Weeks 9-10 (S3)

General:

As the semester is ending, students are prepping for finals and our researchers are prepping for the Rochester Maker Faire (Friday November 22nd to Saturday the 23rd)

We have two resources we want to promote to members — the "ask_ml" Slack chat and a branding document on the shared Google Drive. The “ask_ml” chat is a resource for Machine Learning. After the official Machine Learning team was disbanded 6 months ago (due to the members splitting off into other teams), the chat was opened to all NXT members to ask questions about Machine Learning and share resources. This topic is very relevant to all branches of NXT and we encourage members to ask questions and provide insights in this chat. The branding document labeled “How Harrison Talks about NXT” is available in the shared Google Drive, “Neurotechnology Exploration”. This document should be used specifically by project leads when looking to recruit new members, but is relevant to all NXT members when explaining what this team does. We encourage all members to look it over and use it as a resource when talking to non-members about NXT.

For a long time there has been confusion as to who in NXT has official researcher status and who is a participant. At the last leads meeting, NXT put out guidelines for a researcher and published an official list of current researchers.

Hackathon

We hosted a hackathon on Saturday November 9th so get our projects ready for Maker Faire! We had over 20 researchers participate in helping to make some really cool projects to present.

Team Updates:

The Wheelchair Team, led by Adam del Rosso, is planning to bring the wheelchair to the Maker Faire. In the past two weeks, the initial version of the head tilt detection has been programmed, new parts got the joystick manipulator have arrived, and the accelerometer is almost complete. Work continues, but they are almost ready for the Maker Faire.

The Assistive Game Team, led by Niko Procopi, has been a bit stalled in their progress, but they are currently working on networking prototypes. In addition, during the Hack-a-thon on Saturday, November 9th, the compatibility issue was resolved so that the game project can now be worked on remotely.

The Fabric Textile Electrodes Team, led by Reid Kovacs, has built small RC cars controlled by EMG signals in the muscles! This is very similar to the design that we brought to Maker Faire last year with the notable exception that we are now using NXT produced boards and electrodes!

The Prosthetics Team, led by Brian Siskind and George Stollsteimer, is working on testing the strength of two different finger systems. For Maker Faire, they have brought the inMoov arm back to life to have a working demonstration with EMG.

The Thought Keyboard Team, lead by Brenton Cousins, is making continued process on the UI.

The Content Team, led by Content Manager Emily Bishop, offered professional headshots for all members on November 1st. These photos are now available in NXT’s “Media” folder in the shared Google Drive.

That is all for this period but you can be sure to catch the next update in two weeks! We will be excited to report on how the Maker Faire goes!

Written by Emily Bishop, Edited by Harrison Canning

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