panels – exhibits – the construction zone – workshops – directions
10:00 - 11:30 Make-Your-Own Programs with NQC Dave Baum, NQC In Room 283 NQC is an alternative programming language for Mindstorms. In this tutorial session, you will learn how to write your own programs for RCX bricks with NQC. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12.) Make-Your-Own Collaborative Interactive Artwork Hiroshi Suzuki, Keio University In Room 235 Children will collaboratively create works of art - from words, images and diagrams - on networked interactive paint-boards. Multiple paint-boards can be linked and layered on top of each other to produce more intricate pieces that capture the history of the group's activity. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 8. PARTICIPANTS MUST BE 10-14 YEARS OLD.) Make-Your-Own Electric Bug Modesto Tamez, Mission Science Center In Room 135 Using stiff wire, electric motors, batteries, and junk design and build a bug-like robot that actually moves and jumps around. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20.) Make-Your-Own Responsive Animations Ben Fry and Bakhtiar Mikhak, MIT Media Lab In Room 283 Design By Number (DBN) is a new programming language that introduces designers to the expressive power of computational medium. In this workshop, you will design animations in DBN that will respond to messages from your computerized creations. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12.) Make-Your-Own Collaborative Interactive Artwork Hiroshi Suzuki, Keio University In Room 235 Children will collaboratively create works of art - from words, images and diagrams - on networked interactive paint-boards.Multiple paint-boards can be linked and layered on top of each other to produce more intricate pieces that capture the history of the group's activity. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 8. PARTICIPANTS MUST BE 10-14 YEARS OLD.) Make-Your-Own Epidemic Vanessa Colella, MIT Media Lab In Room 135 How do epidemics start and spread? In this workshop, you will be introduced to new wearable computers that allow you to create and immerse yourself in "life-sized" simulations of epidemics dynamics. We will dive into one such simulation and will work together to uncover the underlying rules that govern the evolution of the simulation. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20. PARTICIPANTS MUST BE AT LEAST 13 YEARS OLD.) Make-Your-Own Simulations Eric Klopfer, MIT Ed Hazzard, Tufts University In Room 283 Have you ever wondered what rules gives rise to decentralized complex systems, such as bird flocks, traffic jam, ant colonies, and market economies? You can explore and model such complex systems in a simple programming language called StarLogo, without advanced mathematical and programming skills. In this workshop, you will first learn about the "StarLogo mindset" through off-computer activities and then you will make your own simulations in StarLogo. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20.) Make-Your-Own iBall Rick Borovoy, MIT Media Lab In Room 235 All Mindfest participants will be given key-chain-size computers that are part of the new SEGA DreamCast video game system. You will be able to use these devices to create, trade, collect and play with a new set of digital objects called "information balls" or "iBalls". Like a traditional ball, an iBall can be passed between people. However, you will also be able to program an iBall to do totally new things, such as: display a cool animation of your own design that you can trade with your friends; or "hitch-hike" its way around the Mindfest event, bouncing from one person to another and periodically reporting back to you on its whereabouts. In this workshop, you will be able to design several of your own iBalls that you can pass along to your Mindfest friends. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12.) Make-Your-Own Marble Machine Karen Wilkinson & Mike Petrich, Exploratorium In Room 135 Join us for some marble madness! A workshop where we will design and build kinetic contraptions inspired by Rube Goldberg, sending marbles along a pathway of jumps, bumps and turns. We'll build and test our contraptions, and add sensors, sound, and motorized obstacles to interact with the marbles on our creations. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 15.) Make-Your-Own Videogames Michael Tempel, The Logo Foundation Hope Chafiian, Spence School In Room 283 Build your own adventure game, maze, Mad Lib, or action-packed video game using MicroWorlds. Play with and deconstruct games created by children and adults we have worked with over past several years in game design courses and workshops. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 8.) Make-Your-Own Programs with pbFORTH Ralph Hempel, pbFORTH In Room 235 This workshop will focus on an introduction to pbFORTH. I will present a brief history of FORTH on embedded systems, and my rationale for choosing pbFORTH as a programming language for the RCX. You will learn about the basic pbFORTH syntax and operations, variables and arrays, and control structures by writing programs to drive your RCX. (MAXIMUM NUMBER: 12.) Make-Your-Own Mechanical Toy Sarah Alexander and Sue Jackson, Cabaret Mechanical Theatre In Room 135 Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, London, invites you to explore different ways of making your own automata, moving toy or sculpture. Come find out how basic mechanisms such as cams, cranks and pulleys can be used to create an endless variety of movements. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20.) Make-Your-Own Paper Sculptures Michael Eisenberg, University of Colorado Anne Eisenberg, HyperGami Crafts In Room 283 Join us for a hands-on polyhedron building experience where we will introduce HyperGami and JavaGami, two software environments for creating real-world paper sculpture. Participants will design customized three-dimensional polyhedra by computer and then build real-world paper versions of their models. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12.) Make-Your-Own Maze-Navigating Robot Ralph Hempel, pbFORTH In Room 235 This workshop will focus on an advanced application of pbFORTH. Starting with the definition of a maze problem, we will design, build, and program robots for navigating this maze. (MAXIMUM NUMBER: 12. RESTRICTED TO EXPERIENCED pbFORTH PROGRAMMERS OR THOSE WHO ENROLL IN THE pbFORTH TUTORIAL.) Make-Your-Own Homebrew Sensors Michael Gasperi, Homebrew Sensors In Room 135 The Homebrew Sensors Workshop will take you through the process of designing and building your own custom RCX compatible sensors. You will learn to make connectors, enclosures, passive mode sensors, powered mode interfaces, and printed circuits. Step by step instructions will be given for cutting electric plates, hollowing bricks and fabricating your own accurate temperature sensor. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20. PARTICIAPANTS MUST BE OLD ENOUGH TO HANDLE A SINGLE EDGE RAZOR BLADE.) 10:30 - 12:00 Make-Your-Own Interactive Web Game Alex Repenning, University of Colorado In Room 283 AgentSheets™ lets you create your own SimCity-like interactive games or simulations and publish them on the web, even if you've never programmed before. We will help you build games from scratch or improve existing ones. Your game can be educational or just for fun; work alone or team with others. You can even exchange your game components, or agents, over the web to build complex games collaboratively. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 15.) Make-Your-Own iBall Rick Borovoy, MIT Media Lab In Room 235 All Mindfest participants will be given key-chain-size computers that are part of the new SEGA DreamCast video game system. You will be able to use these devices to create, trade, collect and play with a new set of digital objects called "information balls" or "iBalls". Like a traditional ball, an iBall can be passed between people. However, you will also be able to program an iBall to do totally new things, such as: display a cool animation of your own design that you can trade with your friends; or "hitch-hike" its way around the Mindfest event, bouncing from one person to another and periodically reporting back to you on its whereabouts. In this workshop, you will be able to design several of your own iBalls that you can pass along to your Mindfest friends. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12.) Make-Your-Own Refugee Shelter Richard Wright, PCS Education Systems In Room 135 The challenge (part of NEW 2000) asks students (in part) to create, build and demonstrate a working model of a temporary, portable, shelter that sets up and disassembles easily, sleeps four, and works in a variety of environments. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12. ENROLLMENT RESTRICTED TO EDUCATORS.) Make-Your-Own Videogames Michael Tempel, The Logo Foundation Hope Chafiian, Spence School In Room 283 Build your own adventure game, maze, Mad Lib, or action-packed video game using MicroWorlds. Play with and deconstruct games created by children and adults we have worked with over past several years in game design courses and workshops. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 8.) Make-Your-Own "Moral Contraption" Marina Bers & Claudia Urrea, MIT Media Lab In Room 235 This workshop will explore how technology can be integrated with humanities through a design-based approach. The workshop is based on the "Con-science" research program at the Media Lab, which engages both parents and children working together in robotic projects that express their personal, cultural and spiritual values. In this workshop young people and adults will have a chance to work together designing an interactive artifact that expresses their own values with the Mindstorms technology, Lego and all sorts of fun arts and crafts material. We will also discuss previous experiences within the Con-science project (in a Jewish school in Buenos Aires, in a digital museum in New York) and showing some videos. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20. CHILDREN AND PARENTRS ARE ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE TOGETHER.) Make-Your-Own Homebrew Sensors Michael Gasperi, Homebrew Sensors In Room 135 The Homebrew Sensors Workshop will take you through the process of designing and building your own custom RCX compatible sensors. You will learn to make connectors, enclosures, passive mode sensors, powered mode interfaces, and printed circuits. Step by step instructions will be given for cutting electric plates, hollowing bricks and fabricating your own accurate temperature sensor. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20. PARTICIAPANTS MUST BE OLD ENOUGH TO HANDLE A SINGLE EDGE RAZOR BLADE.) Make-Your-Own Programs with NQC Dave Baum, NQC In Room 283 NQC is an alternative programming language for Mindstorms. In this tutorial session, you will learn how to write your own programs for RCX bricks with NQC. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 12.) Make-Your-Own Butlers Crew Nira Krumholtz and Yaara Dagan, "IDEA Center" Tel Aviv University In Room 235 You are invited to experience programming in TechnoLogica to simulate 3 models of team collaboration. RoboButlers are ready to serve you as triggers for thinking while practicing. A new technology will be used to allow Robots to communicate with each other by sending and receiving information and commands. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 20. ENROLLMENT RESTRICTED TO EDUCATORS.) Make-Your-Own Musical Instrument Dan Overholt and Bakhtiar Mikhak, MIT Media Lab In Room 135 Come build a musical instrument with us! We will explore Play-Doh® as an intuitive interface for shaping various musical parameters. We will not only build the necessary circuitry to sense how Play-Doh is being manipulated, but also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the various possible mappings from the sensor readings to musical parameters. (MAXIMUM SIZE: 15.) info | links | contact LEGO MINDSTORMS™ is a trademark of the LEGO Group. |