Events

Why:

The MIRROR (a Movement to Invest in Reciprocity & Re-imagine Outreach Relationships) is a multifaceted effort to augment and elevate Cambridge’s youth and youth-serving organizations in ways that cultivate connectivity, innovation, and prosperity.

What:

A gathering that features speakers spanning the realms of high school students, college students, Cambridge industry innovators, and community leaders designed to explore how groups with common goals might unlock potential across communities in ways that exceed what could be done without creative collaboration. The MIRROR presents the pilot of a STEM Slam: a family-friendly event around a slate of spoken-word presenters from different sectors of Cambridge showcasing audio, visual, and hands-on engagements for audience members to enjoy. It is an effort to demonstrate how convening communities and resources can elevate Cambridge as a national model for STEM, college and career success among residents from all backgrounds.

Part 1 - Music/Welcome/Open Mic

Part 2 - Act 1 performances

Part 3 - Interactive Interlude and food

Part 4 - Act 2 performances

Part 5 - Community co-mingle celebration

Who:

The MIRROR is led by the Olin College of Engineering in partnership with Citizens of the World. We have a deep history with Cambridge and have spoken with folks across the city. We are committed to exploring and co-developing better ways for colleges (the students, faculty, knowledge bases, and networks therein) to prioritize equity-centered STEM with dedicated community leaders of all ages around a shared vision. The Foundry Consortium is an organization within the Cambridge Foundry that has an aligned mission and is co-hosting this event.

The STEM Slam Public Preview and subsequent Series is sponsored in part by MathWorks, and is informed by a growing network of friends including Friday Night Hype, Innovators for Purpose, and The Hip-Hop Transformation to name a few.

Saturday October 6 and Sunday October 7 2018

Boston Mini Maker Faire is for all ages, especially kids 5-18 and adults

When: Saturday October 6th & Sunday October 7th, 10 am-5 pm

Where: Boston Children’s Museum, 308 Congress Street, Boston, MA, 02210 

EASE Lab is hosting the Olin College Makers room at this year's Mini Maker Faire.

Featured Olin projects include:

• Olin Aquatic Robot Systems (OARS) projects

• STEM Trendsetters

• Marble Run, Electronic Fun 

• Unruly Studios

• Shifting Rhythms

Here is how the organizers are describing the Faire: 

Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of creative doers – tech enthusiasts, designers, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, crafters, students, commercial exhibitors, and more. All of these “makers” come to Maker Faire to show what they create with their bare hands and bold minds, and to share how they do it, why they do it, and what they learn. Maker Faires are community-based learning events that inspire everyone to think creatively and innovatively, and to connect with people and projects in their local community.

Maker Faire originated in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area as a project of the editors of Make: magazine.  It has since grown into a significant worldwide network of both flagship and independently-produced events.  Read more on Maker Faire history, the Maker Movement, as well as how to start a Maker Faire or a School Maker Faire where you live.

Thursday April 20, 2017

12:30 pm - 4:00 pm Mockup-athon at the Olin College Library:

1st floor, Olin College Milas Hall

12:30 - 3:00 Mockup activities

3:00 - 4:00 demonstrations

A collaborative hands-on workshop between Orit Shaer's CS220: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) course at Wellesley and Amon Millner’s Designing Resources for Empowerment and Making (DREAM) class at Olin. Students from Wellesley, Olin, and Babson will work together in teams to develop ideas and propose innovative tools and applications for empowering immigrants and those connected to them (all of us). Students will envision and design technological solutions which promote immigrant inclusion, integration, self-reliance, and activism. To bring their ideas to life, participants will use video as a creative tool for exploring, simulating, and communicating technological solutions.

Once teams have completed their video prototype production, we will have lunch and watch the video output of each team.

5:00 pm - 7:30 pm Reception and panel at Wellesley College:

After the hands-on workshop, we will come back to Wellesley where we will be joined by other students and members of the Wellesley, Olin, and Boston HCI communities for a reception and conversation between two leaders in HCI - Wendy Mackay and Michel Beaudouin-Lafon (more information on each speaker below). The speakers will be examining the role of Human-Computer interface and interaction design methods in fostering social change - informed by experiences living and working in the United States and France. They will address the ways that the increasing speed with which videos can be taken, curated, and disseminated has influenced what professors, students, researchers, and members of marginalized communities can do to support activism. The results of the student hands-on video mockup-athon (which takes place on the morning of the panel) will serve as a starting off point for the timely conversation.

-Event Archives-

Celebrate STE(A)M, Celebrate Summer:

 EASE Lab's Mobile Making Trailer + Zack's Ice Cream Truck

@BCYF Menino Center in Roslindale 8/18/16 4:15PM

The last stop of the EASE Lab summer 2016 DIY Popsicle Stick Tools [link] tour will take place Thursday 8/18/16 at the BCYF Menino Community Center in Roslindale (formerly Archdale Community Center). 

From 4:15 - 5:15PM, anyone who makes a Popsicle stick tool in our mobile making trailer will get an ice cream goodie on the house. The event is a collaboration with the STEAMing it in the Park [link] event series, but all are welcome.

Members of EASE Lab (starring Jiaying Wei) will have our trailer open for building functional Popsicle stick screwdrivers, calipers, and more. Some activities can be done before a Popsicle starts melting. Other activities are extended experiences that connect to concepts that are a part of a college-level engineering education (in computing and digital fabrication domains).

See you Thursday 8/18 at 4:15 near the picnic tables, 125 Brookway rd, Roslindale, MA 02131.

(top) The EASE Lab Mobile Making Trailer getting ready for action (bottom) Zack's Ice Cream Truck owner.

Boston Mini Maker Faire

Our DIY Popsicle stick tools materials will be available at an EASE Lab booth for the Saturday 7/23/16 Mini Maker Faire at The Boston Childrens Museum from 10:00 - 5:00.

see http://makerfaireboston.com for more info

DIY Popsicle Stick Tools at Olin

To participate in the National Week of Making, Olin College’s EASE Lab is inviting people (particularly 6 – 10 year-olds) to make tools out of popsicle sticks!

Wednesday 6/22/16 4:00pm – 6:00pm, in the Milas Hall main lobby

• Explore uses of various hand-tools, then make your own popsicle versions to take home.

• Find out how tools you make can modify objects on a computer screen (using Scratch).

• Get exposure to computer-controlled cutting machines.

Make this activity better. This event on Olin's campus is a pilot - the first experiment to test ideas for develop a series of workshops that we will host near ice cream trucks in the Boston area in July. Your feedback is appreciated.

Help us prepare for you by telling us you are coming (optional) using this quick form.

Even if you can't join us, you can try the activities by following the how-to documents here: (draft) how-tos.

(guests will also have a chance to interact with an early prototype of a new interactive system we're developing called JumpSmart http://jumpsmartlearn.com/)