This festive season will be a bit different, but we’d still love to see you all for TOG’s annual Christmas Craft Night, so we’re going virtual this year. Drop into Discord, show us some festive crafts you are working on or get some ideas for those last-minute Christmas gifts.
Athlone Community College has a once in a lifetime opportunity to make contact through amateur radio with the International Space Station (ISS) on 7th December 2020 at 2:50 pm. Students from ACC will have about 11 minutes to put Athlone on the astronomical map as they make contact direct with the ISS while it orbits our planet at a speed of 27,600km/hr. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station programme (ARISS), which will see students from Athlone Community College speaking with U.S. Astronaut Shannon Walker onboard the ISS.
The event will be live-streamed on YouTube starting around 1:30 pm on Monday, December 7th. Watch for the live stream at: https://youtu.be/viVQBI4WzKs Contact with space station is about 2:50pm-3:00pm
Working with the students and staff of Athlone Community College will be Daniel Cussen our member the ARISS Radio Technical Co-ordinator. He will build, test and oversee the operation of the temporary “mission control” radio station EI1ISS. Daniel commented “I am thrilled that ACC has been chosen for this event. I am extremely passionate about amateur radio and technology and I am so excited to share my passion with these students and to inspire them to follow in my footsteps”
We wanted to share a bit of Festive Cheer, fresh from our Laser Cutter! Hand-made by Robots. Check out our gallery for all the build photos.
The year started off great with our 11th birthday. Just as we finished hosting Science Hackday weekend hackathon in March the world changed. We’ve done our best to keep making alive and our doors open when restrictions allowed. Unfortunately, it has meant our normal programme of outreach events has not happened this year. We have moved many of our regular events online and host monthly live streams showcasing our member’s projects.
We hope next year will see a return to in-person events, talks, workshops and collaborating with the wider maker/tech/STEM community.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We are reopening from the 1st of December for all members. All scheduled events will continue to be held online during level three restrictions. For the latest up to date information please check out our calendar or meetup page.
Visitors are asked to contact us before visiting the space to arrange an appropriate time.
? We want to celebrate making this Christmas so we bring you the Christmas Making Decoration Competition. We want to see all your homemade decorations this year.
It’s free, anyone of all ages can have fun making these decorations, hang them up, display them and be proud that you made it either yourself and even better, with your loved ones.
DEADLINE: Sunday, December 13, 2020 (Midnight, Irish Time)
Terms and Conditions
Competition entrants must reside in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
60% of the decoration must be home-made.
The Christmas Decoration can be placed on the tree or in a window.
Anyone who is under 18s years of age must have a parent or guardian who is 18 years or over to submit their Christmas Decoration entry on their behalf.
Our judging panel is made up of representatives from each of our partnering organisations. You can learn more about each of them below.
Meg “Without A Stitch”
Meg has always been interested in crafting and creating. After her BA in Theatre which focused on costume and set design, she moved to Ireland and became involved in the cosplay scene. Since then she has judged for Dublin Comic Con and other cosplay competitions, but has a broad range of interests that includes embroidery, quilting, sewing, photography and prop making.
David is a director of Benchspace Cork. He works full time in the Technology Industry and in his spare time is interested in all aspects of making including digital but primarily woodwork.
We are delighted to be taking part in Science Week now in its 25th year. We always like to take part in these national weeks to promote science and education. We have lined up of talks for you on Thursday the 12th of November from 7 pm streaming on our Youtube channel. This year we are teaming up with the Young Engineers Society to bring you a night of interesting lightning talks.
Project Title: Tell me more about the fungus under the kitchen table… Project Description: After seeing an ad on twitter for a box of grow your own oyster mushrooms, Tríona is now the proud owner of a box of oyster mushrooms. Not liking mushrooms, she thought growing mushrooms would be the most interesting part of the project, but then Jeffrey asked her to talk about them for Science Week… Speaker: Dr. Tríona O’Connell. Twitter.
Project Title: DIY Solar Install Project Description: In an effort to make an office unit more environmentally friendly Christian will detail his DIY Solar Install. This 4.7 KW install faced a number of challenges refitting an ageing office unit, setting up a power management system while all on a budget. Speaker: Christian Kortenhorst. Twitter.
Project Title: IoT Weather Station Project Description: Weather is the most talked about topic. This project aims for these chats to be more informed by having very localized weather data. This DIY IoT weather station talk will go over how to install your very own weather station and share your local data. Speaker: Jeffrey Roe. Twitter.
There are lots of Science Week events happening all over the country you can find more of them listed here -> https://www.sfi.ie/events/