BTU Lab

The BTU Lab entry for the 2017 CU pumpkin carving contest won 2nd place overall and 2nd place for scariest.
Creepy moving tenacles, triggered by an ultrasonic motion sensor. Would you have expected anything less from Libi, Slaton, Sammi, and Benji?
Congratulations!

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Contest results:
With 253 ballots collected, the winners for the 3^rd Annual CEAS Pumpkin Carving Contest are:

Scariest
1st Place – #10 – ECEE – 67 votes
2nd Place – #4 – ATLAS BTU Lab – 51 votes
3rd Place – #1 – ChBE – 27 votes
3rd Place – #11 – Civil – 27 votes

Engineering Themed
1st Place – #7 – NCWIT – 51 votes
2nd Place – #12 – AES – 44 votes
3rd Place – #2 – Civil – 36 votes

Funniest
1st Place – #14 – CS – 62 votes
2nd Place – #12 – AES – 42 votes
3rd Place – #13 – Civil – 21 votes

CU Themed
1st Place – #6 – Civil – 43 votes
2nd Place – #9 – Dean’s Office – 41 votes
3rd Place – #20 – Idea Forge – 34 votes

BEST OVERALL
1st Place and winning the pizza party – #1 – ChBE – 45 votes
2nd Place – #4 – ATLAS BTU Lab – 27 votes
3rd Place – #12 – AES – 25 votes

Welcome back! We’re excited to see both new and returning faces for the new school year. To kick things off, we have an Open Hack Night at 6PM on September 5th which anyone – member or not – is welcome to attend. On August 30th at 9AM, Libi is also hosting cartoons and cereal (for members only, sorry!)

An important note, especially for prospective members: Alicia will be gone at the beginning of October, to return next semester. Wayne, the one behind the Arduino workshop and Studio: Electronics course, will be filling in for that time. That means the last day to apply for lab membership is September 20th!

We have another soldering workshop planned for October 17th at 3PM. Libi is also hosting a series of Fix It events, on fridays from 1-3. October 6th is themed around sewing; November 10th is themed around phones and computers; and December 1st is a general workshop. More events are on the way, stay tuned and check the events page or the lab calendar!

The Drone Racing Club makes a comeback this year, to meet every Thursday at 6PM. For more information, talk to Kristof (kristof.klipfel@colorado.edu). In addition, the Autonomous Vehicle Competition is still running, with the actual event happening mid October. While there’s currently no meeting time, email Cicada (cicada.scott@colorado.edu) to get in on the action!

All of our tools should be in working order, and we’ve also rearranged the tool room to give everyone more space. The table saw has been put away for use on the dock only – if you would like access, let Alicia, Cicada, or a resident grad student know.

A few more things to keep in mind:

• Safety goggles are mandatory in the tool room! We encourage the use of other safety gear so you don’t lose fingers.
• If you’re leaving your work unattended for any amount of time, please fill out one of the labels in the center of the tables so someone won’t clean it up.
• Pay attention to new signage around the lab!

Happy hacking!

Monday, July 24th, we had a small soldering workshop to echo the table we had at the Red Hat summit. Only a handful of people showed up, but all of them successfully soldered their badges! We hope those of you who joined us learned some new skills to take moving forward.

If you missed it, don’t sweat. There will be a second workshop on tuesday, October 17th at 3PM.

The BTU Lab partnered with Open Source Stories at Red Hat to have a soldering booth at the Red Hat Summit in Boston last week. Fun was had by all who stopped by and made themselves a fancy light up badge. Of course the badges where Open Source Hardware. Source files can be found on Github.

BTU Lab Director, Alicia Gibb, who is also the Executive Director of the Open Source Hardware Association gave a Keynote presentation entitled ‘The Physical Future of Open Source’. The talk was a primer on Open Source Hardware and the future possibilities of communities working together. In her talk, she said: “The more we band together, the more the world becomes open source.”

For this open source future to happen, combining open software and open hardware, we need help from all communities asking themselves “is there an open source alternative out there?” when working on projects, said Gibb.

Back at the BTU Lab / Open Source Stories booth, lines formed to get a fancy light up badge made. We had a steady stream of participants over the three days of the conference.

BTU Lab students taught approximately 1,800 Summit participants how to solder. Thanks to Red Hat, our students could participate in this event and share their excitement for creating open source hardware. We were grateful for the volunteer help and all the support Red Hat provided for us to have such a successful booth.

Open Source Stories plays a vital role in educating about open source and bringing forth examples of where open source touches the daily lives of many individuals, making it easier to explain open source and the benefits and values to communities who have not heard of it.

Srishti created an Ironman helmet for the Wearable Technology class. Check it out!

I have always been a Comics-Superhero world geek, and so when it came to deciding for Project 2 in my Wearable Technology class, I thought why not make an Ironman helmet and use cool electronics in it! For this project I could just use LEDs at the eyes of the helmet, and that’s about the only “electronics/tech” aspect to it, but I am gonna enhance it further and make it better (super cool) for my next project!

Learn More here!

Project 2: Handmade Ironman Helmet

What: Open Hack Night
When: March 14th
Time: 6pm
Who: All interested parties
Why: Build, Create, Eat, Play

Thanks to Libi for a successful Security Workshop! Look for more Security Workshops in the future at the BTU Lab. This workshop covered securing your devices, web security and security vs. convenience.

In order to thank Sparkfun for generously sponsoring the BTU Lab, I created an internet controlled sign for their office.

The sign is controlled by a large red button, which resides in the BTU Lab. When the button is pressed, the sign’s heart lights up and blinks!

The sign is controlled by Particle’s Photon, and the button is controlled by Sparkfun’s very own Thing!

Here’s a video of it in action

And here’s the code/schematics:

https://github.com/slsp8752/sparkfun-gift-sign

“the space/place for sound designers, composers, circuit benders, live coders, music hackers, and ARTISTS to meet, work, and collaborate.”

CIRCUIT BENDING
(BIG thanks to Wayne Seltzer for providing us with the Casio Keyboard!)

1. Take keyboard apart (take photos)
2. Bend circuits, record samples (make videos)
3. Record percussion, bass, etc. (ahhh, forgot to take photos)
4. Bounce audio (stereo track)
5. Assemble video (photos, videos, stereo track)