With winter here and temps dropping, get inside for some awesome events! Here are three not to miss this week Microsoft New England:
1) Boston TechBreakfast with Golfswell, Connections, Wyngspan, LiveTherapy
Tuesday, January 26, 8:00am – 10:00am
Twitter: @TechBreakfast @Golfswell @Connections_vc @Wyngspan
Based on the popular TechBreakfast format, the Boston TechBreakfast is a “show and tell” format event where up to five different technologists will demo their technologies from a wide range of industries ranging from software to hardware, IT to Biotech, robotics to space tech. The event is “triple agnostic”. We don’t care if the technology is from a start up, a large company, a university, a government agency, or someone’s hobby. We are also agnostic as to the industry of the tech – it could be IT, biotech, robotics, aerospace, materials sciences, anything tech and innovative is cool. And we’re also region agnostic – even if you’re not from where we’re hosting, we want to see you and your technology!
Check out the January lineup here.
2) Animator Meetup
Thursday, January 8, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Twitter: @NaoRobot @Aldebaran_news
Join other local animation talent, for an evening of networking and animation industry focused conversation.
All animators are welcome, whether they work in pencil and paper, stop motion, 3D or 2D computer animators.
To kick off the first meeting, we’ll also have a presentation! John Catlin presents a primer to animating real robots and the challenges that this particular medium presents. He will give a live demonstration of animating on an Aldebaran’s NAO humanoid robot.
John Catlin is a local free-lance animator who worked for Aldebaran-Robotics to help them create robot applications for local and international markets. NAO is a small humanoid robot available in more than 70 countries, he is used in computer and science classes, from primary school through to university. Thanks to NAO, students can learn programming in a fun and practical way. They can program him to walk, catch small objects and even dance!
You can find out more about NAO at http://www.aldebaran.com/en/humanoid-robot/nao-robot. You can find out more about John at http://johncatlin.weebly.com/.
Come out to Microsoft New England R&D Center at 7:00PM to talk animation and robots!
3) Open Data Discourse: Street Safety Challenge
Friday, January 9, 6:30pm – 9:00pm
Twitter: @ODDChallenge
ODD – a group founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is helping cities leverage public data to inform decision-making and improve communities. In its first of hopefully many projects, ODD has been collaborating with the City of Cambridge, MA, to host a month-long ‘Street Safety Challenge’ inviting citizens to engage with public data about traffic accidents and respond with projects that aim to improve public safety.
With ODDs involvement, Challenge resources became the most viewed content on the City’s Open Data Portal in 2014, by a factor of two. By engaging citizens, from artists and storytellers to data scientists, ODD has innovated on the more typical hackathon model and broadened avenues for civic participation.
On January 9th, ODD will host a facilitated workshop with challenge participants and stakeholders at the Microsoft NERD Center, with support from labs at MIT including Senseable Cities and Center for Civic Media. This ODD workshop will enable face-to-face discussions about submissions to the Challenge and their impact on public policies in Cambridge.