Electronic “Build-It” Workshop

Once again, we’re running our electronic “Build-It” workshop in TOG on Saturday 15th December from 16:00 – 18:30. Many visitors to TOG tell us that they would like to get started with electronics, soldering or assembly, but they are unsure how to do so. This workshop will help. You get to build (and keep) an electronic kit. The kit that we have chosen is a line-follower robot car. It will follow a black line or any line where there is reasonable contrast. You can see a video of the kit in action, from our previous workshop here.

 

The kit comes as a complete set of mechanical and electronic parts including a bare circuit board. You do all the electronic assembly and soldering as well as the mechanical assembly. If you’ve never built an electronics kit or soldered before, then this workshop is ideal for you. We’ll show you everything that you need to know. No previous experience at electronics, soldering or kit assembly is needed. We’ll explain the circuit and how it works too. All tools and equipment are provided. The workshop will take up to 3 hours, which is plenty of time. All proceeds from this event go to support TOG. We have 10 places available.

 

Sign up for tickets on eventbrite.  The workshop costs €25 plus booking fee.

 

You might like to stick around afterwards for our regular Open Social evening which is happening on the same day.

 

 

*** You must be 18 years of age or older to take part in this workshop. Please do not book places for children ***

48-Hour Film Challenge

Writers, directors, actors, DOPs, all filmmaking enthusiasts are welcome to join us and get yourself on a team for the 48hr filmmaking challenge, taking place in Tog from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th December.

This is a great opportunity if you want to try out filmmaking and don’t know where to start. All skill levels welcome. We will meet and form teams on Thursday 6th, and teams will get together over the weekend to shoot.

THERE WILL BE A SUGGESTED DONATION TO TOG OF €5 PER PERSON TO COVER THE COST OF SCREENING (OR WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD). Hopefully see you all there.

What’s on in Tog in December

Lock Picking: Break the bonds of true love, learn to open one or many of the padlocks we harvest from the Halfpenny Bridge. Lock picking nights are on every second Monday, we are meeting on the 10th December at 7pm, taking a rest over Christmas, and will be back in 2019. Basic lock picking sets are available for purchase at the bargain price of 16 euro.

Craft Night: Every other Wednesday, the 12th December at 7pm. Show that irritating / inspirational woman on telly how to really craft Christmas. Or knit, sew, crochet, cut-fold-glue-solder to your heart’s content. We have sewing machines. We also have laser cutting and CNC routing expertise. We may soon have a 3D printer.

Electronics and Micro Controller Night: Runs every non-lock-picking Monday, the 3rd and 17th December at 7pm. For all levels: Arduinos, Raspberry Pis and Intel Galileos, try our introduction to electronics worksheet. Some basic electronics kits available for sale. Bring your own laptop or notebook computer.

Open Social: This month the Open Social will be on Saturday 15th December. Join us for an evening of conversation and pizza. Conor has promised games.

Coding: Runs on the same Mondays as lock picking, the 10th December at 7pm. Come down and work on a project or help others with theirs. Laptop of your own pretty much essential, and bring your own side project.

The Science Fiction Book Club won’t meet in December; on the last Wednesday we will be too scattered over the surface of the planet to rendezvous at Tog, especially since we STILL don’t have access to flying cars, faster-than-light travel or teleportation. We might be reading about one or other or all three, though. We will be taking two months to read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. See you back here Wednesday 30th January 2019.

Wikipedia Editing: No meeting in December.

Finish-a-Thon: we are running an all-day hackathon on Saturday 15th December. Instead of starting yet another world-changing project, finish one of those you’ve had lying around waiting for, well, an event like this. The world will thank you. Breakfast will be provided.

48 Hr Filmmaking Challenge: Writers, directors, actors, DOPs, all filmmaking enthausists are welcome to join us and get yourself on a team for the 48hr filmmaking challenge taking place on the 7-9th December. This is a great opportunity if you want to try out filmmaking and don’t know where to start. All skill levels welcome. We will meet and form teams on Thursday 6th and Teams will get together over the weekend and shoot. THERE WILL BE A SUGGESTED DONATION TO TOG OF €5 PER PERSON TO COVER THE COST OF SCREENING (OR WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD). Event page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/events/351903748909360/

That’s a wrap: fun, flicks and fleadh

Filmmaking is an art and craft with a rich history of can do creative making technology usage prop and set design and musical composition.

Tog hosted  its first film hackathon in November – the Kino Kabaret.

 

We had 35 participants, many of who brought in their friends and family to serve as extras and helpers.

 

There were actors, camera people,script writers, directors, music composers and many more.

 

 

People came from as far afield as Turkey Germany and Slovakia for the weekend session.

 

Pitching started on Friday morning, with 6 films initially put forward to the group.

Soon other ideas emerged organically, and by the time of screening there were 16 films put on screen.

In the meantime there was a Q&A by renowned Irish filmmaker Terry McMahon  following the screening of his award winning sound patrick’s day

 

Sunday was a busy day of editing and finishing film projects.

 

Screening was on Sunday evening, with a short intro by one of the filmmakers involved before each was shown.

Many laughs, cheers, sobs and contemplations were had by the large group watching.

 

Many people would never been part of a film before helped to make several, and experienced people learned new tricks and made new friends.

 

Overall a good time was had by all and its hoped that we’ll host more such events by themselves and intermixed with the other hackathons we run

 

For Your Consideration

 

 

 

Science Week Lightning Talks

We are hosting on a night of talks to coincide with Science Week in conjunction with the Young Engineers Society. A week of nationwide events to celebrate science in our everyday lives. We have six exciting talks on a diverse range of topics. Each speaker will have 15 minutes to cover a topic they are passionate about. The event will kick off at 7pm  on Thursday 15th of November. The event is free with no booking required. You can read more about each of the talks below.  

 

Title: “False Balance and Science Communication.”

 
Description: Today’s good reporting aims to be as balanced as possible which is admirable. However, we are seeing it being misused to drive pseudoscience and scaremongering ideas. By equating fact and opinion how can we expect the public to know who they can trust?
Speaker: Sophie Cremen
 

Title: “People Proofing Projects”

 

Description: You have been asked to bring your project to a Maker Faire, art show, bring a hack or meetup. This is the first time other humans will interact with your project. Will, it survive being used by people who don’t know what it is? or by countless children’s hands who don’t fully listen to your instructions.This talk will give you the tips and tricks to make your project more robust, intuitive and safer for the general public to try out. We will cover hardware tricks such as volume control, fuses, radio signals. Also the importance of signage, instructions, and labeling.

Speaker: Jeffrey Roe
 

 Title: “Hackers: Who are they and why do they do it?”

 
Description: The press is filled with stories of banks being ‘hacked’, personal details leaked and people losing money through ‘on-line scams’. Who are the people behind this, why do they do it, and is it all bad?
 
Speaker: Mike Hibbett
 

 Title: “Perceptions of multicultural world with population genetics,”

 
Description: The changing the way we look at a multicultural world with population genetics, and the ethical questions still to be answered?
 
 
 

 Title: “Éirloop journey. Last year Éirloop was Ireland’s first entry into the SpaceX Student Hyperloop competition”

 
Description: Éirloop surpassed over 700 applications to become one of 20 teams to be selected to bring their pod to SpaceX HQ to do high speed tests and compete against 19 teams for the title of fastest Hyperloop Pod. The talk will take the audience through how Éirloop went from the drawing board to SpaceX HQ and how we fared in the competition. 
 
Speaker: Heather Murphy
 

Title: “Accessibility”

 
Description: How people with disabilities access technology Assistive Technology and Universal Design.