Hi Sudo Room and Counter Culture Labs;

 

I'm organizing a biology/microscope/programming/art/education Hack-A-Thon as part of my work in the Center For Cellular Construction (a consortium

UCSF, SFSU, UC Berkeley, Stanford, The Exploratorium and IBM Research, see https://ccc.ucsf.edu/).

 

Is this something we could do at Sudo Room and/or Counter Culture Labs? We are planning it for a Saturday or Sunday in mid-April for about 50 participants, free with registration for crowd control and to get a good mix of people and backgrounds. We want to attract the same kind of mix of people that go to Sudo and Counter Culture Labs; scientists, tinkerers, DIYs, programmers, biotech professionals, hackers, artists, teachers, educators, and citizen scientists.

 

We will provide about 15 microscopes, 3 different kinds (5 of each); a $20 USB optical with zoom and a wooden adjustable stand, a $10 laser projection microscope and a $50 novel lensless stereo microscope based on the Raspberry Pi (a microscope with it's own OS that runs Python and OpenCV!!!) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzNjJ8_zT-A and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm750WtlFN0), parts to build and modify these microscopes, some example Python image processing code, links to free imaging tools (e.g. Fiji ImageJ https://fiji.sc/), some hacking materials (cardboard, hot glue, wood), slimy pond water (full of all kinds of tiny fascinating creatures), and samples of plankton from https://www.carolina.com/  Participants are encouraged to bring their own slimy water and microscopic creatures (no pathogens please, my motto is "if you can't drink it, don't bring it" ;).

 

The general goal is for participants to team up and produce something (physical device, code, art work, movie, sound/music, slide show, etc) to help make biology accessible to people using microscopes, code media (art, music, sound, video, image, internet, multimedia), or whatever participants can think of.  We are especially interested in plankton; to raise awareness of the complexity, beauty, variety and vital role they play in our well being (they provide 2/3 of our oxygen, are the largest sequester of carbon from the atmosphere, and the baby food for practically every species of fish. However, these are suggestions, as hackers will probably have their own view of what they want to do, which is the point of holding a Hack-a-Thon, to encourage creativity and experimentation!

 

FYI I'm a hacker/inventor myself and spend a lot of time going to schools to turn kids onto STEAM (https://makezine.com/2009/06/23/make-contributer-thomas-zimmerman-h/ )

Regards,

Tom

Thomas G. Zimmerman
Research Staff Member
IBM Research-Almaden
650 Harry Road, San Jose CA 95120
(voice) 408- 927-1836 (fax) 408-927-2100 (IBM tie) 457-1836 (email) tzim@us.ibm.com
home page researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=us-tzim