Arduino Interest in Toronto or Waterloo, Ontario

wow good work, keep us up to date.

I would think that UW would allow use of a room if you could find the proper person to sponsor the request. To me, the arduino falls into the realm of 'robotics' and 'physical computing'.

UW has a robotics group. Where do they meet? UW holds and participates in University robotics events each year.

I bet there is a lot of overlapping interest between the 2 groups.

A quick search found these links:

http://uwrobotics.uwaterloo.ca/

http://web2.uwindsor.ca/engineering/cvss/?topic=newsContent&id=2

and finally... robot racing at UW!
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~rracing/

uwrobotics has their own lab at waterloo. I know a few people in the club but currently they are on coop. I know some of them have a lab key, i gotta ask them if they'll be willing to make a trip down from where they are working to open up the lab for us on a saturday.

Also, I don't know why I didn't think about this earlier, there are always a lot of free classrooms available after 7PM on weekdays, and there are almost never any classes going on during Saturdays. The classrooms are all left open, and I often use them to study or within a group that is working on a project. If we don't need any special equipment, this might not be a bad idea.

Darudude . . . you're the dude!

Can you please follow up on the idea of hijacking some class room space at UoW?

Well there really is no official way to do this. What everybody normally does is go to the engineering buildings and look for a free class room and just settle in. It is normally never an issue if we keep the place tidy when we leave. The custodians come and check up and clean the rooms but they are very polite and never cause any issues. In face they are always curious about what we are doing.

On the odd chance we do get told to leave, its always because there is a class coming in or somebody has booked the room. But in those scenarios we just pick up and move to another room where we continue what we were doing.

Ofcourse, there is a chance (though this has never happened to me), that all the rooms are busy. In this case I guess our meeting wouldn't go through. However the odds of that happening are super, super slim.

I guess if we can't find an actual room we could at least try meeting in a corner of one of the commons or lunch rooms.

Okay . . . so for those still following along with this thread . . . let's pick a date to meet at UoW.

I'll leave it up to darudude to specify the starting location.

I work during the day and I am not available on Wednesday evenings. Other than a little surgery on Thursday March 12th I am open to suggestions.

Monday or Tuesday night or Saturday or Sunday morning . . . any other suggestions?

A Saturday would be better for me as I am coming in from St. Catharines (I'm on coop).

The next Saturday I should have completely free would be the 21st, and I will be in waterloo that whole weekend.

I could squeeze in the 14th as well but it would have to be in the afternoon.

Darudude,

How about 9 am Saturday March 21st?

Where do you want to meet at the university?

How about the rest of your Arduinians, is any one else in for a face-to-face meeting?

9AM!! That is super early lol

I was thinking about heading up to waterloo on the friday night to go meet a few friends of mine, so saturday works great. Mind if we start around 10:30 though?

There doesn't seem to be too many people interested though, eh?

Darudude,

10:30 works for me.

Where exactly do you want to meet at UoW? Hopefully, somewhere easy to find.

BTW - I will send a PM directly to Mark Bramwell, Vodka and nigel_mck inviting them to the meeting.

Thanks for letting me know, I am actually a student at UW, but since I would be graduating soon, that's why I enquire about Toronto meeting. I would be back in Markham area starting this May

For the meeting, as Darudude said, people just usually find a free classroom to have meetings. Alternatively, I can try to book a study room in the UW library (not sure how that works...never done it before)

actually thats a great idea! you can book study rooms for 3 hours blocks upto 1 week in advance. The biggest room you can book has space for 10 people.

I'll check if there is a spot the saturday before we are supposed to meet up

I checked online, and there is room available

did you check for the 21st? I can only check as far as the 15th

opps...you are absolutely right, it only goes up to 15th

Darudude and Vodka,

Please keep trying to book a specific room. If unsuccesful, please let me know where (building, room, common area, etc) where you want to meet up so that it's easy to find each other.

Gents,

Even though it sounds like there might only be about 3 people out tomorrow for the meeting at the University of Waterloo, it would still be good to try to get a head count. So if anyone is planning on attending, please send a message confirming your intention. (csingleton@meikleautomation.com)

Darudude and Vodka, I have not had confirmation that you have been able to book a study room. If you have then please confirm ASAP . . . otherwise, I propose that we meet at the WEST entrance of the J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall at 10:30 am on Saturday morning.

I haven't a clue as to how to recognize anyone else, but to make it easy to recognize me . . . look for an old guy, wearing an old guys hat, carrying a small metal brief case . . . full of Arduinos.

I haven't book a room as I thought the meeting is next Saturday (21st).
Either day works for me.

Vodka,

Oops you are correct the agreed upon date is March 21st.

Please try to book a room this week (I would but as a non-student) I don't have access.

guys, I work in another city and probably will not make it (4 hours of driving away).

But, I have been giving some advice to a research group at UW on how to redo a device used in a project that requires lots of sensor input. I suggested something like the Sanguino (they need at least 8 analog and lots of digital inputs).

I have other projects on my plate and will not be able to help them long term. Any students out there looking for a project? Could be some money in it. All projects go at a slow pace so do not think that this is going to happen tomorrow. Expect it to occur during the summer at the earliest but most likely in September. It could make a great senior year project.

I am in my office at DC3125 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.