Friday, July 16, 2010: 8:00 pm (Tesla): Computing and electronics parts are inexpensive enough these days to allow amateurs to build surprisingly sophisticated machines on a budget. Jonathan Foote will talk about his experiences building kinetic artworks like Chassis the Drink-Serving Robot and SWARM, the collection of six spherical orbs that roll without wheels. He will discuss how it got started, how the robots work, and how knowing what you are doing is not always the best approach. Although they haven't quite achieved world domination, he and his collaborators have exhibited robots at the Coachella Music Festival, the International Festival of Cocktail Robotics in Vienna, as well as the Techkriti Festival in Kanpur, India. The interested beginner will wind up with a bunch of tips and sources for getting started in robotics.