Science Fair Support by Parallax
Matt Gilliland
Posts: 1,406
Hi all -
(This may be regarded by some as "self-serving", but that's not it's intent...If you think that, I apologize and please skip this thread:)
For many years I was on the "outside" of Parallax. From the Outside, it looked to me to be a pretty cool company. Now that I'm somewhat of an insider, it's verified, and here's why:
I was invited to Volunteer for a Science Fair for Kids in a small N.Cal town. I've done things like this before, but I needed to do this event on a Friday, so I needed to get the day off.
Not only did Ken G. give me the day, but he and our Crackerjack Marketing, Tech-support, Education and Enginneering departments rushed to my aid to make it a success - Robots, and Pings, and Robots and IR controllers, and Robots, and BS-2 boards, and...did I mention Robots too?
There were no "Sales Intentions" going on here - for a full (4) hours I, and a good buddy of mine (not related to Parallax) got to play with, and demonstrate for kids about what "Sound and Light" sciences are all about.
I was given (at Parallax's expense) educational literature, backdrops, demo systems and (3) "Guess-how-many-electronic-components-are-stuffed-into-this-Clear-Multi-board-Enclosure" Prizes. (That, in itself was somewhat insideous - all different shapes and sizes of comps - from 1/8 watt resistors to 24 pin DIP sockets, to 200 uF capacitors - and everything else in between - no "calculate the number of m&m's per cubic inch" guessing possibilities here).
The three winners were all less than 18 years of age and they were all girls! Go figure?! The three winners were un-related, and they each guessed "250" components - the correct number was "255" (clever, I know.).
Anyway, my point is this...
Parallax can only do this because you'all are a fantastic customer base that is willing to pay for what we like to think of as quality products. This in turn, allows Parallax to make a fair profit, which in turn allows Parallax to donate and support education and causes like this - in this case, a Science Fair for kids that might never be exposed to such *Fun* technologies.
So thanks to all of you for making this possible!
-Matt
This is my "Scientist Buddy" - his name happens to be "Matt" too. In fact, we refer to ourselves as "Matt 1" and "Matt 2"...(not to be confused with "Matt 3" whom I share an office with at Parallax!)
Some Scribbler's doing their thing...
Showing off the "Solar Boebot"...
The First Place Winner! That's not her real face, but she was Smiling Big!...
The Second Place Winner. Smiling from ear-to-ear as well :-)
The Third Place Winner...Happy as can be!
-Matt
(This may be regarded by some as "self-serving", but that's not it's intent...If you think that, I apologize and please skip this thread:)
For many years I was on the "outside" of Parallax. From the Outside, it looked to me to be a pretty cool company. Now that I'm somewhat of an insider, it's verified, and here's why:
I was invited to Volunteer for a Science Fair for Kids in a small N.Cal town. I've done things like this before, but I needed to do this event on a Friday, so I needed to get the day off.
Not only did Ken G. give me the day, but he and our Crackerjack Marketing, Tech-support, Education and Enginneering departments rushed to my aid to make it a success - Robots, and Pings, and Robots and IR controllers, and Robots, and BS-2 boards, and...did I mention Robots too?
There were no "Sales Intentions" going on here - for a full (4) hours I, and a good buddy of mine (not related to Parallax) got to play with, and demonstrate for kids about what "Sound and Light" sciences are all about.
I was given (at Parallax's expense) educational literature, backdrops, demo systems and (3) "Guess-how-many-electronic-components-are-stuffed-into-this-Clear-Multi-board-Enclosure" Prizes. (That, in itself was somewhat insideous - all different shapes and sizes of comps - from 1/8 watt resistors to 24 pin DIP sockets, to 200 uF capacitors - and everything else in between - no "calculate the number of m&m's per cubic inch" guessing possibilities here).
The three winners were all less than 18 years of age and they were all girls! Go figure?! The three winners were un-related, and they each guessed "250" components - the correct number was "255" (clever, I know.).
Anyway, my point is this...
Parallax can only do this because you'all are a fantastic customer base that is willing to pay for what we like to think of as quality products. This in turn, allows Parallax to make a fair profit, which in turn allows Parallax to donate and support education and causes like this - in this case, a Science Fair for kids that might never be exposed to such *Fun* technologies.
So thanks to all of you for making this possible!
-Matt
This is my "Scientist Buddy" - his name happens to be "Matt" too. In fact, we refer to ourselves as "Matt 1" and "Matt 2"...(not to be confused with "Matt 3" whom I share an office with at Parallax!)
Some Scribbler's doing their thing...
Showing off the "Solar Boebot"...
The First Place Winner! That's not her real face, but she was Smiling Big!...
The Second Place Winner. Smiling from ear-to-ear as well :-)
The Third Place Winner...Happy as can be!
-Matt
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Comments
I got my A.S. from American River College and now I am on their Electronics Advisory Committee working alongside the same teachers that taught me. Plus I visit the classes occasionally and conduct tours for students at work on our production floor. It feels really good to be able to do that.
@localroger - UPEW is quite amazing - come if you can- I don't think you'll be disappointed!
@Matt2-
This is about the best one - how about from your camera?
This looks like a cool thing to have done. By the way. I loved your microcontroller cookbook 1 & 2 books. I still use them as a handy reference!