Captain’s log - August 18 – Baltimore Sheraton (Morning)

I had a long trip yesterday so I didn’t blog yesterday’s events. And I’m going to do that now.

At 6:30 am August 17 I woke up, took a shower, had a quick call on the phone with Amr (my “boss”) and then I head out to the resort restaurant to have my breakfast. I have to say now that I am in the Sheraton’s restaurant that I miss that Resort. It was a small resort but I felt like a king there. The staff was VERY friendly and they always wear a smile. The restaurant was never crowded when I was there so they always check up on you to see if everything is good or if you need anything. The front desk was very helpful and friendly. The green view from my room was great to look at and the room itself was spacious. I didn’t play golf there but I guess it’s a good place since I always see more than 5 golfers at any time (that’s 3 – 4 groups …. I don’t know the golf term for that). Anyway, if you are reading this and you are going to the Butler area, get a place there! But remember to have so sort of transportation as there are no bus stations or taxis (unless you call one I guess). After my quick breakfast I checked out of the hotel and took my bag on the shuttle to the Butler community college. We stopped by the comfort Inn to see if anyone else wants a raid to the college (the Inn was the original choice for the conference but once it got full they added Conley. And thank god they did because that place is crowded!) I said goodbye to Dan as I will not return with him to the resort. Upon entering the Science center Dr. Stephen Catt was there with his “always on” smile and he guided us to where to leave the bags (as many people are leaving straight after the conference to the airport). I sat down at a table with my coffee to reserve and plan my Baltimore visit. Ms. Kimberly was at the table when I sat there then we were joined by Dr. Meyer. We talked a bit before they called us in the theater and Mr. Robin Shoop gave a presentation on the joint effort done by Butler College, Carnegie Mellon University and other entities to promote engineering and science and to keep the US in the head of the technology race. After that it’s off to the workshops. I took “advance RobotC in NXT” …… AND WOW! LOOPS AND IF STATEMENTS!! OH WOW! THAT IS SOOO ……not advance! For any of the teachers who were with me in the session, sorry to make fun of this, I know that it’s a new thing for some of you but “loops and if statements” for a Software Engineer? I can do that in my sleep! So anyway, I stopped paying attention to the lecture but I left my ears open for any questions that deal with RobotC capabilities and features (because I’m really thinking of buying this stuff to teach 102 Robotics programming at the Talents Center). So anyway, after the lecture finished I took the time to talk with Mr. Dick Swan about my simulation project and if it was doable or not. He told me that it could be a good senior project for 2 – 3 people (so…. Yeah, I can do it alone!). Then it’s off to the lobby to meet Mr. Robert …. (Hold on, I have his business card somewhere, damn this memory) ah, Mr. Robert Rasmussen, Business Director for the Center of Engineering Education Outreach, a great guy. We talked a bit about possible ways to cooperate in Engineering Education. Before this meeting, I passed by a table in the lobby where Dr. Cj Chung was sitting. He has his own robot contest that he was promoting. We talked a bit and he loved the idea that we may be able to hold it back in Saudi Arabia. So I took some broachers and his business card and I’ll pass that to the Center Management later. By that time it was lunch time. I sat on the table with Dick Swan and he talked about his working history (which was interesting to hear). After that I went to a class where …. *sigh* forgot the name again …. Travis something, from Carnegie Mellon , showed us a couple of new robots (more like new parts of robots) that are really amazing, like one of them is a robot control unit that runs Linux on board and can communicate through Wi-Fi. Then I attended a class by Robin Shoop telling his experience in teaching kids engineering. I had to leave the class 5 min early to catch a ride with Will Evereit, a former nuclear power engineer gone teacher. He offered to give me a raid the day before (I guess one of the women that were with me at the same resort told him that I was going to Baltimore). I must say it was much easier as I didn’t have to go all the way to the bus station, buy tickets, wait for the bus, and then ride it to Baltimore then ride a taxi to the hotel. It took us about 4 hours to get to Baltimore (and I am SO GALD that I did go by car, the view along the entire trip was awesome). I checked in the hotel and I put my bag at my room then it’s off to the next mall (as I saved enough time with the car ride to get to the mall before they close). I got enough time to browse through their collection so now I know if I need to get back to them for any book that I won’t find in the near Barns and Noble. I took a pizza piece from the food court and returned to my room (the mall and the hotel are linked by a sky bridge for the hotel guests). I was so tired to blog this (MS Word says it’s now 1043 words long (add 2 for “words long”)). So, here we are, in the lobby, waiting for Amr to reach here from Washington and go together to do some site seeing (not that I am a fan of site seeing, but I like being around close friends). So, until tomorrow, have a nice day.