OMG: There I am back in 1995 at the CyberJava cafe I helped get going.
They show the back of my head twice and My home page at 1:50 in.
They show the back of my head twice and My home page at 1:50 in.
CyberJava-LA2 from gnormal on Vimeo.
LINK: Hardware Partners @ SV is one of the more low-key tech conventions around the Bay Area. This year was its inception year, having previously been a more informal meet-up amongst hardware enthusiasts. Despite being in its infancy, the event was packed with hardware experts looking to in swap ideas and business cards.
One of those speaking at the event, as part of a panel on Robotics Education in the US, was ITU’s John Sokol. He works with the ITU Solutions Team, creating and designing equipment for ITU’s new campus. He puts his robotics and hardware expertise down to his lifetime pursuit for knowledge: “I ended up speaking today because I know the organizer through the Hacker Dojo and other tech communities. My work with RoboTerra, and my talk at the Beijing Science Festival, is probably what got me here. What got me to that point was helping with every difficult, technical problem that I could find. Any puzzle I find, I love to examine it and help out; sometimes I feel like I’m wasting people’s time asking so many questions, but that’s how you learn.”
Robotics Education in the US
As the panel delves into the topic at hand, it’s clear that Sokol is critical of the early STEM education system in America, something he elaborates on during our interview after the discussion: “I think robotic learning has to go beyond the current education system. At grade school levels, the current education system is broken. I see a lot of cool things happening with online education, and I think robotics really needs to be a tool to educate the children, as well as something they need to learn about, so it’s a two-way street. Technology is going to be the water these children will be swimming in soon, and if they’re not accustomed to it, they’re going to drown.”
Sokol’s own education on these matters goes well beyond the classroom. He says his wide-ranging curiosity is what has carried him so far in the tech world, as well as some fantastic people to learn from. Among those people was inventor, visionary, and writer of the iconic movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke, whom Sokol worked with in the ‘90s.
“I’ve been fortunate to have some very smart people there to mentor me, like Arthur C. Clarke,” recounts Sokol. “I went out to visit him in Sri Lanka and then did a live video stream from there to Chicago Urbana-Champaign University. He was the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and they were having a huge event, since the computer from the movie was invented there. They wanted him to video conference in, and he used my technology. So in 1997, we did a live stream from Sri Lanka to Chicago, which at the time was incomprehensible.”
The incomprehensible was achieved successfully, but was no surprise to Sokol and Clarke. Both knew the potential of this technology, and were pioneers in applying it. In 1964, Clarke himself perfectly predicted the rise of personal computers and the sociable interface of an inter-connected series of computers. This was 30 years before Windows 95 would even exist.
New Projects and Ways to Get Involved
Networking plays a huge role in getting people into their ideal job fields. Sokol
heavily encourages anyone interested in tech to go to these conventions, big and small, and just get involved as much as they can. He cites his experience in the Hacker Dojo, where he has been involved since its founding, as a huge part of his career.
When asked about his current and future projects, Sokol chuckles and replies: “The list is as long as my arm. I’ve got two different non-invasive glucose devices that I want to get more involved in. I’ve also been doing a lot of investigation into half a dozen different types of robotics sensors, light field video capture and playback display, computational photography. I’m also open to suggestions on how to use robots to decommission the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. I’m currently working with the Solutions Group at ITU, looking at things like the security door lock systems, displays, and 3D printing. I’ve found some interesting LCD technology, so we can use computer controlled windows to tint themselves depending on the amount of light or heat in the building.”
Sokol’s path to these innovative new projects all stems from his involvement in so many different groups and companies. If you are interested in getting into the robotics, hardware, or software field, tech conventions are a great way to learn and make contacts. There are dozens of conventions held around the Bay Area every year; be sure to check out next week’s blog for a list of some of the best ones.
