Mid-South BEST HUB Closes

midsouthbest_logo

From an Email to Mid-South B.E.S.T. participants from Dianne Langford:

It is with regret that I am writing to let you know that Mid-South will be unable to be the host hub for BEST Robotics this fall. Due to an increase in enrollment and a number of new programs in our technical center, we simply don’t have room. We hope to host again after our new diesel building is completed in 2010. I have contacted John Martini to let him know and I would like to encourage each team to hook up with another hub closest to your school. Ed Hammerand at Crowley’s Ridge BEST at ASU in Jonesboro said that they are trying to expand and would welcome teams. If you are interested in the Jonesboro Hub, go to best.cs.astate.edu and he said you will find registration information. There is Music City hub in Nashville and a new hub in Little Rock at UALR (contact Vernard Henley vwhenley@ualr.edu or Jing Zhang jxzhang1@ualr.edu for more info on the Little Rock event).

Of course there are many other hubs and you can find them all listed with their contact information on the BESTinc.org website.

I hope that each of you register with a hub and participate this fall. It has been a pleasure to work with you.

It is a shame that the only robotics competition in Memphis is ending (for now), but I for one would like to thank Dianne and Mid-South Community College for host B.E.S.T. for the last few years.

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Remembering APOLLO 11

NASA just released restored video of the Apollo 11 mission…….

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Remembering APOLLO 11

I knew there had to be an official NASA 40th Anniversary Website.

Also a wonderful interview with Buzz Aldrin on C-Span. LINK

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EtherCat controls robots

by Charlie Demerjian at Semicon 2008:
from semiaccurate.com

July 19, 2009

IF YOU WANT to control devices that require precise, coordinated movements, protocols like TCP/IP have too much overhead and latency making life difficult or impossible. Luckily, a standard called EtherCat is aimed at fixing all the things that makes TCP/IP unsuitable while still running over low cost 802.3 Ethernet hardware.

Full Article

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Remembering APOLLO 11

Just found a wonderful website done by NASA commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Apollo 11 [wish I found it 10 years ago]

Also, I find it rather fitting that Walter Cronkite died yesterday. I was brought up on both the space race and his reporting of the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle flights. It seems to be the end of an era……

Who knows, maybe the comparisons of our current president to J.F.K. will inspire him to make his own “before the decade is out” speech in a year or two, but this time to MARS…….Just think of the possibilities!

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Remembering APOLLO 11

Some footage shot between the earth and moon…

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Remembering APOLLO 11

Today in history, the Apollo 11 spacecraft started on it’s way to the moon. My personal belief is that the computer age would NOT have happened if the Apollo program never happened. So many advances in computers and computer electronics happened because of JFK’s “We will go to the moon in this decade…” speech.

What would happen if we go to mars?

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Perfect Robot Motors?

Just purchased:

robot_motor2

From MPJA.

According to a second seller the motor goes 1/2 speed at 12v. Seems to be a perfect motor for a very simple robot base. Time will tell…..

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Researchers Develop Solid-State Quantum Processor.

From ASEE First Bell July 1, 2009

The New Haven Register (6/30, Stannard) reported, “A team of Yale University physicists has achieved a major advance toward creating an elusive superfast quantum computer that would assist research in fields such as high-level encryption” by creating “the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor.” While “what the processor does has been achieved before,” the difference, according to the researchers, “is that they’ve created a simple processor that could be made using ‘conventional fabrication technology’…that could be ‘scaled up’ to become more powerful and conceivably could be manufactured.” Robert Schoelkopf, professor of applied physics and physics at Yale, explained, “Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks. … But this is the first time they’ve been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor.”

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The Computer History Museum

More Info

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