Over the past few months, our community has been growing and doing more amazing things. We decided that it was time to give our members a better way of collaborating with each other, so we set up a group on Meetup.com and will be using that to organize our events now. 

This will be a great space for our members to chat with each other, ask questions, suggest events and make our community even better. It's a big change, but we believe it will help our members get even more out of the Seacoast Robotics community.

Check out the new site and join us!

With just under 38 days left until the Pine Tree Regional, the crew over there decided to count down to the event in a fun way. There are 38 teams attending the Pine Tree Regional, and every day a different team will be featured on the Pine Tree Regional blog from now until April 4th.

The first two teams that have been highlighted are
Team 181 Birds of Prey from Hartford, CT
Team 58 Riot Crew from South Portland, ME

Check out the Pine Tree Regional blog for the daily highlight. 

If your team is attending PTR and would like to share photos or video on your day, send them along to pinetreeregional@gmail.com. 

Does your child like building things? Don't miss this great opportunity from Maine Robotics.

Every summer, Maine Robotics holds summer camps at many locations throughout the state of Maine. This summer, there will be camps in Berwick, Falmouth, Gorham and Portland. There is also word of a camp in Wells, via the Maine Robotics Facebook Page.

For more information or to register for a summer camp, please visit the Maine Robotics website:
http://www.mainerobotics.org/summer-camps.html

I went on an adventure this weekend, to a magical place called "Artisan's Asylum" in Somerville, MA to learn about How to Make a Makerspace. 

As I was driving home on I-93 on Sunday night through a dusting of snow, I realized that I was learning from some of the world's experts on this topic, and that we are on the brink of some real change. 

It's been hard to wrap my head around this whole experience, and I apologize for not being able to communicate it well in words to you. A recap seems inadequate, and I feel like I would inevitably be missing the point. It would end up just being a list of discussion topics and a handful of business cards.

I wish I could share this feeling with you, of pure wordless excitement and a brain brimming over with ideas. 
I could use words like awesome, amazing, exciting.. but it's just not enough. 

So, here's a taste of what I experienced. Gui Cavalcante and Dale Dougherty have much more practice at this than I do. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

Also, here are a collection of links for you to check out. I met many people doing amazing things, and here are all of them that I can remember..

• Barrel of Makers, Delaware-based Makerspace-in-the-making
  
• Olin College of Engineering, a project-based, student-centered engineering college near Boston
• HACT.us Connecticut-based Makerspace-in-the-making
  
• H3XL Kid-centered Makerspace in Burlington, MA
  
• Lowell Makes, Lowell MA Makerspace-in-the-making

Join us this Wednesday, January 30 from 6 - 8 pm at Port City Makerspace for our monthly Seacoast Robotics meet-up.  It's a great place to get more information about what's going on in the area and meet some people that are involved.

These meet-ups are casual, fun and open to all. Click here to RSVP or to get more information.

Over the weekend, Team 6544 Dover Shockwave competed in the regional FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) qualifier at North Andover High School. This season, DHS Shockwave is a rookie team competing in both FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition.

The team started out on FTC to get experience with designing, building and programming a robot before FRC build season started. Their FTC bot "CARL" has come a long way since they began working in October. 

Here is a picture of CARL when he was first built. He's just a little thing with a funny arm!

And now here he is, all grown up and practicing for his first qualifier. Awww.

He was the smallest robot at the competition, but stable and very mobile.
Go CARL and great work DHS Shockwave!

Just announced yesterday.. On February 21st, NH Tweet Up and the Music Hall Loft will be presenting their quarterly Digital Portsmouth series around a really great topic: The Art of Making.  

Presentations on the topic will be given by individuals associated with the UNH Inter-Operability Lab and Port City Makerspace, though details are still forthcoming.
 
Now, this isn't talking about making in a general sense, like you would make a sandwich. This is a bit more specific. This is Making with a capital-M, as it pertains to innovation and the creative force behind acts of Making. 

(Maybe I'm not being fair to the noble sandwich, because it was certainly innovative at one point in time. The first person to ever make a sandwich might have a bit to say on innovation..)

Anyway, you don't want to miss this event. Get more details and secure your spot over on their event page.

Do you have a robot that you'd like to show off? All robots are welcome at the Cambridge Science Festival's Robot Zoo on Saturday, April 13th. This event is part of National Robotics Week.

I wonder if Stompy will be making an appearance? What robot would you most like to display or see there?

Well, this is exciting! Stay tuned for more info.