Pyro Workshop 2005

This is a planning page for the Pyro Workshop 2005. The workshop will take place August 3 - 5, 2005 on the Swarthmore College campus, which is just outside of Philadelphia. Participants should plan to arrive on the afternoon or evening of Tuesday, August 2.

The workshop will provide a dorm room for three nights (Tuesday through Thursday). The dorm will be air conditioned and participants will be provided with a pillow and linens. However, you must bring your own towels. The workshop will also include breakfast and lunch (Wednesday through Friday) and one dinner on Thursday evening. Participants will be responsible for their own travel arrangements and dinners on the other evenings. Unfortunately we cannot provide extra accommodations for friends or family, and we do not have access to the dorms for any other dates.

Checking In and Parking

Please review the Swarthmore College  Map. The dorm where you will be staying is called Alice Paul and is number 36 on the map. If you arrive between 2pm and 8pm on Tuesday, August 2nd, please go directly to the dorm lobby to check in. If you arrive after 8pm, then you can check in at the Information Center, also known as Benjamin West House, which is number 50 on the map.

If you are driving, you should plan to park in the the lot nearest Benjamin West House. If you haven't yet given me your license plate number, then be prepared to let us know at the time you check in.

The dining hall, called Sharples, is where you will be eating breakfast and lunch and is number 42 on the map. Breakfast is served from 7:30 until 8:30 every morning. Don't forget to bring one of your meal cards with you for each meal. The workshop will be held in the Computer Science Department at the Science Center, which is number 39 on the map. It is a 10-15 minute walk from the dorm or the dining hall. Please see the schedule below for the starting time of each day.

Organizers

Lisa Meeden	Swarthmore College	meeden at cs.swarthmore.edu
Doug Blank	Bryn Mawr College	dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu
Deepak Kumar	Bryn Mawr College	dkumar at cs.brynmawr.edu
Holly Yanco	University of Massachusetts Lowell	holly at cs.uml.edu

Participants

The following participants have confirmed their attendance (as of July 11):

1. Nizar Al-Holou, University of Detroit Mercy
2. Linda Almstead, Union College
3. John Barr, Ithaca College
4. Grant Braught, Dickinson College
5. Deb Burhans, Canisius College
6. Sylvia Candelaria de Ram, Python Journal
7. Mike Ciaraldi, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
8. Porter Coggins, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point
9. Zach Dodds, Harvey Mudd College
10. Bill Harris, Medgar Evers College
11. Steven Hartley, Rowan University
12. Laurie King, College of the Holy Cross
13. Yana Korsarts, Widener University
14. Dawn Lawrie, Loyola College
15. Chuck Leska, Randolph-Macon College
16. James Marshall, Pomona College
17. Sisir Ray, Coppin State University
18. William Sabota, Art Sphere (non-profit education organization)
19. Jim Weir, Marist College
20. William Yu, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Bulletin Board

Participants may use this area to post messages to one another. In order to edit the wiki page, you'll first need to create a username and password by clicking on UserPreferences.

Questions

1. Will we use our computers? Yours? Both? Our robots? Your robots?

We will have a lab of computers ready for you to use. But you can also bring your laptops and robots, and we will help you get your equipment setup.

2. Should we have a working Pyrobotics software-setup on ours? The latest live-CD I was able to get is Pyro 3.5.1 (over knoppix debian). Is that ok?

We will pass out a new Pyro Live CD, version 4.2.0 at the workshop. It has substantial improvements.

here's a new questions

Add your questions here.

Tentative Schedule

Tuesday, August 2

Pyro Happy Hour

At Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant starting at 7:30pm.

The Iron Hill is located at 30 East State St. in Media. To get there from campus, take Rt. 320 North (also known as Chester Rd.). At the intersection with Baltimore Pike, take a left. You'll pass under 476 and go through several lights. At Jackson St., take a right. After a block, take another right onto State St. The Iron Hill parking lot will be on your right in the middle of the block.

It will be a pay as you go social for those who arrive early and want to meet up with other folks. Some of the workshop convenors will be there in the bar area.

Wednesday, August 3

Evening on your own. See some restaurants suggestions below or ask your organizers for more ideas.

Thursday, August 4

7:30 to 8:30	Breakfast (In Sharples Dining Hall)
9:00 to 10:30	Robot Vision (Doug)
10:30 to 11:00	Break
11:00 to 12:00	Hands-On Pyro Session: Vision Tasks Using Aibos (Doug)
12:00 to 1:30	Lunch (In Sharples Dining Hall)
1:30 to 3:30	Demonstration: Examples of Pyro in the Curriculum (Zach, Holly, Deepak)
3:30 to 4:00	Break
4:00 to 5:30	Hands-On Pyro Session: Developing Curricular Ideas (Lisa)

Dinner at Yangming starting at 7:00pm. Yangming is located at 1051 Conestoga Rd. in Bryn Mawr. To get there from campus, take 320 North. After about 7 miles turn right onto Bryn Mawr Ave. After another 2 miles turn left onto County Line Rd (This will be a 5-way light with a WaWa on the right corner). After about a quarter of a mile, turn left onto Conestoga Rd. The trip should take about 25 minutes.

Friday, August 5

7:30 to 8:30	Breakfast (In Sharples Dining Hall)
8:30 to 10:30	Presentations of Pyro Curriculum Possibilites (Participants)
10:30 to 11:00	Break
11:00 to 12:00	Wrap up: Writing A&I Grants, Evaluation, Follow-Up Activities (Deepak)
12:00 to 1:30	Lunch (In Sharples Dining Hall)

Dining options

Within walking distance from campus

Countryside Market	610-604-4799	514 Yale Ave	American
Cheng Hing	610-328-2078	333 Dartmouth Ave	Chinese
Renato Pizza	610-544-2300	8 Park Ave	Pizza and hoagies, delivery available
Swarthmore Pizza	610-543-3474	601 S. Chester Rd	Pizza, Italian entrees, delivery available

In Media

La Na Thai	610-892-7787	33 West State St	Thai
New Orleans Cafe	610-627-4393	State and Jackson St	Cajun, steak
Nooddi Nadia Thai	610-892-8710	42 East State St	Noodles, Thai
Peking Restaurant	610-892-0115	6 West State St	Chinese, Japanese, sushi