If you asked the 16,000-plus people who attended SkillsUSA last week in Kansas City what their favorite moment was, you would probably get a lot of different answers. You might get replies that include the Army Band that performed outside all week, or the competitions that took place and the medals won, or the exhibitors and their giveaways, or some might say the delicious food and the smells that filled the air from the street vendors. But if you asked the four-year-old little girl from Alabama, she would tell you her favorite was Mr. Robot.
Mr. Robot is the life-size robot that a couple of Pitsco employees built for FIRST® in St. Louis that danced with Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas back in April. Mr. Robot met a new friend at SkillsUSA last week. She was half his size and not nearly as popular as the Black Eyed Peas, but she was just as cool, in my opinion, and could draw a crowd that would impress Will.i.am, I bet.
This adorable little girl was with her grandpa visiting SkillsUSA and came across a robot that was walking in the hallway of the convention center. He was big and shiny and had blue flashing lights and probably intimidated most other kids her age, but not her. She wanted to talk to Mr. Robot and be his friend. So she stopped him and they danced together and she asked him to do things and he did. She asked him questions and he answered her by shaking his head for no and his right hand for yes. She asked Mr. Robot if he wanted to be her friend, and Mr. Robot shook his right hand and she smiled a great big smile.
People gathered around to watch the two interact. Between her sweet southern accent and her complete innocent belief that she was actually talking to a robot, you couldn't help being mesmerized by this charismatic little girl. After two days of playing with Mr. Robot, she didn't want to say goodbye to him, but he had to take a nap and recharge. She eventually gave him a hug and told him, "I'll be right back, okay Mr. Robot?" and then said, "We're still friends, okay Mr. Robot?"
So if you were to ask me what my favorite moment at SkillsUSA was, I would tell you it wasn't the Army Band or the competitions or the exhibitors or the food. It wasn't even Mr. Robot. I would say that my favorite moment was becoming friends with the four-year-old little girl from Alabama, and when I think of her, I smile.
Thank you Ms. Cheyenne for being my friend!
Watch a video of Mr. Robot and Cheyenne here.
Considering all the disasters in our area lately, this article in POPSCI caught our attention. The article called 'Concrete Canvas' Makes Erecting Permanent Buildings As Easy as Pitching a Tent, is below. Make sure to watch the video that follows the article.
When disaster strikes and permanent structures are leveled, as they were recently by earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand (and more distantly in Haiti), they are usually replaced in the short term by tent cities. Two engineering students thought they could do better and invented Concrete Canvas, a fabric impregnated with concrete that can turn a tent into a hardy, permanent structure in 24 hours. Just add water.
Fundamentally, Concrete Canvas is a clever means to erect a sturdy, permanent structure anywhere. Packed in a crate, the entire building comes ready to erect with a minimum of infrastructure or extra tools. The exterior fabric, the Concrete Canvas, is basically like normal tent canvas loaded with dry cement particles. That fabric is bound to an interior airtight bladder.
When deployed at a site, the shelter is simply unpacked, unfolded, and attached to an air pump that fills it with compressed air like a balloon. Once rigid, the exterior simply needs to be thoroughly hosed down--dirty water works just fine--to hydrate all that concrete embedded in the Concrete Canvas. By the next day, the concrete is hardened and you’re left with nearly 600 square feet of interior space sheltered by a rigid concrete shell.
Since the interior is already lined with the airtight bladder, it’s sterilizable for an easily deployable triage facility. And like any concrete structure the walls can be drilled to install electricity, light fixtures, surfaces, or whatever the situation calls for. All said, two people can put the thing up in an hour (plus drying time), and the units can be organized end to end to create larger interior spaces. When the clock is ticking and manpower is at a premium, it’s a clever way to quickly put a roof over peoples’ heads.
To see an impressive video of a Concrete Canvas tent going up, click through the BBC link below.
BBC