Dec. Geek Dinner - Very Special Holiday Episode - Wed. 19th 5:30-9pm @ AS220 featuring RI’s FIRST FTC Robotics Challenge
Friday, December 14th, 2007
Photo Credit: Brian Jepson
Wednesday, December 19, 2007, 5:30 – 9pm
AS220
115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
Please join us at the last get together of Providence Geeks in 2007 and celebrate Rhode Island’s future Geeks!
In the spirit of the holiday season and giving back to the community, Providence Geeks is a proud sponsor of Rhode Island’s 2008 FIRST FTC Robotics Challenge. The program provides high school students the opportunity to build working robots and test their creations in head-to-head competition.
In 2006, Rhode Island’s education, innovation, and science and technology leadership announced a plan to bring ǘber-geek Dean Kamen’s FIRST Robotics Challenge to each of Rhode Island’s 67 public high schools, charter schools, and career and technical centers. The program provides each high school a robotics kit with the necessary equipment and instructions. Rhode Island was the first state in the nation to offer a FIRST program to all public high schools. Approximately 30 high schools in Rhode Island participated in the first year alone.The program, launched by the Business Innovation Factory, is supported by Governor Donald L. Carcieri and a coalition of education and science and technology advocates, including Tech Collective, New England Institute of Technology, the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Governor’s PK-16 Council, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council, and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.
At Wednesday’s Geek Dinner, Tech Collective President Tim Hebert and other RI FIRST FTC team members will give an overview of the program, the kids, & the robots, and explain how Providence Geeks members can serve as volunteer mentors and referees.
Please RSVP in the comments section of this post so that we can give the good folks at AS220 an estimated headcount. And while you’re at it, subscribe to Providence Geeks’ RSS feed (see sidebar) and/or join our very-low-volume email announcement list (for the announcement list, send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin over at Gmail with your name and affiliation).
As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:
- It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and vamoose whenever… And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good—it’s actually great)
- Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.
- Food and beverages are for sale at the adjoining Taqueria Pacifica and bar
- There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice
