Wow , what a wonderful story. I will pass that on, I expect the $3/4 Million funding will be of interest to them, (Im asking for £300 funding for the next academic year). Electronics is and will always be a mystery to me but I hope some of my students can eventually show me a few pointers. I have some quite bright students in my class, at the age of 11-12 years. I have wondered If any of them will become engineers in the future as a result of my tank building class. nothing would make me more happy. It can be hard going teaching these kids but every now and again I see them doing something that they couldnt do some weeks ago, This more than makes up for the times when they damage something i`ve started off for them because they havent listened or I`ve explained something badly. who knows?
Neil R On Monday, July 1, 2013 8:52:37 PM UTC-7, RocketMan wrote: > > That looks great, Neil ! I wish my school had projects like that. > > > > I have a story you may want to share with your students. I guess you can > call it “How R/C Tanks Changed My Life”. Or maybe, “Life is Funny Like > That”. > > > > Anyway, about seven years ago I built my first R/C Tank vehicle. I wanted > something computer controlled, so I studied up on R/C technology, > electronics and robotics and built one. It was so much fun that I built my > second vehicle, ‘Bad Kitty’, that I still have. > > > > I learned so much that I was able to compete in some robotics > competitions. I ended up in Barcelona at the World Championships. > > > > From that experience, I learned enough to enter a simulated autonomous > driving competition sponsored by KIA. I finished third. > > > > A few months ago, a project manager for the DARPA Robotics Challenge > contacted me to work on their team. Part of that challenge is autonomous > driving, and he had seen my contact information in the KIA challenge. The > team I’m on, WPI, ended up doing very well ( > http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2013/06/27.aspx). The team won > funding ($750k I think) and the use of ATLAS robot from Boston Dynamics to > continue with next phase of the competition. > > > > Now, they’ve hired me part-time to work on the project. I’m a (semi) > professional roboticist which is like THE GREATEST THING EVER. > > > > I never planned any of this. It never felt much like work. I started out > doing something I loved – building a crazy R/C tank – and just went with > it. There’s probably a moral to this story or a lesson for your students, > here. I’m not sure what it is. Just let them know what happened to me > because of this hobby. > > > > - Doug > > > > *From:* [email protected] <javascript:> [mailto: > [email protected] <javascript:>] *On Behalf Of *jvragu47 > *Sent:* Monday, July 1, 2013 10:47 PM > *To:* [email protected] <javascript:> > *Subject:* Re: [TANKS] Two new tanks under construction part 1. > > > > Nicely done Neil. What a great school project. > > On Monday, July 1, 2013 7:18:16 PM UTC-4, Neil Rochford wrote: > > Where were at at the end of June - > > > > > http://s224.photobucket.com/user/neroc1/media/SchooltanksJune13_zps8a494d60.mp4.html > > > > This tank will be completed soon. > > > > Neil R > > -- > -- > You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. > To post a message, send email to [email protected] <javascript:> > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "R/C Tank Combat" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R/C Tank Combat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
