Reasons to Love My Hometown: Robots Take Over Pittsburgh

The city where I grew up, Pittsburgh, is hosting a ROBOT FESTIVAL.  Of course, a lot of it is driven by my beloved former place of work, CMU, the capital of Nerdistan, where, to quote CNET,

Dancing robots made of Rice Krispies Treats and robotic cucumber hands were made through an event hosted by a CMU computer scientist, Maya, a design consultancy and technology research lab, and Mattress Factory, a Pittsburgh contemporary-art museum, as part of the Community Open Studios component of Robot 250.

but it is also a neighborhood thang--neighborhoods were invited to design their own robots.  Neighborhoods came up with really cool things.  And there were robot middle school workshops, run by Illah Nourbakhsh, an associate professor of robotics, where:

More girls joined the classes and, according to Nourbakhsh, they turned out to be more talented programmers than the boys, dispelling an age-old stereotype. Kids taking robotics classes where Terk a robot building kit]is used now include the artists, environmentalists and literati instead of just the techies, Nourbakhsh said. That's exactly the effect Nourbakhsh says his group hoped to achieve.

Welcome, Pittsburgh robot overlords. 

Comments

[Martha]

Thanks, Jeannette...I like to have fun!

[Jeannette Maw]

Ha! I LOVE your blog, Martha! And your style.

Cute photos, too!