September 2024 Newsletter (Continuously Updated this Month)

We are here!

“I would tell most young people that in life you can go through many difficulties, but if you know what you want to do, if you can focus, and work, then in the end, you will end up doing it. No matter what happens, if you don’t give up, you will still succeed.” – William Kakwumba, inventor

Events this week

Sign up on our lu.ma/sudoroom site – we are leaving Meetup.com!

Saturday 9/21 – Common Tools for Common Socio-Environmental Problems

This is our first roundtable hybrid event with folks speaking in person and online! Join in inspiring talks ranging on topics from assistive technology, right to repair for wheelchairs, open source accessibility, robotics, and building networks in up and coming countries!

Female Pioneers of Electronic Music

The theme for the next few weeks will be female pioneers of Electronics music. We’ll meet innovators such as Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Cianni who are still innovating today as well as look at open source music software frameworks such as PureData. Read more on our blog post and sign up on lu.ma/sudoroom!

female pioneers of electronic music

Hardware Hack Night Theme: Unrealized Potential and Mentors

The next few weeks we look to inventors such as William Kakwumba from Malawi, who despite enormous hardship survived a famine, dropped out of school and then created a windmill based off a book he read in a library. With the help of mentors he went on to study abroad and is working to make the world a better place for people of all abilities!

You can’t Unsee it! at the SF Moma

During our “Where is the Math and Science in Art?” museum walk someone pointed out that the Calder mobile is on the cover of MIT’s Introduction to Algorithms! Once you see it you can’t unsee it! This event has been so successful that we are planning a third round at the Oakland Museum on October 6, Sunday afternoon.

Fixit Clinic Featured on KQED

Fix-It Clinic featured on KQED

Can you tell us about any Open-Source Embroidery Software you know?

We were shocked to discover that it’s “normal” for people to pay $100 a month for proprietary embroidery machine software. Send us any information you know, so far we have heart that InkStich is good!

open source embroidery software – there is none!

Invisible Technologies

“The best technologies are often the invisible ones-where people have figured out how to avoid problems rather than to solve them.

Nigerian medical devices made locally at lower cost

“Often all that is required is a perceptual change such as seeing grasshoppers as an airborne mobile protein harvesting and conversion unit-a food source-rather than a destructive pest. Or living near where we work rather than building better transportation technologies. Or eating lower on the food chain so you don’t have to pay for or grow food for the conversion losses of meat animals. Or planting trees rather than air conditioners. The second-best technologies are also invisible. They’re based on people’s skills and relationships rather than machines…”

Coffee & Algorithms Thursday Morning

Our space is now alive Thursday mornings! Join us for coffee and whiteboarding, and doing our part to make algorithms less of a. dehumanizing, corporate hazing ritual and more a beautiful way of understanding the world around us. They can even be art!

Past events

Inspiration

“If you want to change the future, start living as if you’re already there.” – Lynn Conway . We’re grateful to still be here, going, and will be here for a long time to come. More details coming soon…