IAP 2015 Activities by Category - Computers: Hardware and Devices

Chris Murphy, emerging technology analyst

Jan/29

Thu

01:00PM-03:00PM

4-270

Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Attendance: Repeating event, particpants welcome at any session

The annual International Comsumer Electronics Show (CES) is the industry's showcase event, with over 3600 exhibitors showing the latest developments in consumer electronics to over 160,000 attendees.  Join Chris Murphy, emerging technology analyst in IS&T, to discuss what he saw at CES in a variety of areas including television displays and content, 3D printing, drones, robotics, and more.

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology
Contact: Chris Murphy, W92-191, 617 253-4105, CHRIS@MIT.EDU

Hands-On Aerospace

	Jan/15	Thu	01:00PM-04:00PM	MIT Museum, Meet 12:45 at 33-116 or 1pm at Museum
	Jan/16	Fri	01:00PM-04:00PM	MIT Museum, Meet 1pm at MIT Museum

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 10 participants
Attendance: Repeating event, particpants welcome at any session

 Due to the popularity of the program, the Friday session has been added.  The Thursday session is full.

Come explore the Apollo program behind the scenes at the MIT Museum!

Examine artificacts directly (yes, hands-on!) and guess their function.  See special footage to learn about the Apollo Guidance Computer, the MIT space program in the 1960s, and MIT's contributions to the Apollo program.

Please sign up in advance for this session.

 

[This activity is part of the Hands-On Aerospace series sponsored by Aero/Astro running Jan 12-16.  Participants welcome at individual sessions, priority may be given to registered 16.680 class members and undergraduates.  See Hands-On Aerospace listing for full schedule.]

Sponsor(s): Aeronautics and Astronautics
Contact: Naomi Schurr, (310)561-0286, hands-on-aerospace@mit.edu

Danielle Class, Patrick Kane, Mike Daly, Craig Cheney, Steven Leeb

	Jan/27	Tue	10:00AM-05:00PM	38-501
	Jan/28	Wed	10:00AM-05:00PM	38-501

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/10
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: Programming, circuits, and soldering experience helpful

Students will compete in a Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC) design competition using Cypress CY8CKIT-042-BLE PSoC 4Pioneer Bluetooth Low Energy  development kit and one PSoC 4 CY8CKIT-049. PSoC 4 BLE is a programmable device with an ARM Cortex M0, programmable digital and analog blocks and a BLE radio all on a single chip!  The goal of the competition is to design a Drivebot that can be remote controlled using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol. If you have an iPhone 4 or newer or an Android device, BLE is already built into it.

The first session will be a combination of lecture and hands on labs that will introduce the students to PSoC 4 and its design environment PSoC Creator and an introduction to the Drivebot.

The second session will be hands on “hacker” day building your Drivebot.  Each student will have 5 minutes to present their version of the solution.

Space will be limited. To apply, please e-mail your full name, MIT class year and major, and your MIT e-mail address to iap-psoc@mit.edu. We’ll let you know after January 10th if you’ve got a spot in the class.

http://web.mit.edu/cdev2

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Contact: Danielle Class, iap-psoc@mit.edu

Daniel Frey, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

	Jan/07	Wed	08:00AM-11:00AM	IDC Building N-52
	Jan/09	Fri	08:00AM-11:00AM	IDC Building N-52
	Jan/12	Mon	08:00AM-11:00AM	IDC Building N-52
	Jan/14	Wed	08:00AM-11:00AM	IDC Building N-52
	Jan/16	Fri	08:00AM-11:00AM	IDC Building N-52
	Jan/21	Wed	08:00AM-11:00AM	IDC Building N-52

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 12/30
Limited to 10 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

This course involves designing, building, and flying radio controlled fixed wing aircraft. Students will learn how to:

• Recognize and recall alternative configurations of fixed wing aircraft; 
• Estimate/predict performance, stability, and controllability of fixed wing aircraft;
• Generate and implement details of a design including structure, propulsion, and control surfaces;
• Evaluate and implement options for fabrication including at least laser cutting of balsa, wire cutting of foam, three dimensional printing, and covering.

Sponsor(s): Mechanical Engineering, MIT-SUTD Collaboration
Contact: Daniel Frey, 3-449D, (617) 324-6133, danfrey@mit.edu

Roy Wattanasin

Jan/23

Fri

01:00PM-02:00PM

1-150, Bring your questions & comments

Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Prereq: None, Open To All, Invite your colleagues

Whether you realize it or not, end user cybersecurity plays a major role in everyones' lives: from your siblings to your grandma etc. It affects your family, friends and even your colleagues. It is critical for all to understand how to be safer with today's online threats.

Come to this 1-hour introductory conversation to understand and learn more. Bring your questions to this information security open-ended general session for all. Hear from Roy and Frank Quinn about their thoughts and recommendations regarding the topics below.

(This is designed to be a general session about "end-user information security today" for the MIT community. Feel free to invite your colleagues!)

A. Backing Your Data

B. Administrative Access

C. Operating System (OS) Patching

D. Third-party patching

E. Defenses (Virusscan, Malware, Secunia, defenses etc.)

F. Passwords

G. Wireless Connectivity

H. Questions

Contact: Roy Wattanasin, roywatt@mit.edu

Andy Lippman, Associate Director, MIT Media Lab, Tal Achituv, Media Lab / Fluid Interfaces

	Jan/08	Thu	10:00AM-03:00PM	E14-674, Bring your laptop [optional]
	Jan/20	Tue	10:00AM-03:00PM	E14-674, Bring your laptop [optional]

Enrollment: Advance sign-up required, preference to Media Lab students and W1MX members
Sign-up by 01/20
Limited to 35 participants
Attendance: Repeating event, particpants welcome at any session

NOTICE:

1) Event runs 10am - 3pm with the option to stay later and continue hacking.
2) If you can only attend a portion, please still come.
3) Each day is standalone, attending both (8th and 20th) is also an option - but then please register twice.

Recent developments in Software & Hardware for SDR (Software Defined Radio) combined with decreasing costs of devices enables many interesting possibilities.
 
Think about what our projects would look like without microcontrollers, and imagine the possibilities for future projects with easily programmable RF equipment (for both Rx and Tx).

We will introduce RF basics, and overview some of the hardware devices currently on the market, as well as hack some projects on GnuRadio.

We will build FM receivers/transmitters, and look into programming our own GnuRadio Blocks.

If you've heard of the ISEE-3 Reboot project, the work there was done using GnuRadio and USRPs. (see: http://spacecollege.org/isee3/)

There is no activity fee. Bringing a laptop is recommended.
Register here: http://goo.gl/forms/aJ9qVovPqJ 

If you have questions or project ideas please e-mail tal@media.mit.edu

Sponsor(s): Media Arts and Sciences
Contact: Tal Achituv, E14-548, 917-512-5060, ACHITUV@MIT.EDU

Joseph Okor, Instructor

Jan/30

Fri

07:00PM-11:45PM

MITERs

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: None

Do you love designing things, or building things or wishing you could build things and could not think of what to build? Do you want to get involved with a startup and you have no ideas to work on or where to start? We have identified a set of problems whose solutions could make a big difference in the World. During the IAP, we hope to find solutions to these problems, and build prototypes. At the end of IAP, we hope to have a big party to show off our prototypes to friends, enemies, potential business partners, etc.

For more information, please visit:

http://abp2015.ananseworks.com/

Contact: Joseph Okor, MITERs (TBD), 561-431-8294, joe.okor@gmail.com

Brian DeLacey

	Jan/12	Mon	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151
	Jan/13	Tue	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151
	Jan/14	Wed	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151
	Jan/15	Thu	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151
	Jan/16	Fri	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/05
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: prior computing or hardware experience

 

The Internet of Things (IoT) will drive $3 Trillion and 30 Billion
Connected "Things" by 2020. As the roots of the internet dig deeper into
hardware and devices all around us, what are the key ingredients to making
this work? In this one week, five session program you'll build your own IoT
device using a 1-GHz BeagleBone Black (BBB) and run the spectrum from IoT
concept to code, finishing with a prototype and device packaging.
Participants completing the course will receive a free IoT Starter Kit,
with a variety of electronic components and sensors, valued at over $100
plus food along the way.

More information at http://www.iotfestival.com/IoTIAP.html

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Contact: Brian DeLacey, bdelacey@gmail.com

Joseph Okor, Instructor

Jan/12

Mon

03:00PM-06:00PM

Location TBD, This is a week long class offered 3 separate times

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 12/25
Prereq: None
Fee: $25.00 for purchase printed circuit board (required)

Electronics hardware is getting so cheap that you can now buy a computer the size of half a credit card that can run a full Linux Operating System and thus capable of running most of your desktop Applications, and cost as low as $25. In this class, you learn the skills needed to take advantage of this revolution. The skills include soldering, PCB design and layout, how to fabricate a PCB, imtroduction to distributed systems.

 

This class is week-long and offered 3 separate times during IAP. For time information, please visit:

http://diyelectronics.ananseworks.com/

 

Contact: Joseph Okor, MITERs (TBD), 561-431-8294, joe.okor@gmail.com

Brian DeLacey

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/05
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

This class has been merged with the Internet of Things Workshop.

See http://www.iotfestival.com/IoTIAP.html for more info.

Contact: Brian DeLacey, Bdelacey@MIT.EDU

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	Jan/12	Mon	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151, Bring your laptop
	Jan/13	Tue	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151, Bring your laptop
	Jan/14	Wed	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151, Bring your laptop
	Jan/15	Thu	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151, Bring your laptop
	Jan/16	Fri	01:00PM-04:00PM	E51-151, Bring your laptop

Brian DeLacey

Arlene Ducao

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 12/16
Limited to 16 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

How can urban planners take advantage of the connected technologies that are starting to transform individual data to massively larger scales in time and space? From smartphones to wearables, from social media to quantified self, the aggregation and geo-location of data is becoming a major part of urban studies and planning.

In this workshop, we'll look at how we can design and deploy with some of the most commonly hackable instruments-- microcontrollers, sensors, and phones-- that collect urban data. The workshop should give students the physical computing resources they need to deploy their own small data collection networks. Unique to this class, we'll also consider the political, historical, and social underpinnings of using these sensors in the urban environment.  (The findings from this class will be carried forth to a spring 2015 class at NYU ITP called "The Quantified Self About Town.")

Student Requirements: Interest in electronics and sensors. Experience in building simple circuits is preferred but not required. Please bring an Arduino Starter Pack (or equivalent components) and your laptop to class.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Arlene Ducao, arlduc@mit.edu

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	Jan/20	Tue	10:00AM-03:00PM	TBA
	Jan/21	Wed	10:00AM-03:00PM	TBA
	Jan/22	Thu	10:00AM-03:00PM	TBA
	Jan/23	Fri	10:00AM-03:00PM	TBA

Arlene Ducao

Kurt Keville

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Compete in this year's Soldier Design Contest and Rapid Equipment Force Grand Challenge. Attend all sessions for a foundation in the fundamental processes of Rapid Prototyping and build a winning design for prizes.

Jan 13: SDC Contest Overview, project descriptions, interest statements and class scheduling.

Jan 15: Caffeinated Crash course in PCB design (and finish up SDC project description/signups)

Jan 20: Lab equipment training and checkout. Partial equipment list; Various Microscopy (AFM, SEM, TEM), assorted chromatography, basic metal and wood shop, 3-D printing, sundry CVD.

Jan 22: MIT Beaverworks Tour

Jan 27: Bolt Facility Tour
http://bolt.io

Jan 29: Final Project (Powerpoint) Presentations
Web: http://mit.edu/isn/sdc

Contact: Kurt Keville, 4-6424, kkeville@mit.edu

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Rapid Prototyping Soldier Design Contest

Kim Patch, Tech Consultant, President of Redstart Systems

Jan/14

Wed

01:00PM-02:30PM

E17-121, Bring your iPhone or iPad with you to this event!

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Kim Patch will discuss how to use an iOS device via voice.  Kim will demonstrate ways to efficiently use the native speech control on the iPhone and iPad, and she will talk about workflow strategies, apps and hardware that leverage the iPhone and iPad to make computing less hand intensive.   

About the Speaker:  Kim Patch is a user interface expert, software developer, writer, editor, and musician. She developed Utter Command, add-on software that makes Dragon NaturallySpeaking more productive. She is also an invited expert for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessibility Initiative, where she is an editor for the User Agent Working Group and co-facilitator of the Mobile Accessibility Task Force.  Kim began using speech input two decades ago after she was hit with repetitive strain injuries.

Additional Sponsor Information:  IS&T Accessibility and Usability and IS&T Mobile Customer Support

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology
Contact: Mary Ziegler, 7-143, 617-258-9328, maryz@mit.edu

Matt Beane, Sloan School of Management

Jan/29

Thu

09:30AM-05:30PM

TBD

Enrollment: Sign up at http://goo.gl/ruaWlP
Sign-up by 01/23
Limited to 105 participants

Hype and hopes are high for robotics in business. This intensive workshop is devoted to helping us separate the two. We will generate answers through our own research, and we will be joined by a panel of outside experts - from industry, robotics firms, academia and beyond. This field is changing rapidly, so our main goal will be to generate new knowledge that these experts should find interesting. The basic design of the workshop will include a brief orienting lecture at the beginning of the day. You will be responsible for some advance reading so we can move quickly. The panel will also occur in the morning, and the afternoon will be an "unconference" where you will collectively determine your research focus and plans. A research report will be due soon after, and will be included in a shared set of research findings, available to all participants. Express your interest in participating using the link below.

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Contact: Matt Beane, mbeane@mit.edu

Brian DeLacey

Jan/29

Thu

04:00PM-10:00PM

3-270

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/26
Limited to 50 participants

This session will start with an overview of the hardware and software
behind WiFi. We'll review the various standards in place and how WiFi
compares to other wireless technologies. We'll discuss WiFi in the context
of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the various wireless technologies used
for connecting to the internet. Security, privacy, and encryption with
wireless technologies will be discussed.

For the hands-on portion, all participants will receive the CC3200
LaunchPad with on-board WiFi. Bring your laptop so you can participate in
an intro to programming this device with the open source Energia platform.
We'll develop several simple programs utilizing WiFi.

All attendees will then participate in a group project to develop a
wireless, multiplayer game that runs over WiFi. The session will end with a
"WiFi Hackathon" to explore the limits and applications of this hardware
and software technology.

Additional details will be provided at
http://www.iotfestival.com/WiFiAndIoT.html

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Sloan School of Management
Contact: Brian DeLacey, bdelacey@gmail.com

Brough Turner, Course 6 Alum, Founder/CTO, netBlazr, Inc.

Jan/13

Tue

11:00AM-12:30PM

32G-449 (Patel Room)

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

MIT was instrumental in launching wireless mesh networking about 15 years ago.  Today the technology is widely used in sensor networks and other distributed and/or low data rate applications, but capacity bottlenecks have limited its use for high-speed wireless Internet access.  All that is about to change.

We’ll discuss how higher frequencies and directional antennas are enabling high capacity wireless networks in urban areas using 5 GHz and 24 GHz unlicensed spectrum and, with this, a new generation of urban, wireless ISPs (including in Boston). But directional antennas require careful aiming – flexibility is gone. The solution: electronic aiming.

We’ll describe an NSF-funded program to design an innovative wireless mesh network node, installable by anyone, that enables low cost, high capacity Internet access.  This consumer device looks like a clear sheet of plastic to hang in a window, but sends and receives highly directional radio beams, steered in software, using a large antenna with electronic beam steering to automatically establish high capacity point-to-point links between buildings. Made with transparent conductive materials, it mounts indoors in a window (avoiding weather, roof access and landlord permissions), requires no aiming, and can automatically re-establish the mesh if a node is removed. 

This dramatically expands the applicability of wireless mesh networks, reducing the cost of community networks and enabling new wireless Internet services.  

 

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab
Contact: Brough Turner, rbt@alum.mit.edu