Author: ted@thebrickyard.org

Yup, Lynn Community Television did a great little spot on the Libraries Rock! event, and they gave us the mike!

 

A while back we were pitching our grant application at a hearing, and the Chair listened to about half of what we had to say, and said “You have nothing!” It was more than a little disconcerting, because, in fact, we had about 300 followers on social media, we had workshops we’d put together with some money coming in, we had a 501(c)3 corporation, we had a Board of Directors, we had an enormous amount of enthusiastic support from all over the North Shore creative community, and, oh yeah… we had about $20,000 worth of equipment in storage, ready to be used.

But yes, point taken. We didn’t have a space.

Since then we’ve done even more. We’ve built a partnership with the Lynn Library, and helped their QuaranTEEN Makerspace program with cross-promotion and equipment, along with bringing a few workshops to them. We’re working with LaVida Scholars to lend them some of our digital imaging gear, to help them broaden their Summer programs. But this past weekend? This weekend was something else.

Saturday was the launch of the Library’s Summer Reading Program, a kickoff called “Libraries Rock!” To help them attract a few more people, we made a few calls, sent a few messages, and pulled in a few favors. We got two teams from The Discovery Channel’s BattleBots series, now in their 3rd season, to come show their machines. Overhaul, headed by Charles Guan of MIT, and Brutus, headed by Adam Bercu and represented by Amanda Fowler, came with their 250lb battle-scarred robots and talked to the kids on the lawn for over two hours. Overhaul got opened up for the first time since the fights, where we all saw the charred remains of it’s battery packs and drive systems.

You could plainly see – more than a few kids, and adults too, had a few ideas hatching. Amanda and Charles had a mission to get some potential robot-builders started and on their way… and they obviously accomplished it that day.

The Library Summer Reading Program will typically bring in around 30-40 people with some games, the WAAF Street Team, some giveaways and prizes. We counted over 100 people yesterday listening to our presentation, and probably another 50 that came and went. The Reading Program’s signups? …a whole lot higher than usual, to the delight of the Library staff.

So yeah, if you call that “having nothing”, just imagine what we’ll accomplish when we have a space.

For more photos of the day, wander on over to the blog, here: BattleBots Comes to Lynn!

Stay tuned, but in the meantime, as always…

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

We had a fantastic day yesterday!  Team Brutus, with Amanda Fowler, and Team Overhaul, with Charles Guan, brought their bots to the Lynn Library Summer Reading Kickoff to talk about all of their experiences designing, building, and battling.

These two bots were fresh from the filming of the BattleBots Season 3 fights, and both showed their scars (and chars!), showing just how brutal the competition can be.  Amanda and Charles explained the entire process, and, even more than that, how they have learned to do this stuff.  After about an hour of “swarm” mode, where they talked with people one-on-one, showing off every detail of their machines, they gave about an hour-long talk on the Library lawn.  Take a look at the photos and clips from the day!

The Brickyard Collaborative brought over 150 people to the Summer Reading Kickoff, and gave the Lynn Library and QuaranTEEN Makerspace program a huge boost in the process!  We were glad to be a part of it, and we’re looking forward to more work with this awesome partner!

 

We’ve been working on this for a while, and it’s finally going to happen!  Join us to meet Team Brutus and Team Overhaul!  This will happen on June 16th in the afternoon, and as soon as we can do it we’ll announce the exact place and time…  but SAVE THE DATE!

Brutus and Overhaul, just back from filming the BattleBots Discovery Channel 3rd Season will be giving a show and tell, a little history and how-to, and a first-hand introduction to these BattleBots stars! Meet the makers: Adam Bercu and Charles Guan, both 3-season BattleBot veterans, as well as longtime robot builders from right here in Boston. Learn how they learned how… hear their stories, ask all the questions you want, and maybe pick up some secrets of robot combat!

For more information on the BattleBots show, see this link: BattleBots

Be sure to catch up on the episodes – Brutus first appears in Epsidode 2, and Overhaul in Epsisode 3, which you can watch on Discovery or Amazon.

See the trailer here: