Thats correct, Team Megahurts will be training a new class of high school students interested in robotics & STEM by designing, building and integrating an autonomous driver control system in one of the teams off road buggies. The concept is simple, but the execution is a very complicated process, especially since safety is a major concern. In principle the larger buggy will be manually driven while the smaller buggy follows autonomously, than means no one will be driving it! Some of the problems the students will have to solve are object avoidance, evaluation of risk/danger factor, fusion of sensor data, locating and tracking of the lead buggy, and gracefully and safely handeling system failures. This project provides a great outlet for our advanced studentes and all of our newcomers.

The first couple of days the team met they were introduced to basic mechanics and engine maintenance. the students removed any visibly damaged parts drained and changed all the fluids. then reassembled the radiator hoses and any other damaged or wore parts. Still left for repare is the ignition system and right front control arm, but we expect to have the engine running within the next week.

The students seemed to enjoy themselves and are very anxious to take it for a spin …

Attached to the mast are two navigation cameras (Navcams), two mast cameras (Mastcam), and the laser-carrying chemistry camera (ChemCam).

The car-sized MSL, called ‘Curiosity,’ now stands at an impressive 2 meters tall, easily dwarfing the current Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit.

Construction of the rover has advanced very quickly over the last few days, and on July 23 engineers commanded Curiosity to take its first, slow steps. Housed inside a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and attached to computers via a thick set of umbilical-like cables, a live webcast watched the robot gingerly roll around.

Watch the video of Curiosity successfully reverse for the fist time across the clean room mats:

Now that Curiosity has its head attached, and engineers have proven the thing can move, we are gradually seeing what the final form of the Mars explorer will look like. All we have to do is wait until the mission’s scheduled launch date of November 2011…

That’s why researchers at the Bristol Robotics Lab in England developed an artificial gut for self-sustaining robots to excrete those biomass wastes. Called the Ecobot III, this system allows it to survive for up to seven days, feeding and “watering” itself without human intervention. It even expels its waste into a litter tray once every 24 hours.

Here’s how it works:

1. The robot is fed a nutrient-filled “sewage” with plenty of minerals, salts, and vitamins.

2. The solution goes into one of 48 microbial fuel cells.

3. The solution metabolizes and gives off hydrogen atoms, which generate an electrical current, as well as water.

4. That waste is recycled through the system several times to extract as much energy from it as possible, before it is excreted.

Even after this exhausting process, recycling included, the fuel cells in the Ecobot III can only extract one percent of the chemical energy available in the food it ingests.

And the waste itself is pretty nasty stuff, as you can imagine. Chris Melhuish is the director of the British lab that is conducting this research. He told New Scientist that the generic term “waste” doesn’t quite capture it right. “Diarrhea-bot would be more appropriate,” Melhuish admits. “It’s not exactly knocking out rabbit pellets.”

Eww indeed.

But researchers don’t have any plans to change what that waste looks like. Instead, the next step is to explore how the robot will cope with a heartier, perhaps protein and fiber-enriched meal, by which I mean flies.

Learn more about the Bristol Robotics Lab in England.

Learn more about the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.

This book uses the freely available Scheme implementation in PLT Scheme or also commonly known as Dr. Scheme. This first chapter deals specifically with Dr. Scheme, its interface, and how to properly configure it for examples that you will encounter throughout this text.

You can freely download PLT Scheme from http://www.plt-scheme.org for all major operating systems currently in use. After you download and install the software you should properly set it up so that you can follow the examples presented in this book. Execute the program and once it is running choose ‘Choose Language’ from the Language option in the menu bar.

Once you get the language option window select the ‘Pretty Big’ language under ‘Legacy Languages’. After this is selected make sure you select the ‘Show Details’ option, which will bring up configuration setting for the Pretty Big language. Please make sure the following selections are correct:

• Case sensitive option should NOT be checked.
• Dynamic Properties need to be set TO the Debugging option.
• Print should be selected for Output Style.
• Insert newlines in printed values should be selected.
• Disallow redefinition of initial binding should be selected.

Once these setting match select the ok button to continue on. You should notice that on the main screen window you will see it divided horizontally into two windows. The top half is referred to as the definitions window, and this is where you will enter in procedures you would like to save and continue to use. Essentially it is a text editor for allowing you to tell Dr. Scheme a bunch of stuff at once. The bottom half is referred to as the interactions window and this is where you interact directly with Dr. Scheme. The interactions window is where you will ask Dr. Scheme to do something and it is where Dr. Scheme will answer you back at.

Once you are done entering something into the definitions window you must click the ‘Run’ button. This will let Dr. Scheme execute your instructions or learn what you have entered. Every time you make a change in the definitions window you must click ‘Run’ before these effects will take place.

You save and open files just like most other programs you use on the computer, and it is available under the ‘File’ menu option. Scheme files should have either a .ss or .scm file extension we will be using .scm throughout this text.

If your code becomes unresponsive and in an endless loop the user has the ability to preform a user break by selecting the ‘Stop’ button. This interrupts the execution of the code and lets you edit and interact with Dr. Scheme again.

One of the biggest benefits of using Dr. Scheme is the readily available and easily searchable documentation. This is called the ‘Help Desk’ and it is available under the ‘Help’ menu option. This can be overwhelming to look at right from the start, however once you learn how to program this will become an invaluable tool for reference. Which is why it is being pointed out right from the beginning.

This concludes the basic introduction to the Dr. Scheme programming environment and now we will let you start using the program. This intro is not comprehensive but will suffice for the purposes of this text.

FIRST Programs:
Jr. FIRST Lego League Jr.FLL Grades K – 3 (ages 6 – 9)
FIRST Lego League FLL Grades 4 – 8 (ages 9 – 14)
FIRST Tech Challenge FTC Grades 9 – 12 (ages 14 – 18)
FIRST Robotics Competition FRC Grades 9 – 12 (ages 14 – 18)

“The FIRST spirit encourages doing high-quality, well-informed work in a manner that leaves everyone feeling valued. Gracious Professionalism seems to be a good descriptor for part of the ethos of FIRST. It is part of what makes FIRST different and wonderful” (Woody Flowers, FIRST National Advisor).

FIRST also directly encourages its teams to build the FIRST community by sponsoring and mentoring new robotics teams at all levels. Compared to their peers, students involved in FIRST are more likely to attend college in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) field, pursue advanced degrees, have internships their first year in college, seek careers in STEM and more likely to volunteer in their communities.

What is FLL?

FLL is a child-centered activity and is about giving children a unique and stimulating experience. We want them to learn the value of teamwork and to respect everyone’s ideas and contributions to the team. FLL Core Values are about appreciating our differences and learning what those differences add to our lives. FLL succeeds most fully when team members bring the FLL Core Values they learn back to their communities.

Each September, FLL teams around the world get an annual Challenge. The Challenge is based on a set of real-world problems facing scientists and engineers today. It has two parts: the Robot Game and the Project.

For roughly eight fast-paced weeks, each team is guided by at least one adult coach and works as a group to overcome obstacles and meet challenges while learning from and interacting with their peers and adult mentors. Teams work to find creative solutions to the problems presented to them in the Challenge. They then compete in optional local and regional tournaments where they celebrate their accomplishments with other FLL teams, family, and friends.

After the hard work and a lot of fun, children come away with a greater appreciation of science and technology and how they might use it to positively impact the world around them. In addition, they cultivate life skills such as planning, brainstorming, collaboration and teamwork, as well as research, presentation and technical skills.

How can the Megahurts help you?

Our school works at the FIRST Robotics Competition level and we have had great success in motivating our students to pursue degrees in STEM. We started our team in the winter of 2006 and from day one the kids and adults were hooked. FIRST gave our students an outlet to apply the basic theories and lessons from a classroom to a physical, complex problem. The solutions that we came up with were not always right, nor were they wrong; but rather they were learning experiences that few other education or professional environments could provide.

We would like to help any southern Illinois school (with students in grades K-8) start a FLL team, so that your student can benefit from FIRST the way that our students have. We will provide a portion of the startup cost, as well as technical support through the school year.

Startup Budget

Registration: $200
NXT Lego Set: $395
Startup Field: $65

Game Table: $60
Entry Fee: (Half-Day Event) ~$50
Parts Storage: $100
T-Shirts: $160

Our team will give an initial registration donation of $200 to start your FLL program and work with your team to seek out sponsorship opportunities to offset the other costs. Other options that we can explore are workshops at your school and at our facility, mentor visits to your team to help with the program challenge and the game and anything else that we can do to make your program a success.

FIRST has grown to be an integral component of Brehm Preparatory School and the education of our students. We have students (from the Megahurts) at top engineering schools like Cal Poly Tech and Carnegie Mellon. FIRST is about getting kids excited about science the same way that people are excited about sports, except that it is done in a way that encourages cooperative competition and community service. The FIRST Program would be a great addition to your school’s STEM cirrculum.

Click Here to request more information about sponsorship online OR Download a form to mail in

Introduction
Most people know, or are taught, at an early age, how to process information and develop an organized plan or strategy when confronted with a problem, whether that problem is social, academic, or job related. Others find such cognitive processes quite difficult. Learning disabilities have only recently been recognized as disabilities. This neurological disorder causes difficulty in organizing information received, remembering them, and expressing information and therefore affects a person’s basic function such as reading, writing, comprehension, and reasoning. However, these students with learning disabilities can be taught effective learning strategies that will help them approach tasks more effectively. (From: Learning Strategies for Problem Learners, by Thomas Lombardi).

Information on Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities (LD) are complex disorders. They vary in their expression and in the way they impact individuals. Understanding the basic facts will enable you to help your student or to advocate for yourself as an adult with LD. Learning disabilities (LD) are real. To have a learning disability means that you are of average or above-average intelligence, and your difficulties with learning are not primarily due to sensory problems (like blindness or hearing impairment), serious emotional disturbance, cognitive challenges (like mental retardation), cultural differences or insufficient or inappropriate instruction. “Learning disabilities” are not one thing but rather a general term that refers to a group of more specific disorders in such areas as listening, reading, writing, spelling, reasoning or doing math. Most learning disabilities are unexplained (there is no known cause) and often, the effects of LD are seen throughout a person’s lifetime.

Currently, almost 2.8 million public school children (National Center for Learning Disabilities) in the US are classified as having specific learning disabilities and receive some kind of special education support. They are approximately 5% of all school-aged children in public schools. These numbers do not include children in private and religious schools or those who are home-schooled.

Learning disabilities are lifelong, and although they won’t go away, they don’t have to stop a person from setting high standards and achieving realistic goals. Learning disabilities affect every person differently, and the disorder can range from mild to severe. Sometimes people even have more than one learning disability, which Brehm Preparatory School coined the term ‘Complex Learning Disabilities’ to describe it. In addition, approximately one third of people with LD also have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), which makes it difficult for them to concentrate, stay focused and sustain their attention to specific tasks.

Once a learning disability is identified, different kinds of assistance can be provided. In addition to specialized, explicit types of instruction, children with LD are entitled to have accommodations (such as extended time, readers, and note-takers) or modifications (such as abbreviated tests or alternate assignments) as appropriate. These guarantees are afforded to children with LD by law as protections against discrimination in the classroom, and are included on a child’s individualized education program (IEP).

Succeeding With Learning Disabilities
Life may change a lot for you over the next few years, but one aspect of it won’t. Even after making the transition to adulthood, it’s likely you’ll still struggle with limitations due to your learning disability. Your success will depend on how well you know your strengths and weakness, how determined you are to succeed, and whether you can develop the sets of skills you will need in order to achieve your academic, career, or personal goals. Below you’ll find some helpful ways to build the skills you need to be successful.

If your learning disability is identified before your graduate from high school, self-advocacy activities should include your active involvement in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. Getting the help you need to be successful later on at work or in post-secondary school settings will depend upon your ability to be an effective and outspoken self-advocate, and these are skills that you can and should develop as soon as possible.
 
The key to success is knowing about your leaning disability and being able to articulate what specific services and supports you need to be successful. Being an effective advocate also means that you will need to have lots of self-determination. Because once you leave high school, teachers, counselors and parents will no longer be in a position to make sure that your ongoing needs are being met. Effective self-advocacy comes from knowing yourself, valuing yourself, planning, acting, and learning from the outcomes of your actions.

An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is an education plan, required by law, created for each school-age student with a disability who receives special education services through a public school. Your IEP must include current levels of academic performance and educational goals, as well as a discussion of how future progress will be measured and a transition plan for how to meet those goals.
 
As an individual with a learning disability, you have the right to advocate for conditions that will help you meet success. Your right to self-advocate is primarily supported by the following disability laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Under these laws, in order to exercise your rights to accommodations and modifications at work or in education programs, you will have to:

-Disclose that you have a disability and provide current documentation
-Make a formal request for specific accommodations or modifications, based on your learning strengths and challenges

Finding the correct educational match for your child will not always be easy; schools, districts and states all have varying capacities to accommodate students will LDs. However there are hundreds of school across the U.S. that are dedicated to doing such that. Hiring an educational consultant or browsing online for some of these schools is a good way to gather information on your options. The down side to this is that the cost of tuition is often very high in order to cover all of the remediation and direct services required to help your child succeed. However if you are not satisfied as a parent by the progress of the education your child is receiving and a schools inability to effectively execute the stated IEP, then you can pursue legal action against the states inability to provide a quality education for your child. The result is the state often pays the tuition to educate your child at these schools designed for children like yours.

Finding a supportive, innovative, and holistic approach to the education of students with learning disabilities to help your child recognize and optimize their full potential will be the best chance of success!

See how the Megahurts use NI’s Labview for our systems at the: NI Code Repository