Continue reading »]]> Feeling a little stressed lately?

Come join AIME for a day trip down to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA! The trip is scheduled for Sunday, March 4th, and space is limited. Also, you do not need to be a member of AIME to attend.

An informational meeting will be held this Saturday (2/25) at 1:00 in O’Connell 431. If you cannot make it to the meeting, but are still interested, please email us.

Don’t know what the Exploratorium is? Check out the website here.

Continue reading »]]> As you can see, we’ve moved the furniture around quite a bit and added a few coats of new paint. We will continue to add features and update information soon, so be sure to come back and visit once in a while. As the spring 2012 semester kicks off, be sure to check back for event information.

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Today was an exciting day for a group of very young students here in Chico. A few AIME officers took a trip to visit Chico Nursery School, a preschool in central Chico. The kids had been studying space and technology during the month, which made an excellent opportunity for us to show them a few robots and explain their functions.

To start, after introductions we brought in a well-known robot that the kids would recognize: Wall-E! We also introduced our mascot robot, AIMEE. After explaining other basic parts of robots to the kids, such as motors and wheels, we did an activity with the students so they could experience “programming” a robot to follow instructions. In this case, the robot was Miss Jessie!

Each student had an opportunity to hold the “controller” and give Miss Jessie instructions for how to move through an obstacle course laid out on the floor based on a set of options on a board: walk, over, right, and left.

After the exercise, the kids were given a few examples of how a real robot navigates if it is autonomous by using various types of sensors, such as push-button, sound, light, and ultrasonic sensors to establish obstacles within its local environment. A demonstration of ultrasonic navigation was done by James and Kate to the delight of the kids.

Next, students were shown pictures of the different kinds of robots that exist today, including robotic manufacturing equipment in the auto industry, the newly-launched rover, Curiosity, as well as the Google Car (an autonomous vehicle), and several others.

We wrapped up the visit by showing the kids our machine known as an EggBot, which is a robotic apparatus that can be used to draw on egg-shaped or spherical objects with a Sharpie or other fine-tipped pen. We had customized a small collection of ping-pong balls with each student’s name ahead of time, and handed each child their corresponding ball.

At the end of the visit, a few of the kids who stayed behind for a little while played with our Hexbug assortment that we had walking around on a table top – these toys, which can be found at many stores, were perfect for the kids to see sensors in action.

We would like to thank Irene and Jessie for having us visit the preschool, and we were glad to be able to hopefully inspire a few future engineers.

Additional photos can be seen in our gallery over on our Facebook page.

Continue reading »]]> 5:10: Call To Order

Officers Present:
Sam Ferguson (President)
Mike Rasmussen (Vice President)
Levi Stroing (Treasurer)
Keith Lindauer (Activities Coordinator)
Brian DeWilde (Secretary)
Mike Rutz (Parts Manager)

Upcoming Events:
Note: Dale Word teaches PIC and ARM for EECE 337/437

Brian DeWilde talks about PLC Workshop – Details TBD

5:15: Dr. Ramesh Varahamurti invites students to attend interactive ABET session on Monday, September 21, at 10:30 in O’Connell 436. This is an opportunity for ABET to get a feel for how the students of the Mechatronics Program feel about it. For reference, contact Dr. Varahamurti at: RVarahamurti@csuchico.edu

IGV Announcement: IGV Info Meeting Tuesday September 15th at 5:00 in O’Connell 431.

5:20: Social Events:
Barbeque (Sundays work well), Bowling Trip, Movie Night (with ASME and IEEE) – Details TBD

5:30: Field Trips:
Keith Talks about possible Adept field trip and/or funded project to introduce Chico State students to Adept robotics. Approximately 10 people interested; 8 willing to commit time at least 2 hours. Approximately all attendees interested in a field trip to AIME.
High interest in scheduling field trips for furlough days and Veterans Day.

7 People interested in USS Posco Tour.
27 interested in Adept Tour.
27 interested in Parallax.
27 interested in Stanford AI Labs.

5:50: Meeting adjourned.

Continue reading »]]> The first AIME Officers meeting of the Fall 2009 semester was called to order at 5:15 on Monday, August 8th, 2009. Attendees were Sam Ferguson, Mike Rasmussen, Levi Stroing, Keith Lindauer, Brian DeWilde, Mike Rutz, and Scott Vanni.

Meeting Times:

* Regular meeting times will be targeted for the second and fourth Mondays of each month, from 5:00 to 5:30. This is the only time accessible to all officers. There will be a change to the regular meetings in November and possibly December.

* The first meeting will be held on Monday September 14th, 2009, at 5:00. The location is to be determined.

Publicity:

* Megan Haughey has been appointed as the Publicity Coordinator.

* Pending AS approval, there will be an AIME/IGV information booth in the free speech area on Wednesday and Thursday, September 9th and 10th, from 10:00 to 2:00. This will be an opportunity to present both clubs and advertise the first meeting. At least one officer will be present at the booth at all times, per scheduled times.

Events:

* The PIC Bootcamp might be reworked for Arduino or ARM architecture, whichever would best compliment the Embedded Systems class taught by Professor Dale Word, per his discretion. It should be held early in the fall Semester.

* The PLC Workshop should be held later in the Fall semester, around late October or early November. Small workstations should be built ahead of time to provide lights and switches with which the students can interact with the PLCs. A list of topics to be covered should be drafted and sent to Allen-Bradley as soon as possible.

* Members’ Choice workshops should be added, covering topics such as soldering, and recycling old electronics for robotics projects, et cetera, per the majority vote of AIME members. To be discussed further at a general meeting.

* Social events should include a barbecue early in the semester, such as late September or early October, and a bowling trip later in the semester, to best accommodate weather. Monthly movie nights or other social events should also be planned for Tuesday evenings or weekends. These may be joined with ASME, IEEE, or possibly other school organizations.

* Fields trips will be investigated by our activities coordinator, Keith.

Website:

* The new AIME website was approved by a majority of the officers, with the provisions that it: restrict membership to AIME members, provide monthly updates, and not provide public forums.

* Pictures, and an officer’s section should be added.

Other:

* Officers will be drafting T-shirt designs, which will be voted upon at the first general meeting.