Classroom HackSpaceChallenge/Archive/Proposals

From London Hackspace Wiki

A RECORD FOR HISTORY

Justification

We have to say why we should be allowed to enter, by the 11th of march. This section is a draft for ideas about why we are awesome. I suspect they are looking for impressive projects, so if people want to blow their own trumpets go ahead. Ideally mobile/electronic stuff? Srimech's turing machine might be a good thing, if he wants to get involved?

We have recently started Young Hackspace where we show a bunch of kids around the space and get them to interact. One of the activities was we got them to draw pictures for the hackspace zoo, which we then scanned and laser cut for them to take home.


Draft Proposal

Key points from annoucement

  • "Ten hackerspaces will be selected to participate. Hackerspaces must "earn" their spot in the challenge with passion, skill and engagement with the cause."

Draft 1

A draft of the proposal we will submit. Nothing so far.

The following is a proposal from London Hackspace (LHS) members that would like to participate in the Hackspace Challenge.

The LHS is a large organisation with an ever-increasing amount of member expertise and available equipment. Currently we have over 230 members from which we can draw their knowledge and skill.

We would like to submit XXX as a possible project. As it it something that would conform to the criteria set out by the competition organisers, and we are really excited about it. We have the equipment to prototype, develop and construct XXX at the LHS, due to our unique set of community-owned tools.

Signed,

.........

Draft 2

The following is the proposal for the London Hackspace to take part in the Hackspace Challenge.

We are one of the larger hackspaces (240+ members) and our members possess have a wide range of skills from artists, engineers, scientists and programmers. These are members that we can call upon to help with our build.

We are committed to the teaching and spreading our knowledge to the next generation of hackers, our space is formally a not-for-profit company with the objective "to promote and support science, engineering, and art". We have recently started a Young Hackspace for school children[1]. One of the activities had them drawing pictures for the hackspace zoo, which we then scanned and laser cut for them to take home. As well as the Young Hackspace we have connections to colleges for testing and feed back purposes.

As a space we have tended to solve practical problems within our space using the knowledge and skills of the members. Things such as our notification board controlled via IRC[2], a power-usage monitor[3], and an RFID access system[4] based on the London Oyster cards. So we have experience making projects that just work and don't need too much maintenance.

Current on-going projects include an Arduino powered vending machine[5], for the selling of Arduinos. We are also trying to reverse engineer how our laser cutter is controlled so we can write new software[6], and stop relying on the virus-riddled software that was included.

Lots of our members are also making the trip up to Newcastle for the Maker Faire to help run the London Hackspace stand there. This means we have not yet decided on a project for the challenge. Current possibilities include an open source spectrograph, for use in classrooms, or an open source mind storms brain, to help teach programming principles. Both projects would easily be able to include the "secret ingredients" easily.

As mentioned we possess a laser cutter, but we also have a Makerbot. We possess a wide range of electronics manufacturing equipment and the capability to make PCBs. We also have a well stocked metal and wood workshop. This means that all development, and initial manufacture can be done in-house without waiting for delivery from suppliers, leading to quicker development.

We look forward to hearing from you, and hope that you decide to include us in this fantastic event.

Signed on behalf of LHS.

Ciarán, Eb4890 (Will), Solexious,

  1. http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Project:Young_Hackspace
  2. http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Projects/Notification_Board
  3. http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Electricity_meter
  4. http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Door_control_system
  5. http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Equipment/Vending_machine
  6. http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Projects/RELaserSoftware

Ideas

There are different routes we could go in terms of educational content.

Creative

Programmable

  • Some robot or other. Maybe a plotter controlled like logo?
    • Moved to discussion page.
  • Programming Bricks (see discussion page)

Science

  • A visible (possibly UV) spectrometer.
    • See above link or this pages Discussion.
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