Saskatoon TechWorks Forum

Hello all! My name is Adam Florizone (I hope my user name did not give me away ). I run and operate my own business Digihaven Technology and Design. I provide web hosting, design and IT for a number of non profit organizations. I believe strongly in open source communities and doing all that I can to help out. I love hacking around with electronics on my free time and programing in langs such as C++, Javascript and PHP (And more). I have done a lot of hacking projects such as building MAMEs, recycling old computers into useful applications and building crazy electronic contraptions.

It's nice to meet you all!

Hey i'm Andy,
i heard about this sight thought twitter, i've wanted to get a hacker space going in Saskatoon for a while now, so im pretty excited to find people who are doing it for me!
im in my last year of Computer Engineering at the U of S! i like long walks on the beach and writing code in python. i've got some ok experience with micros and digital circuits.

Cheers
-Andy

A brief history of everything.
My name is Kurtis Wanner. I'm an Electrical Engineering grad of '05/'06.
I organized a R/C sumo competition for Spectrum 2001.
In 2001 I resurrected the IEEE Robotics Club from its dormancy and held BEAM workshops until we decided combat robots would be more fun. I organized the IEEE Kilobots events and built an arena. Our first event was March 2003.
In 2003 I worked at Space West Science Camps as the Robotics Coordinator developing their robotics programs. This is also the year I started my home business selling robot parts.
For Spectrum 2004 we held a Kilobots tournament which was the biggest draw of all the displays. There were 21 entries in the 1kg weight class and over $500 in prizes. High numbers were achieved by disconnecting from the university and becoming the Saskatoon Combat Robotics Club (http://www.kilobots.com).
Spectrum 2007 was our tenth event and by now there were people coming to Spectrum solely to watch our fights. We had expanded to four weight classes and had 47 robots entered.
In 2008 Albert convinced me to rejoin the robotics club (he was the past president and was already helping out). I attended meetings to help with the mechanical side of things and also built a sumo robot for their events.
In 2009 I quit my engineering job to run my business FingerTech Robotics (http://www.FingerTechRobotics.com) full time.
For Spectrum 2010 Chandler (president of the robotics club) and I held Kilobots XVI side by side with the robotics club's display. We saw a drop in combat entries (down to 25) but a rise in other entries (sumo competition and line followers).
Chandler and I attended RoboGames 2010 (http://robogames.net/) in San Fransisco and competed in the mini sumo event (because it was cheaper to compete than to just attend). We had a 1-2 record and spent the rest of the time exploring the amazing robots, meeting the builders and planning our entries for next year.
We also attended Calgary's WCRS 2010 RobotGames (http://www.robotgames.com) with Albert and took home 2nd and 3rd places.

That's the past. The future will see FingerTech Robotics opening a robotics center to host autonomous and R/C robot events in conjunction with a Tech Shop for hobbyists and builders to construct their creations. I'm excited about this hackerspace because it is showing me there is a real interest in this kind of thing right here in Saskatoon. I look forward to helping it grow.

Holy cow, that's quite the resume you bring! It's gonna be interesting to see how our projects work together

Hello all,
My name is Albert La. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Kurtis has already described some of my exploits regarding robotics. If you wish to see more you can check them out here http://homepage.usask.ca/~avl094/ and here http://letsmakerobots.com/user/10511.
I've just recently returned from Toronto where I participated in the Canadian National Robot Games. I took home 2nd for the Masters Mini Sumo competition .

I am good at 4 things:
Eating
The saxophone
Robots
Origami

What I hope to get out of this space is to meet new people and have fun.

Hello,

My name is Doug Johnson. I work for Vecima Networks as a Software Developer and know a number of people that came out to the first meeting (I was unable to attend unfortunately). I have a long history of coding and volunteer work and am excited at the possibilities for learning and fun this group might bring. I hope that I can be of assistance in getting things going.

Hello All,

My name is Tim. Have done work with Al and the robotics club in the past. Currently working at Vecima Networks as a Test Engineer for WiMAX (last mile wireless) products. And my current personal projects are a RepRap Mendel (http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page) and an instant messaging doorbell.

Hello, forumers. My name is Jeremy Thompson, I am a Software Developer. My interests primarily revolve around software/coding, but only due to experience. I was very interested in the discussion and mention of robotics, Kinect hacking, etc., at the meeting.

Very much looking forward to seeing this get off the ground, and would be glad to help out in whatever fashion is required to do so.

Odemia wrote:Hello All,

My name is Tim. Have done work with Al and the robotics club in the past. Currently working at Vecima Networks as a Test Engineer for WiMAX (last mile wireless) products. And my current personal projects are a RepRap Mendel (http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page) and an instant messaging doorbell.

Put your ideas up on the Projects board! We'd love to hear them.

I second that notion