What Geeky Women Are Doing Now

Posted by ubergeeke on July 2nd, 2009 in blogpost No Comments »

I’ll keep this brief, because I tend to go a bit fangirl whenever I mention Limor Fried. As the engineer behind Adafruit Industries, Fried hooks geeks up with kits and parts for all kinds of projects. While she’s collaborated with Phillip Torrone on Citizen Engineer to provide a slick yet professional tutorial for makers and hackers, she also posts the occasional how-to on her LadyAda site.

Check out the latest, a tutorial on tilt sensors. Thanks to the Make Magazine blog for pointing the way!

Posted by ubergeeke on June 30th, 2009 in blogpost 2 Comments »

More than once, I’ve mentioned my involvement with the Portland State Aerospace Society. PSAS is an open source amateur rocketry group, and we build rockets. Damned fine rockets!

We’re currently in a fast-paced development cycle as we prepare for a launch this fall in Black Rock, Nevada. My contribution to that cycle is a carrier board for our flight computer. With direction by Andrew Greenberg and Sarah Sharp, I’ll be building a board that adds some functionality to the flight computer, including VGA, USB and 802.11 a/b/g connectivity.

Lofty goals, indeed, but keep checking back here and here on dotFiveOne for project updates!

Posted by ubergeeke on June 29th, 2009 in blogpost No Comments »

The most recent issue of Wired features a tiny blurb on Robin Murphy, Ph. D. and her work in robotics. Tiny, as in, just enough to whet the appetite. Murphy’s work, however, could fill a feature article, and though that won’t happen here either, I can at least point to several places where you can explore her work.

To sum up its broad scope, one need only look at her bio, as published on the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A & M University website:

“Dr. Murphy is a founder and international leader in both rescue robotics and human-robot interaction, and was recognized by TIME Magazine in 2004 as an innovator in artificial intelligence. Her work in rescue robotics began in 1995, investigating artificially intelligent robots and new concepts of cooperative teams such as marsupial and heterogeneous teams, while also working directly with responders to establish the domain theory. She was the first to introduce ground, air, and sea robots to disaster response, participating in the World Trade Center disaster (2001), La Conchita, CA, mudslides (2005), Hurricanes Charley (2004), Katrina (2005), and Wilma (2005), the Midas Gold Mine response (2007), the Crandall Canyon Utah Coal Mine response (2007), and the Berkman Plaza II parking garage collapse (2007).”

There’s quite a bit of information available about Dr. Murphy from a number of sources, including:

• a podcast interview from early 2008,
• an inane television interview which Murphy resuscitates by being the only articulate person present in this video,
• and an article in one of my favorite mags, the IEEE Spectrum.

Dr. Murphy’s research continues as part of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR), which she currently directs.

Posted by ubergeeke on June 25th, 2009 in blogpost No Comments »

After receiving several requests for more information, I thought I’d better explain one of my projects. The PillMetric is a small embedded system that I’m building for a medical research project being conducted by a professor at Portland State University. The design goal was to have a system that measures how often a patient takes his/her medicine.

The basic requirements I was provided were these:

• The system needed to be small enough to fit in a pocket or purse.
• It needed to sense whenever the user opened or closed a compartment.
• It needed to have four separate compartments for medication.
• All open and close events needed to be recorded for future download.

Last requirement first: since USB is damned near everywhere, I decided to use that for the downloads. I’m using the Teensy Arduino board with an Atmel AT90USB162 microprocessor because it has USB capabilities. I’ve chosen off-the-shelf plastic cases for the medication holder. Most, if not all, of the programming will be done in C. I’ve selected Reed switches for the sensors and some scavenged magnets to activate them.

This is a pretty basic system, but it’s the first I’ve ever designed myself, though I’ll admit to a bit of assistance from my mentor. I’ve got a prototype assembled, and the sensors work, but the microprocessor isn’t correctly configured yet.

Stay tuned; I’ll post more information about the project as the implementation continues!

Posted by ubergeeke on June 24th, 2009 in blogpost No Comments »

Before I run out of June, I want to point the way to the June 2009 issue of the Open Source Business Resource. The guest editor is Rikki Kite of Linux Pro Magazine (ROSE blog), and the issue’s theme is Women In Open Source. Check out Rikki’s post for more information and get ready to read pieces from Cathy Malmrose, Emma Jane Hogbin, Angela Byron, and Open Source Bridge co-chairs Selena Deckelmann and Audrey Eschright, as well as a brief introduction by editor-in-chief Dru Lavigne.

Posted by ubergeeke on June 23rd, 2009 in blogpost 4 Comments »

Looking for something to add to your podcast queue?

With the end of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Stargate” in recent months, I’ve found myself craving more science fiction entertainment. Fantasy occasionally fits the bill - as long as it’s not the likes of “Knights of Bloodsteel” - but sometimes gaming and television can’t replace a good, well-written book.

Great, unless I don’t have time to trawl the web or the local bookstore for a book suggestion. (I know, I know. Not likely, but it could happen.)

Never fear! Sword and Laser has the answers we seek! Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla and Tom Merritt of Buzz Out Loud publish a book club podcast just for scifi/fantasy geeks. Recent books include Daniel Suarez’s “Daemon”, Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and Robert Jordan’s “Eye of the World”. Obviously, there’s a mix of new stuff and old classics. These two have a great rapport, and time flies while listening. Be sure to check out the forums as well; they’re set up in a way that I haven’t often seen and it’s easy to see the latest comments in a number of discussions without dealing with the usual forum screen.

If you find something interesting to read, check out the S & L store. As always, make sure to leave some comments so they know they’re doing a great job! This ‘cast is damned entertaining. (Case in point: Belmont saying “the Sword and Laser” in Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy voice.)

And if all that isn’t enough to convince you, you simply *must* hear the theme song, which is played at the end of the episode. It’s awesome!