Curious what StudentRND has been up to over the past year? Feel like you may have missed a few of our projects, or wondering how we raise the money to operate the space? The 2011 Annual Report answers all these questions, check it out below!

Download 2011 Annual Report

The time has come! The robotic PVC pipe organ that begun this summer is complete and will be unveiled Wednesday the 12th at 6pm. Come by the StudentRND workspace to be serenaded by this unholy combination of mechanization and music and eat pizza!

We’ll be running a live stream at http://pipeorgan.studentrnd.org so tune in if you can’t make it to the event in person!

Over the last three months, StudentRND operated a workspace in Bellevue where high school and college students worked on exciting science and tech projects. One team of students built a Robotic Pipe Organ, a plastic pipe organ that plays music live on the internet. Another team worked on a Plasma Speaker, a speaker that uses mini lightning bolts to make music instead of thunder. In addition to these projects, StudentRND supports local high school clubs, including Interlake Robotics, Redmond Robotics, and Newport Science club, by providing clubs a space to meet over the summer.

While StudentRND closed at the end of Summer 2010, 2011 marks the first year StudentRND will be open during the school year.

“Having a community space open year-round will build a regional community of self-driven high-school and college students in the area, promoting science and tech learning and innovation,” commented Edward Jiang, founder of StudentRND. “We want students to walk into the workspace and see the incredible things they can do with technology and jump in on the projects.” Jiang currently attends school at the University of Washington.

In addition to projects, StudentRND hosts events to promote science and technology. During the summer, StudentRND taught students how to 3D model, program apps and games, and hosted video game tournaments.

It’s been a great week for StudentRND! From creating an awesome prototype plasma speaker, hosting a 3D printing event, and having a great first week for Kickstarter, there’s a lot of news!

Plasma Speaker

StudentRND released two new videos showing the process of creating a plasma speaker prototype, and in the first three days, they’ve been viewed over 3,500 times!

The plasma speaker is a speaker that uses the vibrations of an electric beam to create sounds! We’re working on making this into a kit and selling it online. See more in the video, and share with your friends!

The making of the Plasma Speaker – Super Mario Brothers Played

3D Printing Event

Thanks to everyone who came to the 3D Printing event at StudentRND on Saturday! We had a fantastic turnout, and I’d like to give a quick thanks to both Rich Harman and Tim Moore for teaching the class and bringing their makerbots to the event! See some Pictures

Robotic Pipe Organ Kickstarter

We’re testing Kickstarter, a distributed platform for funding creative projects online, with our robotic pipe organ project!

The first week of our first Kickstarter test has gone well! Out of our $1,000 goal, we’ve raised $275 so far. WIRED Insider mentioned us two hours ago on their twitter, and we’re gaining momentum!

Tell your friends about our Kickstarter page — it’s a great way for them to get engaged with one of our projects and to spread a story =] See the Kickstarter Page

July Pictures

As we’re nearing the end of July, we have a bunch of pictures to share with the community! Check them out on our facebook album!

Three new projects have started this summer at StudentRND this week, and we have more exciting events coming up soon!

Projects
Different leaders at StudentRND are working on different cool projects this summer. If you’re interested in joining in on some of the projects, you can either drop by when we’re open or email the project leader!

Robotic Pipe Organ (Tu/W/Th 12-4PM)
Led by David Tyler <shoebane@gmail.com>, StudentRND is making a robotic pipe organ! This pipe organ will be computer-controlled, and will have be able to play music (and people can watch) via the internet! See more at http://roboticpipeorgan.tumblr.com/

CNC Router (M/Tu/Th 11-5PM)
Led by Nolan Miller <nolanamiller@gmail.com>, StudentRND is building a CNC router, which can be used to make lots of cool stuff! See a Youtube demo.

RepRap 3D Printer (M/W/F 12-5PM)
Eric Yu <ericyu3@gmail.com> is building a RepRap 3D Printer, which will allow StudentRND to print bigger and better things! Sample Video.

WinPhone 7 App (M/Tu/W/Th 3-7PM)
Adam Stephenson <is working on StatsPad Baller, an app that enables the average basketball enthusiast to track and record statistics from basketball games of any level.

Events
We’ll have quite a few exciting events in the next week! Here’s a quick list!

Community Lunch (Every Tuesday, 12:30-1:30PM)
Starting this Tuesday, we’re starting up a weekly event called Community Lunches! Everyone, including adults, students, volunteers, and mentors are invited, and we’ll have the various teams working on projects at StudentRND talk about what they all do! Pizza will be provided.

Volunteer Meeting (Every Wednesday, 4-5PM)
Interested in becoming a volunteer or are you already a volunteer? You should come. We’ll talk about what needs to happen in the next week or so, and how more people can get more involved in StudentRND.

Soda Making (Wednesday the 13th, 7-9PM)
Enjoy the soda tasting last week, with all of those unique flavors? Think you can do better? Let’s make soda!

Ice Cream Social (Friday the 15th, 6-8PM)
We’ll bring in the ice cream, you do the rest!

Volunteering
We’re still looking for volunteers to help out with StudentRND. Hit the contact form above to get involved, or just drop by our workspace!

Hey everyone! StudentRND is now open! To celebrate, we are having two opening events. The first event is for students and will be on Wednesday June, 29th 2011 from 5pm-8pm. If you are a student interested in StudentRND or technology, drop on by to see what StudentRND is all about. Join us for some ice cream and check out our surface computer and 3D printer. The second event will be for adults and will be on Thursday June, 30th 2011 from 7pm-9pm. This event is mainly for adults who are interested and would like more information about what StudentRND does. People who come to the second event can take a look at the projects StudentRND have created and some current projects StudentRND are working on.

The title says it all! The address is 1405 132nd Ave, Suite 3, Bellevue, WA 98005. The workspace will be fully functional where anyone can come in and work on a project. If you don’t have a project to work on, please submit a proposal of what you want to do.  Guidelines for a project proposal are on the last post titled “StudentRND 2011 is go! Want to do something cool with your summer?” What are you waiting for?! Bring your friends and come to StudentRND!

As we move into the final details of getting a location for the summer (which is looking to be significantly larger than last year’s), we need your help to fill it with awesome stuff. Have a project you’ve always wanted to make, but didn’t have the manpower, budget, equipment, or knowledge? We’re looking for about 15 projects we can take on this summer.

How it works

1. Pick an idea for a project relating to science and technology.
2. Lead a team of students to work on the project and have fun!
3. We’ll help provide resources and can help find volunteers to work on the project with you.

How to apply

1. Think of an idea. (Check out the wiki or Instructables if you’re at a loss for cool things.)
2. Read through the sample proposal <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22118500/StudentRND%20Project%20Proposal.docx>
3. Write a proposal and submit it to edj@studentrnd.org

I am Adam Ryman, your new VP of workspace. I have been volunteering at StudentRND during this summer and have put over 150 hours into helping having this space stay manned. I am very happy that I have been given this new responsibility and position for all of my dedication to this relatively new student organization.

Anyway I hope to serve our new community well and help StudentRND grow. I feel at home in the workspace and am glad that’s where I will be, not in the background (even though we can’t do anything without those people). I feel most at home in the front lines, helping students with their projects, getting events, materials, and guidance out there to any student that wants them, I hope to see you soon at the StudentRND workspace!

On a cool rainy Saturday on the 23rd of October, StudentRND set up a booth at Seattle Center’s Robothon (inside, thankfully) along with robotics teams from all over Seattle area with great success!

From around 10am in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, we displayed various old Popular Science magazines, a monitor showing pictures and videos from the workspace, and oscilloscopes. However, the most popular display items were the Theremin and 3D  Maker-Bot Cupcake model. Spectators ranging from all ages would come to see the 3-D Printer churn out DNA-helices, “twisted cubes,” Companion cubes and 8-point stars or simply play around with the ever-so-mysterious Theremin.

But of course, not all our display items went without a little rivalry– there also happened to be another larger 3-D printer in a nearby booth. Nonetheless, we still received plenty of visitors who expressed much interest in our smaller (although less pricey) Cupcake model, and we received many inquiries about building it, using it, and just how awesome it is. Meanwhile, many adults also expressed interest about volunteering with StudentRND, and by the end of the day we received over 20 interested contacts on our information list! From our trip to Robothon, we have also received many suggestions and ideas for StudentRND events and projects, which for now shall be kept under wraps to keep the suspense.

As such, a BIG thank you to all those who would like to join StudentRND in the future, and most of all thank you to all the volunteers who came to help out! Hopefully you all had plenty of fun at Seattle’s Robothon!