Regular Member Meeting 2017 12 12

Time and Location

Date

Called to order at 8:12 pm by Julia

Members present: Ken, Kevin, Julia, Bobby, Enrique

Members remote: Tom

Others present: Rob

Quorum

Quorum met? No

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Approved.

Recognition

Ken facilitated a meeting with DC Govt and National Makers organization, see proposal below.

New Members

Rob R. was a member a number of years ago and is coming back. Works for a USAID contractor, using maker tools and approaches to apply to international development. Rob voted in unanimously.

New Business

Pursue a grant - Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) and Neighborhood Artisan Centers (NACs)

Ken is proposing that HacDC submit a letter of intent and proposal to the National Science Foundation, bidding on their "Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC)" (Program Solicitation: NSF 18-520), in cooperation with Nation of Makers and the DC government's Safer, Stronger DC Community Partnerships.

• DEADLINES:
  • January 30, 2018: Letter of Intent
  • February 28, 2018: Full Proposal Deadline
• TL;RL: The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, and overall quality of life. This goal will be achieved through integrative research projects that pair advances in technological and social dimensions with meaningful community engagement.
• The pot: $19,250,000 divided between 7 to 15 bidders
• Work in progress: A Concept for Neighborhood Artisan Centers
• Additional information: Neighborhood Artisan Centers (NACs)

Project Awesome Reports

Project Electron Microscope (SEM) - Enrique

Using isopropyl alcohol we located a leak where the column connects to the side vacuum tube (the tube leading up to the gun on the side of the column). Confusingly, the application of alcohol helped the pressure fall quite a bit from 4000mTorr to about 500mTorr. Also the turbo pump did not slow down, which is great. However the desired pressure is closer to 10mTorr (check units on OEM indicator). We only let it pump for less than an hour. It wouldn't be unreasonable to let it pump for 24 hours to see if it improves. Moisture is very time-consuming to remove once it's wandered its way into every nook and cranny, which is why SEMs are generally kept under vacuum with the pumps on 24/7. The good news is major leaks in other areas were ruled out, including the main door seal. EDX flange, blank flange, gauge itself and the gun seal. We should consider connecting the pump exhaust to the laser cutter exhaust to vent oil fumes that make it past the filter (they can be smelled in the room). - Enrique

Also identified all (but one) of the parts to the backscatter detector system. Reverse-engineered and wrote schematics and took photos of it all. We can now design and assemble a better amplifier for it. Julia acquired an identical backscatter system off eBay. Working with two other people reverse-engineering SEMs to make them open-source. Also found someone in CA with two of the same model we have. - Julia

Project Optical Table Robot (OTR) -Julia

Nothing to report. James is leaving soon too.

Project CRISPR -Enrique

We've contacted the CRISPR kit supplier who previously offered to send us a new version of the kit ingredients to arrange delivery for early January. Our plan is to perform the CRISPR experiment as soon as the kit arrives to avoid questions of storage temperature.

Project SpaceBlimp -Enrique

Quite a bit of progress in defining the project long-term goals and ramping up for a launch sometime in late January. We are having biweekly meetings, posted on MeetUp and in conjuction with the Rockville makerspace with whom we do a videoconference. The next meeting is 12/20 and should be a worknight to assemble payloads we're pretty sure we want to include in the next launch. It looks like we'll include a gyroscopic stabilizer, several Raspberry PI zeros with cameras (1080p video) and there's interest in building a Muon detector. Several of us also visited the University of Maryland's balloon launch team; it's a one-credit class for engineering college students and they launch between 6-10 balloons every year. We have several people who want to bring Spaceblimp to area schools, so we've drafted a long-term plan to allow school students to choose, design and build their own payloads for future Spaceblimp launches (8+, 7 will be a demo/practice for ourselves). Bringing this project to schools is also a way to fund many future Spaceblimp launches.

Member Reports

• A wee bit of progress has been made with software to talk to the SEM. It's moving towards a "pronsole-like" interface. (Ubuntourist)

Director Reports (Governance related stuff)

Vice President's Report

I have the core switch back up and able to be managed. HacDC VLANs are now correctly applied. We still need to rebuild the rest of the building's network.

We on the Admin team have provided tech support for several wireless connectivity issues to the Church office and some tenants.

Other than that -- we have generally had a month or two of setbacks, and not much progress. I would still like to provide a number of upgrades to HacDC and the church, but the line we had on a donation of locking rack which was to help make all this happen went sideways.

Adjournment

Adjourned by at 9:09pm by Julia