Tacoma, Robots and Dean Kamen

What do Dean Kamen, robots and Tacoma have in common? Mark your calendars for March 20th and 21st when 31 high school FIRST teams will converge on the Tacoma Convention Center for the Seattle FIRST Robotics Regional Competition by Microsoft.

See schedule below.

Dean Kamen, is an inventor and scientist with a numerous list of awards for his creation of devices such as the iBOT Mobility System, the AutoSyringe and the one he is most often linked with, the Segwey Human Transporter. Currently he is working on a project involving Stirling engine designs to be utilized in developing countries. The idea is to create a machine that would generate power while serving as a water purification system.

According to Wikipedia,

In 1989, Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), for high school students. In 2005, FIRST held over 30 regional competitions and one international competition. In 2007, 37 competitions were held in places across the world such as Israel, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S.A.. Kamen remains the driving force behind the organization, providing over 1,000 high schools with the tools needed to learn valuable engineering skills.

Microsoft is sponsoring the competition to be held here in Tacoma. Among the 31 teams competing are three Tacoma area teams representing Bellarmine Preparatory, Wilson and The School of the Arts high schools. Official team names below.

Fikret Yuksel Foundation/Parents of Bellarmine Robotics & Bellarmine Prep Tacoma

Murdock Foundation / Dimmer Foundation & Wilson High School

Tacoma School of the Arts High School

Other schools that will be representing are coming from Seattle, Vancouver BC, Anchorage, Bend and many other Northwest cities.

Debra Mumm-Hill, FIRST Pacific NW Regional Director and Kevin Rolls, who also works with the FIRST Lego League came by and visited with me about the event. It will attract 500 plus high schoolers to the downtown, and multiply that for the adults who come to see and work at the competition.

UPDATE: HERE IS THE SCHEDULE

For those interested in the public agenda, here it is.

FIRST Robotics Competition
Microsoft Seattle Regional

Public Agenda

March 20-22, 2008

Thursday, March 20, 2008

7:45AM 3 Team Reps to uncrate
8:30AM Pits and Machine Shop open
8:30AM-12:00PM Registration and inspection
10:00AM-4:30PM Practice rounds
12:00PM – 1:00PM Lunch
8:00PM Pits and Machine Shop close

Friday, March 21, 2008

8:00AM Pits and Machine Shop open
9:00AM Opening ceremonies
9:30AM-4:00PM Seeding matches
12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch
4:15PM Awards ceremony
6:00PM Pits and Machine Shop close

Saturday, March 22, 2008

8:00AM Pits and machine shop open
9:00AM Opening ceremonies
10:00AM-11:15AM Seeding matches
11:30AM-11:45PM Alliance Selections
12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch
1:00PM-4:15PM Final rounds
4:30PM Awards ceremony
5:00PM Pits and Machine Shop close, crates packed for shipping

**Schedule subject to change. All times are estimated based on flow of rounds.

You dorkbots out there, they are going to need volunteers for this event so stay tuned for more information as it comes out.

Hearing What Your Avatar Has to Say

My son and I enjoy playing video games together. Kingdom Hearts II and Avatar: The Burning Sun and the Sonic games are the latest titles that we either cooperate in play or go head to head against each other on.

Have you ever noticed the difference from when the animations have written dialog as opposed to spoken dialog in the game. This happens frequently throughout Kingdom, but only on occasion with Avatar (probably due to memory or disc error from our side). Not that it matters much in the scope of things, but there is a distinct difference in feel to the play when you read as opposed to listen. If the characters have a distinct voice it is especially distracting when they stop talking and you have to read the dialog.

So it is interesting to me that online virtual world play may take on a new feel, as the avatars (not the Avatar mind you) are getting their voice, at least on IMVU Virtual World.

Cepstral LLC and developer Cassiopeian Ltd announced the release of imVoices, a new widget for use on www.imvu.com. When using the chat within the graphical environment the widget converts the instant messages into audio that the characters then speak.

"We're excited to bring the first 'personality' voices to a virtual world," said Liz Strevens, Managing Director of Cassiopeian. "The key is giving the user interesting voices. No one wants their bank's computerized voice."

That is of course unless it is the computers voice from the original Star Trek series as provided by Majel Barrett. There is both some good nostalgic and present day value there.

Anyway, users can pick from a menu of over 30 different voices in a variety of accents, ages, and genders. This allows users to find a voice that matches their avatar's identity.

It’s new, so the feel of speaking to someone on a cell phone with a short latency is present, but as it matures it could be a fascinating element to add to what is already an alter ego for many. There is also a bit of the Stephen Hawking synthesized voice quality as well.

For a demo which can be viewed on YouTube here.

WSA, I Mean, Washington Technology Industry Association Awards

Great evening last night.

The Westin Seattle was packed and the crowd buzzed with all the excitement you would expect to surround an awards show, even for the technology sector. The keynote from Suzie Reider, Director of Advertising, YouTube.com was great, with some pretty interesting stats.

She mentioned every second 10 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube, which is akin to ~8700 Russ Crowe "Gladiator" movies a minute. I saw Gladiator at the Cinerama after drinking a 64 ounce Diet Coke in the center seat of a crowded row, so that may seem a little longer to me than others. OK, I don't remember the number exactly, but it was definitely impressive. Once I confirm I will adjust. You should just know that it was a lot of Gladiators / Time Measure.

With the number of viewers they get a day, they are the 6th largest media outlet.

What was the big announcement that came from Ken Myer, President and CEO of the organization formerly known as the WSA? The news, which proceeded the keynote and kicked off the evening, was the name change from the WSA to the Washington Technology Industry Association (note the absence of an acronym here). The change reflects the fact that technology is so pervasive that large companies have IT departments that measure in size and scope comparative to many software and media companies. This allow for expansion of the organization which is already the largest state-wide association of technology companies and executives in the world.

The winners for the evening were:

Business product of the year: Tableau Software

Breakthrough technology of the year: TravellingWave

Consumer product of the year: Yapta

Service provider of the year: Ramp Group

Technology Innovator of the year: Bryan Mistele, Inrix

Best Use of Technology in the Government, Non-Profit or Education Sector: King County District Court

Finally, the newest award, the Technology Leader of Tomorrow, which came with a scholarship (and a Zune for all the nominees) went to Jennifer Chen, an eighth-grader at Washington Middle School.

Congratulations to all who helped put on the event.

I have updated to include links to the winners.

Sliding Into OpenSocial at MySpace

I belong to a number of online social networks. Many to get a better understanding of how they work, some because of my involvement with activities pertaining to them, a few based on the local community and occasionally because I simply find them fun.

Facebook is fun. Though for me, it generally means a lot of activity with very little practicality. A rich environment where quizzes are taken, simple gifts are given, contests are launched and cake is thrown.

The reason for this is a wealth of widgets, applets, gizmos or whatever small embedded application name you wish to give them. Not that you are getting anything done with them, but they are like the nudge, wink, chuck on the arm or other gesture of friendship you might make to someone you know.

One of the primary suppliers of these applications (and some practical ones as well) is the company Slide. According to Slide...

Slide products -- including Slideshow, FunWall and SuperPoke -- are popular on the world's top social networking and blog platforms.... Slide is also the leading application provider on Facebook with more than 50 million unique users each month (Quantcast). The company launched in 2005 and was founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.

Yesterday, Slide announced that it will launch several new applications, including Slide FunWall and Slide SuperPoke, on MySpace. MySpace considers itself "the world's most popular social network." This follows on the announced Developer Platform that MySpace announced. Slide utilized this platform through the tools available at http://developer.myspace.com).
It runs on OpenSocial, with MySpace extensions to enable javascript and html, as well as REST for server-to-server communication. OpenSocial, whichi is currently being developed by Google in conjunction with members of the web community, is built upon Google Gadget technology. According to Google's web site, "The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications."

On the same day as the Slide, MySpace announcement, Google also launched it's free Team Edition of Apps.

Google and Twitter Map Out Politics

As I went through my daily news fix, I noticed something different from Google. They invited me to add a politics gadget to my iGoogle page in order to better follow the events of the day as they unfolded. Nice filters and tabs allowed for me to move from blogs, to news, to maps and videos, all based solely on the candidates I wanted to track.



But it was another tab that caught my attention. In a cooperative service between Google and Twitter, messages from around the nation popped up to give you a sense what was on the nations mind. (or the subset of the nation that has Google, Twitter and reports on their activities).

Making it happen is Twittervision which says about itself:

What is Twittervision?
A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter. Samuel Morse, meet Carl Jung.

How do I get on Twittervision?
Join Twitter and post. You must have a location and an image defined to appear on the public feed (and to be located on the map).

I admit I am still not ready to weigh in as to the value of the service. It was interesting, like twinkling lights or the ripples in a river. Twitter posts from Maryland, then Texas, then California would pop up, following one another with the quick note that they were out to vote, surprised by West Virginia or off to a party. I actually enjoyed watching it for a while.



But my interest was more centered on my own location. What if I could drill down on the map and see what the folks in Washington were saying. Or the Puget Sound region. Or best yet, my own city of Tacoma.

Unfortunately, every time a Twitter entry made it's way to the map from another region, the map would re-adjust itself to hone in on the area the post came from. A bit frustrating.

I do love the concept however, and hope that by the national elections, the ability to go local will be part of the gadgets feature set.

Big Mergers and Escalating Salaries

The scramble for controlling Yahoo is on. Google is entering the fray and trying to change the frame of the discussion while alternately offering a different path for Yahoo. Microsoft has made a bold play and the company shows it still knows how to shake things up.

But the side story that I am interested in is how this reflects on the current market for software developers and computer scientists.

The New York Times sees it as a difficulty for the Microsoft/Yahoo combined force, suggesting that it is not an exciting proposition for developers seeking opportunities to innovate and advance. The speak of long lines at a Silicon Valley employee recruitment fair in front of Google and Facebook, while students looked but didn’t linger and the Microsoft and Yahoo booths. They suggest that does not bode well for the easy hiring of Microsoftiehoos, as the hiring pool is once again shallow.

The competition for engineering talent in Silicon Valley and other redoubts of technology is as fierce as its been since the late 1990s, if not fiercer, some in the Valley say.

The battle for tech supremacy, then, is largely a battle for talent. And so one crucial question about Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo is whether a combined company could more easily attract software engineers — an increasingly precious commodity. Both companies are already fighting the perception that their most innovative days are behind them.

I'm not sure MSFT's employees would agree with that.

A few days prior to that article, TechCrunch spoke of the battle between Google and Facebook for new graduate hires. They talk of escalating salaries matched only by the run up in the 90’s.

Last year, salaries of up to $70,000 were common for the best students. This year, Facebook is said to be offering $92,000, and Google has increased some offers to $95,000 to get their share of graduates. Students with a Masters degree in Computer Science are being offered as much as $130,000 for associate product manager jobs at Google.

Having to deal with hiring employees during that period I have doubts to the exactness of that comparison as well as hopes that my doubts are correct. It was crazy and dangerous to have salaries soar the way they did.

It isn’t just the cost of the new hire that has an effect on the company. It is the bringing into alignment the other salaries of those already employed that starts to hurt. Not to mention that employees in positions outside of software development and information technology start to wonder how these younger and less business experienced people are making two and three times what they are.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that newly hired CS and CE students and employees should be making good money, and they are. I am just hopeful that we don’t escalate too quickly and out of control.

The good news is for the students at the Institute of Technology here at the University of Washington, Tacoma enrolled in those aforementioned programs. There are currently 252 enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate programs on this campus and there appears to be no shortage of internships and job opportunities for them at graduation. That goes beyond Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo. We’ve got the Silicon Forest up north, and there are plenty of companies and opportunities in the South Puget Sound as well.

WSA Industry Achievement Awards' New Award

Coming up this February 7th, next Thursday, is the WSA's 13th Annual Industry Achievement Awards at The Westin in Seattle. This is like the Washington State Oscars for technology companies and achievement.

There are unfortunately no South Sound companies in the running this year. (correct me if I am wrong) but there is one excellent South Puget Sound connection.

For those unfamiliar, the WSA is the largest state-wide association of technology companies and executives in the world.

With more than 1,000 member companies representing more than 80,000 technology sector employees in Washington State, WSA is a catalyst for setting new industry directions, sharing expertise, fostering collaboration, delivering key business services, and advancing the economic value and global impact of technology companies doing business in Washington.

I have been lucky enough to be one of the category judges in the past and this year as well.

This has always been a pretty amazing event, with keynote speakers from Google, Microsoft, Jeff Bezos from Amazon and this years 2008 keynote speaker Suzie Reider from YouTube.com.

The categories and finalist this year are:

Breakthrough Technology of the Year:
Next IT, TravellingWave and Zumobi

Business Product of the Year:
BioPassword Inc., Tableau Software, Inc. and Formotus, Inc.

Consumer Product or Service of the Year:
Picnik, Redfin Corporation and Yapta, Inc.

Service Provider of the Year:
Slalom Consulting, GrapeCity, Inc. and Ramp Group

Technology Innovator of the Year:
Fred Brown, founder, Next IT; Bryan Mistele, co-founder, president and CEO, INRIX, Inc.; and Brian Roundtree, co-founder and CTO, SNAPin Software

Best Use of Technology in the Government, Non-Profit or Education Sector:
eCityGov Alliance, King County District Court and Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence

As I said, the only downside that I see to this year’s festivity is the absence of South Sound finalists. Last year, Tacoma Goodwill was in the running for best use of technology by a non-profit with its www.mygoodwillstore.com.

But there is also a new award this year for the "Technology Leader of Tomorrow". The finalists are selected from among students participating in the Technology Access Foundation's (TAF) TechStart program. All three finalists receive scholarships.

In November of 2007 The Federal Way School District finalized an agreement to open a TAF technology-based academy at a middle school in September of this year. Starting with 150 students this is good for potential students interested in entering the Institute of Technology's computer science and computer engineering programs, and is a nice complement to the Math Science Leadership program at the Institute as well.

Called the Technology Access Foundation Academy, it will focus on science, technology, engineering and math.

It will aim to reach students underrepresented in those fields, such as girls, African Americans, Latinos and American Indians, said Trish Dziko, the academy’s executive director.

The IAA information on the Technology Access Foundation.