Nolan's Notes

Cool Robots At Carnegie Mellon

Posted by Nolan on April 19, 2009 0 comments

Hello again from Pittsburgh! Quite a few things have happened over the last month and a half, so I’ll be spreading the events out in a series of several posts. To start it off, I have some cool videos to show–all of them are well-known robots both at CMU and around the world.

The first is of “Tank”, the official Roboceptionist for Newell-Simon Hall on campus ( home of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute). He’s surprisingly really smart, as he’s does facial tracking, gives directions, says the weather, and I’m sure much more while keeping a slight grin on his robotic face. If you’re ever able to visit, be sure to talk to him at NSH north entrance.

The second video was from the Young Inventors International “Inventing the Future” Conference, held at Carnegie Mellon two weeks ago and organized by Anne Swift and Project Olympus, a startup incubator for students at Carnegie Mellon. Performing a market analysis of Marek Michalowski’s Keepon Robot was just one highlight of the event, as we were able to participate with roundtable discussions with numerous VC’s, marketers, inventors, and established CEO’s in an informal setting–all geared towards young, college-age inventors and entrepreneurs.

For a more detailed recap of the event with some more videos, please check out the YII blog at http://www.innovatorshub.com/

I was able to make a lot of connections and listen to some pretty inspiring stories, and I look forward to participating in it again next year!

Lastly, Carnegie Mellon and Astrobotic teamed up to show off their new challenge for Google’s Lunar X-Prize competition for $20 million. I was able to get the whole tour on video, but feel free to skip around as you want. My friend Abhinav and I were able to talk with Red Whitaker, the founder of Astrobotics, CMU’s DARPA challenge robots, and numerous other CMU robotics spinoffs, which was pretty cool too!

: Red Whitaker, head of CMU Mobile Robotics

A Busy Break…

Posted by Nolan on February 27, 2009 1 comment

Hello everyone, I apologize profusely for not posting for a while, but be assured that the semester is going well and I’m back into the swing of things.

Over the break, I mostly relaxed and visited family and high school friends, tried to play in the 16″ of snow we got (a 40-year-record for Portland), and did some website work. Before I knew it, January had rolled around and I was leaving to fly back to Pittsburgh. As most of you know, the Steelers won the Superbowl this year, but apparently the tradition is that all of the college students have a “party” in Oakland to celebrate afterwards. Their interpretation of party included burning garbage bins, breaking a bus stop, trying to uproot trees, and generally showing their enthusiasm for Pittsburgh’s win. Once a few of my friends and I got there, most of the ruckus was calmed, and mounted patrol units started coming in to clear people out. I’m definitely looking forward to the next time Pittsburgh wins!

The week before last was “Engineers Week”, a nationwide celebration for engineers and by engineers. Carnegie Mellon demoed some cool student projects during the open house including the awesome Hexabot robot (made by a member of our Robotics Club) and a project called HandTalk that translates pseudo-sign-language into words on a cell phone.

Also, earlier this week I had a first experience with “snow showers” (not to be confused with the Northwest’s “<rain> showers”)…they were so weird! Lastly, we had a great Kiltie Band concert last night, especially because everyone played in their kilts!

I’m looking forward to a great 2009. So long!

: Saying Goodbye!

: Pittsburgh "Transformer"

: Progress on Gates Building

: College Stir Fry

: Mounted Patrol

: Demoing Hexabot

: Handtalk--Phone-enabled Sign Language

: Kiltie Band Spring Concert

: Snow Showers

Also, here’s a bonus panorama of the CMU “cut” and “mall” last Wednesday. After snowing last weekend, it has been 50° and beautiful in Pittsburgh these last few days, and I felt like taking a few pictures to prove it.

Finals Week!

Posted by Nolan on December 7, 2008 2 comments

Wow, it’s been a whole month since my last posting! These last couple weeks have been filled with exams, final projects, and a ton of end-of-semester surprises to fill out my first year as a college student. I didn’t have opportunities for many pictures that I haven’t done before, but I am plenty involved with various activities around Carnegie Mellon’s campus. The first was a highly interactive event put on by the CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, called Building Virtual Worlds. It was first started by Randy Pausch (who I’ve blogged about before), and I had a lot of fun attending it’s various showcases. The first was an exciting pre-show event called “Get In Line,” where arts and science students separate into groups and try and best each other in various activites using their cellphones! And of course, inside McConomy Auditorium, the ETC students showcased their game-oriented projects with an excited crowd awaiting. Search YouTube if you’re interested in watching them, they’re really cool!

Later in the week I played in the Kiltie Band final concert, which was cool too. Skipping the ECE picture, the map of names is showing the hierarchy of a test that the “Science of the Web” professor Luis Von Ahn proposed to his students. Their task? See how many people could enroll in a facebook group. If they reached 3,000 people by the end of the week, they would get an extra 10 points on their final! The black circle in the top left corner is where me and a few of my friends are. Thankfully, they reached 3,000 people by Friday, and we got a really cool map to boot.

The last picture is of a new game that I discovered that is called Blokus. The game is basically like Tetris, except that you have to play the pieces at direct corners to each other, making the game a lot of fun for everyone, especially the engineering and computer science students at CMU. For those of you back home, I guarantee you, you will be hooked!

Can’t wait to come home for Christmas Break! Now…just to get through Finals

: Get In Line Promo for BVW

: One of the *highly interactive* exhibits for Building Virtual Worlds 2008...think DDR on steroids

: The Kiltie Band Concert on the Fence!

: Kiltie Band Holiday Concert

: Tetris running on an FPGA (senior Elec. Engr. project)

: "Science of the Web" Class Networking Test

: Blokus! The Coolest Game since Ticket to Ride

: Typical Pittsburgh weather about right now...

New Bill Gates CS Building

Posted by Nolan on November 5, 2008 1 comment

As I was eating lunch today in one of the many haunts around CMU, I couldn’t help but notice the progress that the new Undergraduate CS Building was making. I won’t go too much into the history behind it, but Bill Gates himself donated $20 million towards the building, it has a special bridge named after Randy Pausch that will link it to the drama building right next to it, and it just looks cool too. That last part was something I could share with you all easily, so here’s a panorama I made up to show you what it looks like so far. Enjoy!

It’s November Already?!

Posted by Nolan on November 1, 2008 1 comment

Well, with the coming occurring of Halloween and Daylight Savings Time a week away tomorrow, I think I can safely say that autumn is upon us (and my time for activities has slowly decreased). The temperatures have dipped a bit, with lows in Pittsburgh hitting barely above freezing. In my escapades recently, I’ve been able to slip in a few Pittsburgh activities along with my normal homework-week. The first is of a yearly celebration started by a local Pittsburgher to celebrate the yearly anniversary of the Pittsburgh Pirates winning the World Series in 1960 (which I blogged about last time). A few members of the original World Series team were there as well, which was really cool! Three weekends ago was Mid-Semester Break, which basically means a Friday off to do whatever you want to. So, some floormates and I got together and played frisbee golf in nearby Schenley Park, and had a blast doing it. I also have a picture of SausageFest, which is an event put on by my dorm sell hot dogs and sausages to raise money for charities. Dare I say it, there’s only 6 weeks left in the semester, and while I like the new sights and people, there’s nothing like home sweet home!