AIME

Final Spring Meeting!

Kelli Wildman — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:37:51 +0000

HI everyone!

Just wanted to remind you that AIME’s final meeting will be slightly different for May – we’re going to have a potluck barbeque! We will meet at the 1 Mile picnic area in Bidwell Park (near Caper Acres) on FRIDAY, MAY 11th!. Please let us know when would be a good time to meet for you in the poll below.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Also, we will be holding our officer elections at this meeting. If you are interested in an officer position, please let us know. Our officers make the world go ’round, so we need to make sure we have people for these positions! A person is allowed to hold more than one position, and is to be decided by majority vote, confirmed by existing office holders. This is incredibly important that we have your votes! If you would like to vote or run for an office but cannot attend the meeting, please contact us.

Positions available:

President

Responsible for maintaining registration of organization, organizing hosting, and running general and officer meetings, keeping contact with useful resources, arranging use of various facilities, including (but not limited to): OCNL 431 and meeting location classrooms.

Vice President

Responsible for assisting with the President’s duties. See above for a general idea.

Treasurer

Responsible for maintaining the organization’s general funds, overseeing the activity of the bank account and fundraising, purchasing of items and/or food for organization’s use, including (but not limited to): food for meetings, materials for workshops, and general supplies.

Secretary

Responsible for maintaining and creating some or all of the organization’s general documents, keeping notes and minutes of general and officer meetings, collecting and turning in records to various school and department offices.

Webmaster

Responsible for maintaining the organization’s website as well as the organization’s social networking resources, e.g. Facebook. Must be able to update as new materials become available.

Publicity Manager

Responsible for the stamping and distribution of fliers, making announcements to classes as necessary, being sure to write on white/chalkboard as necessary.

Parts Manager

Responsible for ordering and preparing materials necessary for any and all workshops that are to be held, and all kits requested by professors and staff as needed.

Public Relations Officer

Responsible for keeping in contact with external resources, including additional schools, companies, or other contacts as needed. Must be able to make announcements to classes if necessary, keep in email contact with resources as needed, etc.

Workshop Coordinator

Responsible for making appropriate arrangements needed for workshops, both on campus and off. Will be working closely with Treasurer, Publicity, President, and Parts Manager.

Robotronica 2012 is here!

Kelli Wildman — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:25:30 +0000

Robotronica is here!

Come visit us at Chico State in O’Connell Hall from 10-4 on Saturday, April 28th!

There will be cool demonstrations, workshops, stuff to see, people to listen to, and more! Details can be found here.

School Visit – Chico Senior High School

Kelli Wildman — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:21:52 +0000

On Friday, March 30th, AIME took advantage of a day off of studies to visit with students at the local Chico High School.

We visited with students for almost four hours over the course of three classes – the beginning/intermediate engineering and architecture students as well as the advanced junior/senior engineering and architecture students. We introduced the concept of mechatronic engineering to the kids, showing examples of applications of mechatronic engineering and even introducing the Google Car project.

We also demonstrated examples of using sensors for navigation and environmental exploration with a LEGO Mindstorm NXT creation and a BoeBot.

After talking about the different kinds of sensors and applications for mechatronic engineering, we gave some demonstrations and had projects on the side counter. It was here where students really seemed to take interest, asking questions about the different items.

Some of the demonstrations and example projects included a photo (light) sensor, AIMEE (AIME’s mascot robot), an 8-bit computer built by Keith, several BoeBots, and a MicroMouse.

We hope to continue with our school visits and interactions – if you would like us to visit your class, please send us an email through our Contact Us form.

AIME for the Green has been POSTPONED!

Kelli Wildman — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:59:06 +0000

Due to the upcoming rain reports (3-4 days of rain!), it has been decided that AIME for the Green will be postponed until better weather. Also, due to lack of any player registration, we were unable to predict the turnout for the occasion – if you wish to play during this tournament, be sure to register with us ahead of time or let us know in another form if you are indeed going to play. We do need to let Tuscan Ridge know how many lunches to pack for the day, after all. To sign up, click here, and let us know if you’ll be joining us on the green in September!

New Date: Sunday, September 16th 2012

Regards,

-Kelli Wildman

AIME President

Soldering Workshop

Kelli Wildman — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:14:02 +0000

We will be holding a soldering workshop for both Chico State and Butte College students in the very near future! However, we will not have a defined date or time until we have a healthy amount of participation. See more info on the workshops page. Be sure to register if you are interested!

Pre-registration for AIME for the Green now open!

Kelli Wildman — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:09:24 +0000

Want to participate in AIME for the Green? Pre-register now!

You don’t need to pay event admission until the day of the event, simply save your spot in the tournament by registering today!

Exploratorium!

Kelli Wildman — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:20:26 +0000

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.

Welcome to the new website for AIME!

Kelli Wildman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:32:51 +0000

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 …

Visit to Chico Nursery School

Kelli Wildman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:11:27 +0000

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.

Spring Meeting Times – Poll

Kelli Wildman — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:48:36 +0000

We are taking a poll to decide when our spring semester meetings will be held. Please take 10 seconds and check a few boxes – the more responses, the better we can cater to our club members. The poll can be found here on our Facebook page.
Thank you!