sent via MMS/SMS to the biologist, wherever that person might be stationed.

Dr. Hardin research demonstrates the utility in drawing the disciplines of engineering, biology, and geography together in the analysis of the a biological problem. His device captures an insect, performs non-invasive testing and initial interpretation, the results of which are transmitted back to a researcher who can integrate the data into a geographic database for spatial analysis.

Dr. James Hardin can be reached at jhardin@murraystate.edu (MSU/JCSET).

President Obama Hosts White House Science Fair

Today, President Obama hosted the White House Science Fair, bringing students from all across the country to demonstrate a wide variety of science interests and knowledge in our national schools.

Team Rocket (All-girl) from Maryland

Innovative students representing 30 states will display their ideas and inventions for the President and the wider viewing public. If you'd like a complete list of presenters, here you go.

President Obama also released significant details outlining several new education initiatives today. Not all of them will be presented here, and I will refer readers to the full White House press release.

The initiatives present continued funding, enhanced funding, or new plans to augment science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Some of the new STEM goals include:

• STEM Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grants.
• Nationwide effort to engage Hispanic youth in STEM.
• Global initiative to connect STEM students from around the world.
• Expansion of STEM-based AmeriCorps.
• Partnership with NASA and Khan Academy to provide free, online STEM education.
• ESRI to provide ArcGIS Online for Education accounts to every K-12 school in the United States.

The President has also issued a "Call To Action" to all existing business partners, including Time/Warner, the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), and the newly established White House Maker Corps.

For more details, please check the White House press release here.

Murray State Receives PICMatch Grant

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology (JCSET), was recently awarded a Preparation for Industrial Careers in the Mathematical Sciences (PIC Math) grant by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). PICMath is a program to prepare "mathematical sciences students for industrial careers by engaging them in research problems that come directly from industry." (MAA.org)

Dr. Renee Fister

"A strong component of PIC Math involves students working as a group on a semester-long undergraduate research problem from business, industry, or government." (MAA.org)

"PIC Math provides faculty with content for a semester-long, credit-bearing course focused on solving industrial problems. Each faculty participant will assemble a team of three to five students and work with them to develop their problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills. Each team will choose from one of five problems that are realistic yet suitable for undergraduate students." (MAA.org)

In preparation for administrating the grant, Dr. Renee Fister will travel to an orientation seminar in Salt Lake City, Utah in early June 2014.

The students will begin working within the PIC Math grant program Spring 2015.

Kristen Garcia: IEEE Student Featured on Murray State's Website

Kristin Garcia is an Engineering Physics major, Mathematics minor, from Milan, Tennessee. One of Kristin's major accomplishments was helping to reform Murray State's IEEE student chapter in 2011. Ms. Garcia is a junior at Murray State.

Murray State IEEE Chapter Heads to IEEE SoutheastCon 2014

March 14th - March 15th, 2014 brings the annual SoutheastCon. Held at the University of Kentucky, the IEEE SoutheastCon brings together IEEE teams from around the Commonwealth to participate in a hardware-based competition, i.e. build a robot to accomplish some goal.

This year's Student Hardware Competition brings a challenge very appropriate for both Kentucky and the time of year. The 2014 challenge involves designing a robot to shoot a projectile from various distances to emulate the playing and shooting dynamics of basketball.

What better challenge than one aligned with basketball, SEC tournament play, and NCAA March Madness?

The objective will to build a a robot that operates on a simulated basketball court. The robot must follow three lines with randomly positioned shooting blocks and then fire a dart while positioned on top of the shooting block. Winners will be decided by number of points earned by completing goals and completion time so the highest scoring robots will be both fast and precise.

Friday and Saturday, teams will assemble and test their robots. Saturday afternoon, teams will compete, culminating in the awards ceremony Saturday night. Throughout each day, other activities are available, ranging from leadership training workshops, workshops on renewable energy, and RaspberryPi tutorials.

Murray State IET Hosts E-Day

Over 400 4th and 5th graders from around western Kentucky descended upon Murray State to experience physics. Faculty and students of the Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology ran local middle school students through a variety of exercises, experiments, and technologies. 

The variety of stations allowed students hands-on access to simple robots, lighting & controller systems, human-sized Jenga blocks, and an egg-catapult. Each of these stations demonstrated simple and accessible technologies while also presenting the physics at work.