Planet Arduino

It’s going to be a great weekend in London in mid January. Massimo Banzi, Arduino co-founder will be at the Somerset House in London for three days. The program starts with a talk followed by a Q&A, on Friday January 16th in the Screening Room, South Wing at Somerset House. (book your ticket here)

On Saturday 17th, and Sunday January 18th you can take part to two 8 hours sessions that will be held at Makerversity, in the New Wing of Somerset House. The workshop is suitable for beginners, designers, teachers, artists, hackers, and everyone interested in Arduino (no prerequisites needed). At the end of the two sessions each participant will be able to prototype autonomously a simple project with Arduino. The participation is available for a max of 20 people: you can check details and book your ticket here. The presentation taking place on Friday is free for workshop participants.

On saturday 15th of November we are going to be in London  for the Elefant&Castle Mini Maker Faire at the London College of Communication. We’ll have a booth with some projects made with Arduino boards and  demos to test our new Arduino Zero. You can visit our booth located in The Street area of the First Floor (check the Map).

Massimo Banzi will be around as well in the afternoon and you can come and say hi to him at the booth starting from 3pm.

At the beginning of July Arduino was in London to participate to Hack The Hackathon event. We had a great time and a lot of enthusiasm about Arduino: at least 60 hands went in the air when Russ Klein, from HTH,  asked on Friday night who had never seen Arduino. And by the end of the weekend, 5 projects were developed using the technology and 26 people emerged with hands-on experience. Here’s a summary of the projects and some pictures:

MEDITEL
Katie Bibbard, Edwin Senjobe, Duncan McKenzie, and Julian Carstairs created a method for rural healthcare workers in Africa to monitor and report a patient’s vital signs, diagnose the patient’s condition, and take appropriate action. A portal allows the readings to be communicated to experts in other locations who provide advice and guidance. Arduino and GSM Shield were used to collect physical data and upload via USSD or SMS but also program reminders to deliver medicines. This is their presentation on Prezi.

ICE BUDDY – AID CONVOY
Hoi Lam created a local communications system to be used when there is a report of disaster. The system sends the coordinates to users of local team within a specified radius then asks, “are u ok?” Arduino makes the system easy to use for small teams of people (for example a United Nations Convoy) which may not be able to communicate with the outside world but which can communicate locally among team members. Arduino provides visible cues to help rescue and reconnaissance workers coordinate efforts.

PEPITA
Alex Gonzalez, Carlos Miguel, and Gianfranco Cecconoi created an inexpensive device that functions as a remote control unit to help elderly and learning disabled people access basic communications functions without having to learn a complex system of menus and other user interface options. Arduino is the controller giving support technicians a reduced set of possible issues, fewer distracting features, and fewer ways that the end user can get lost or confused.

SAFE @ HOME
Matthias Buchting created a way to detect critical injury at home. Elderly or infirmed people living on their own sometimes suffer catastrophic injury and cannot call for help. Using Arduino and sensors such as temperature for fire, sensors at the door to see if a person is walking in apartment, motion and sound to detect the absence of movement, abnormal readings can be sent as notifications to healthcare or emergency response personnel.

SMARTWELL
The team composed by Omkar Vadpathak, Munya Mutikani, Thura Z Maung, and Javier Madrigal worked on a project that tests well water in rural areas of India and Africa. Water wells are far apart and regular testing is difficult or impossible in many areas.
Before going to the well, user can send an SMS to request info and the well answers back delivering some environmental parameters and, most importantly, if there is water and if it’s drinking water. Arduino is able to measures the temperature, water level, toxicity, oxygen content, and other vital readings to determine whether the water is safe to drink. All the wells are sending info to authorities allowing them to monitor the level of pollution and understand if reclamation is needed.

HAPPY CYCLE
Javier Madrigal created a sensor-based safety system for use by bicyclists. Using proximity and other sensors, a cyclist is alerted of approaching vehicles and other obstacles. Arduino acts as the data collection device and communicates with the cyclist’s phone or other audio or visual warning system. The system focuses on blind spots, darkness, and other cycling hazards.

Next week, we’ll be in London at Hack The Hackathon‘s developer competition to support the teams in experimenting with “smart” devices. After the great hackathon we had during the Arduino Camp in Torino, we’ll move to London for the 48-hour competition addressing an array of possible projects falling loosely into three broad challenge categories: Social Good, Sustainable Business, and Smarter Living.

The event (5th-7th July), hosted by the HUB Westminster in Piccadilly Circus, is:

designed for technical and non-technical innovators, designers, and engineers to build working prototypes, get fed, compete for prizes across different categories, work with expert mentors, meet new people, and scout for teammates to work on new or current projects.

If you are an innovator, designer, coder, information architect, and social media lover passionate about Learning, Exploring, Building, Sharing, and Mastering state-of-the-art technologies in a nurturing and exciting environment where everyone is a winner, then you should take this chance.

You can participate to the event with or without an idea or a project in mind. And don’t worry if you are coming by yourself, without a team already formed. The important thing is to register and arrive on time at the location hosting us for the weekend.

During the 48-hour developer competition, Hack The Hackathon will also host Africa Builds an exploratory information session and open discussion  to identify a core team of like-minded collaborators who want to inspire change among those most affected by and most able to combat the challenges facing the nations of Africa.

Federico Vanzati, one of our Arduino mentors, will be there and happy to meet you and show you all about Arduino. Looking forward to see you in London!

Check all the info and register to the free event here.