hello again as you know I am Eli the
computer guy and this is the daily blob
show this is the second attempt for
today we had a we had a bit of a
meltdown earlier so it just goes to show
you no matter how G you get at
technology sometimes if you if you if
you forget to check off the right check
box everything just got kind of go KY
but anyways to the Daily blob show the
entire point of this is to try to show
you guys what is going on in the real
world of technology there are schools
out there and there certification
programs that do a fine job of teaching
you how to do things like configure
servers but very few people talk about
why you install the servers in the first
place while you choose uh Linux over
Ubuntu or over Microsoft or any of that
and that's what I'm trying to do here in
these daily blob shows is try to explain
to you guys the real world of technology
now one of oops now one of the ways uh
that I do that is by bringing people in
to do interviews so we had Ron schmelzer
before the founder of Baltimore Tech
breakfast and today today we have Ed
Mullen who is the executive director of
Baltimore robotics Center say that three
times fast and I have brought him in to
talk about how he created this Center
and what it's about so basically it's
kind of like a robotics Clubhouse a
robotics gym where high schoolers and
such can come in and uh and play around
and compete with robotics and this is
something this is his brainchild that he
was able to take from from beginning uh
all the way into creating the center and
so I want to talk to him today about how
he did it the problems that he ran into
the things that were easier than he
thought they would be the things that
are harder than he thought we they would
be you know why he's doing it so on and
so forth so let's go over and let's talk
to Ed Mullen again uh the the important
part of the daily blob show is that we
do this is a question and answer show so
I'm going to be talking to him for about
a half an hour till we run out of steam
quite frankly uh and after that we will
answer your questions so in the the
YouTube area the comment area please
write any questions you have and we will
get to them when I first come first Ser
basis you know this is our guest here so
I would ask that for today you try to
make it topical uh for for for what he
would actually know you know doing
completely random things is absolutely
AOK normally just today kind of sort of
kind of sort of make it topical but
anyways let's go over let's talk with Ed
and learn about the robotic Center and
how you can try to create one of these
things and your own neck of the woods if
if you want to so this is Ed
Mullen hello uh and now I'm intrigued by
what potential random questions we could
get oh the oh you don't want to the and
I do not want to call out and ask for
that however uh so so so let's start
this again so so we did a little bit of
this but let's let's go from the
beginning so the first question that you
already answered we'll have you do it
again so what is your day job then like
what do you actually get paid for so I'm
a professional
software engineer okay I went to school
got classical computer science degrees
and went and learned all sorts of
Technologies back in the actually worked
in a computer store while I was in
college which was a great experience of
the academic against the real world in
you know to date myself the dawn of the
PC age so I learned everything from dbas
3 to um visal to basic and uh tur Pascal
was a big thing in my life during
college cuz I could write programs much
faster than my college classmates that
were using vaxis so I've always had like
this like maybe the accepted way is not
necessarily the best way so I'm always
up for trying new things um I then went
on to manage developers and then manage
managers of developers work as a
CTO um work as a CIO get a little bit
more uh work to two startup UPS where I
basically was the CTO CIO help desk guy
network engineer guy to do backups clean
the bathroom everything else um and so
that lots of different experience in the
tech space both large corporations as
well as startups and then Consulting and
now I work for a Microsoft consulting
firm that basically does custom
application development for you know
Fortune 500 companies as well as um you
know 150 person Insurance firm in town
and I'm much more involved in the
business development and the strategy of
the company than I was in the past so uh
almost like I'm a Salesman but I hate to
hate to admit it but uh and that's you
know and part of that ties into why I'm
doing the Baltimore robotics Center
which is sort of like the joke my second
job uh but there was a tie in I would
meet lots of highlevel Executives and
corporations who would would be like we
cannot find any people that can write
programs for and uh we we're looking for
somebody that's like right out of school
and cheap but codes like a banshee and
I'm just like well and my world tends to
be Microsoft oriented because of the
types of companies I work for and that
really was a problem because schools
don't teach like classical public
schools in an urban area like Baltimore
City you know teaching C would be like
totally foreign concept to them uh but
more importantly my sons got involved in
competitive robotics through their
public middle school and they did really
well and if you've never seen this thing
it's like an Erector Set crossed with a
remote control um car system with motors
and gears and and they play on a 12x 12
field and they play Two on Two And they
have a challenge like putting balls into
cylinders and stuff like that and the
high schools compete and you get ranked
and you can go to States and then to
Worlds and my sons happen to win to Mid
Atlantics um and it was like a
Cinderella Story it was like brackets
where you know all of a sudden some
non-name Community College beats like
Kansas in the finals and ends up you
know going to Disney World and we
literally went to Disney World and
played against China and Singapore and I
came back I'm like we need to do more of
this yeah I mean I love computer science
and I my first job programming I was
like sh I would do this for nothing I
love it um it turned out it you know
it's lucrative too which is a double win
but not every kid is like that and my
big thing was to inspire kids to look at
other things both things that head you
to college as well as things that may
head you into a
mechanical uh job in a manufacturing
company or something like that there's
not much Sho anymore and kids don't
don't know how to use a hacksaw or even
things like that and the competitive
robotics you know put tools like that in
their hands and I noticed you know kids
that were mechanically inclined
gravitated towards it kids that like to
play video games and this was like a
real world video game gravitated towards
it and then got interested in other stem
fields and it was fairly in this league
in particular though I like all the
leagues but this one in particular um
seemed like a digital divide Buster
because it was relatively inexpensive to
get into and it really got kids who
weren't necessarily interested in school
before interested in going to school so
they could play on the competitive
robotics team much like I think about
the movie Greece where the guys were
going to school so they could go to auto
shop to build a hot rod there's some of
that in there and Heck if kids learn a
skill that they can then earn a living
off of I thought it'd be a cool thing so
then I decided Well let's figure out if
uh we could find a place to do this uh
and that's where that Clubhouse and I
remember you and I talking about geek
clubhouses and how good things happen
when you mix smart people together or
people that have a niche knowledge
whether it be 3D printing or um my
particular thing is I'm good at software
I'm terrible at electronics and hardware
and I really would like to know more
about it but it's not like I've got time
to go through I don't know an IT program
or rits or whatever people do now um but
I just want to know enough to make a
robot run or something so that was the
goal and I kind of during the course of
my day job kept asking people you know
do you know anybody that's got like a
big Warehouse they're not using could
you find somebody to give me a building
and basically after asking enough people
I actually got somebody to give me part
of a building in Downtown Baltimore with
a that's and it's next to a um a
railroad museum and has uh so people go
to this spot anyway you know kids and
their parents and has free parking and
it's uh it's taking off it's ramping up
pretty quick so so so with with the
clubhouse is this just for events like
one time you talked about like having
like a co-working space or like open as
a club is it a clubhouse or an event
space I guess is that the yes is the
answer and it's kind of morphed when I
when I initially set out it was
um you know if I could get a big space
good things will happen you know Field
of Dreams build it they will come but I
actually believed that but the most
pressing thing at the moment was to give
a place for the kids to play this sport
because in this sport you know now it
requires a lot of setup and you have
analogous to like basketball it would be
like painting the courts putting up the
scoreboard hanging the baskets and doing
that on Friday playing all all day
Saturday sort of like a swim meeting for
a parent it can take forever uh and then
but at the end of the event on Saturday
rip it all down throw it in trucks and
Cart It Off to the next place it was
like crazy um so the big thing was a
place that the fields would be on the
ground all the time and kids from around
the city could come at any time and play
or challenge one another for scrimmages
or or whatever but um as I went through
it and we we held like an expo we did
some things I realized there was this
huge penup demand much in line with what
you and I talked about ages ago for
people that wanted to get together in a
shared space so that's where um kind of
started clubhous is yeah sort of stream
went to a venish so I could sell the
concept to the funders and now it's
pulling back into the more club house
maybe a stem co-working space and things
like that Crossing edtech people with
kids with teachers you know so they can
be in front of their customers and a lot
of different things and what's kind of I
initially kept it very simple so I could
get the funding and now the funders are
very intrigued in coming out of the
woodwork the more of this I put into it
and it's sort of a bandwagon phenomena
is going on now um but I don't think
people really understood what I meant by
competitive robotics gym yeah to begin
with so you know once they saw it yeah
and they saw it working they were like
okay now I get it and can we you know do
professional development there and teach
teachers how to uh teach programming and
I'm like sure sure and actually the more
we use the space for the more different
things Yeah the more money I think we'll
get from from corporate sponsors from um
traditional Grant makers and people like
that and there's several entities around
Baltimore that are kind of like um
really indebted to to help guide this
process and and and part of this is
selling Concepts as well as actually
doing them the technology itself is just
one part of the puzzle I guess that's
the question so so these leagues so I
think they're first and Vex and there's
other leagues and these These are
already perch yeah there so these are
already in the high schools these are
already in the middle schools look in
your area
um and there's already events so so I
guess one of the questions then is don't
they doesn't the Baltimore County or
Baltimore City I mean they got lots of
buildings they don't have any like
facility like this already yeah great
question um so one of the things that I
would encounter is people would be like
we well we don't have space for this and
I'd be like well you had this big giant
open room over here that you heed and
run lights in they're like are you
talking about the basketball court I'm
like yeah I'm like you're spending all
this money already why would you not do
it for this and it's like this and I
used a lot of the sports analogies to
kind of get this going and get it off
the ground but the reality is is you
know they have basketball courts at
schools for extracurricular activities
and chance of college scholarships and
you know maybe perhaps somebody will
make it to the pros but really that's
not why there's a gym at your local high
school um and it's just getting people
to think of competitive robotics in that
way because it has all those benefits
after school activity you know idle
teenage hands are not a good idea I was
once a teenage boy and I was like not a
good person to have Idol uh because then
Mischief occurs but the best part about
this is unlike um you know Sports and
there's a real j o at the end of it so
it's it's really the type of thing where
you have to create a sea change the
other part is in urban areas you don't
have those facilities they are not pay
to you know line a football field
anymore and parks and rcks are shutting
down and particularly in Baltimore there
had been a series of rec centers that
they just shut down so whereas the kids
were coming after school to play
basketball and and do activities and
stay safe now they had nowhere to go so
in more several people had said well why
don't you just grab one of those and set
it up thing they're not actually big
enough and they tend to be focused on a
local community and I'm like I'm trying
to do the opposite I'm trying to be like
that Mega basketball gym in a city where
the top teams and the new coaches and
the Newbie kids can go to one place and
the best the best are learning and where
good coaches and good players around and
there's mentoring and everything thing
and that works in sports and I think
it'll work in this and it's also it's
essentially a venue the leagues exist
outside of me I try to help them but
it's just a venue and I was making this
analogy the other day with the Ravens
I'm MNT Stadium I'm not the NFL that
would be you know recf which is the Vex
League or first or whatever and I'm not
the Ravens which is you know that's
Supply by the teams that the schools run
or the 4 run or the Boy Scouts run or
whatever so as the venue I really don't
have that many expenses other than the
building and security and a few things
like that and I like that one of the
things with running one of these things
is you have to make it sustainable and
you have to know what's expensive and
what's not expensive and Choose Wisely
um and I think I I think this model will
work so far it's off and running and
actually Revenue
um generating things have popped up
where I didn't really think they were
before and like for example uh this
upcoming weekend this group called
future makers that teaches you know or
exposes really young kids like
eight-year-olds to sort of geeky things
like um you know for example at our last
event they took a cup to put two straws
on it and a magic marker with some duct
tape put a little battery powered motor
at the top that had an offsite weight
made out of a glue stick and what it
made was a marker bot and they turn it
on and put it on a piece of paper and it
would scroll around and oh my God kids
loved it and they learned how to you
know they made it themselves and they're
like look I made a robot and that's
where all this stuff starts so so when
you start talking about so like you want
to be like the stadium um so how how big
is your your facility now at this club
house good question I should know about
5,000 square ft 5,000 but that venue
when we first started looking at it it
was about 17,000 square fet and I would
uh so this is sort of a trial this one
even though we got it is like a stepping
stone to the big gym okay and I realized
I wasn't going to be able to easily go
and get the big gym but now that this
thing is the it's a proof of concept
yeah so uh um
what's the new term MVP or something
like that we rolled this thing out uh
and people saw it and they're like now
they're with they're like hey I got this
big building over here and uh you could
do it there so it's um I'm still hoping
to get all 177,000 square feet in the
current location but if this thing grows
out of this space or if say for example
the school system wanted to like run the
event space I'd be all about that but I
think what um the co-working part and
the Clubhouse part we have more than
enough space to to do that sort of goal
and maybe the big giant event space
moves on and the clubhouse incubator
space stays there so we'll see and like
I say we're right next to a railroad
museum where they actually have
machinery and that is massive enough to
repair steam locomotives so I think
there's this really cool like can we
come to your Clubhouse and play with
your welding equipment and maybe over
time that sort of stuff will occur but
that's a whole level of robotic
geekiness that locomotive size robot
robots yes that's what that's what runs
around in my mind okay so what was so
this is now up and running and it seems
to be success you you seem to be on the
whole growth curve but what was the
process for this like how how did you go
from us drinking a beer a year and a
half ago who now you have a robotics
Center well a lot of that was a huge
learning process on my part because I'm
from sort of the corporate corporate
corporate world and um had learned a lot
of skill sets in there in this was a
cross between the academic world and the
nonprofit World neither world where I
have a lot of experience so I had to
like basically what's kind of funny it's
kind of like a startup I would keep
pitching it and keep funing my pitch and
friendly people would help me tune the
pitch then other people kind of said um
you know when I initially approached
these funders who own this building they
were like you need to form a
501c3 and I was like
no I definitely don't want to do that
there's too many of them already uh and
they're like or you could like go under
another one so then I found a partner
that would you know was already a 51 C3
and just be became a division underneath
them that way I could take money accept
funds they could sign the lease do that
sort of thing so and then different
people along the way was like it was
almost like a scavenger hunt or
something it was like or or like a Zelda
game it was like go here and you may
find a treasure and then go here and
that's how we actually got the building
I was just like I had this belief if I
tell this pitch enough times somebody
would go I know a guy that's got a
building and sure enough that happened
and of course every treasure has like a
little you know curse on it in the
corner and there was reasons why the
space was available but we figured we
could work with that and mitigate um the
negatives to accentuate the positives
and then actually that whole process
itself helped because the neighborhood
we're in really needed something like
this and they um there was a lot of
press about that and people wrote about
that part of the story which made the
funders
go yeah we should really try to do
something nice like this so um a lot of
good karma so did you walk in with any
kind of plan did you say did you sketch
out a plan and say one two three four or
was it just oh to accomplish this goal
yeah my Simple Plan was a Siege I will
keep doing this until I determine it's a
bad idea or I accomplish this skull it
was a belief that
this um yeah was like Field of Dreams
thing if
you build this thing they will come and
I kept refining my pitch of why we
should build it why we should do it and
I still continue to do that I I consider
this whole concept to be a work in
process and and every day people and now
it's like you know people send me stuff
and people were like hey you should talk
to this person like you know I the
robotics leagues in in Baltimore run
basically through the science department
at the public school in the city and it
turns out that's not real connected to
the people that are in the vocational
side of things that actually you know
might be very interested in the robotics
Center because it's a place they could
teach network engineering or kids that
are interested in robots and programming
them might be interested in getting
Microsoft certified and get a job so you
know and it was very strange how those
connections I'm a big advocate of social
networks whether they're electronic or
in human form and
that's if I had a plan it was tap my
social network and see if there's a
solution to this problem there and be
flexible be flexible so if somebody was
interested in doing this in their area
of the world like what are the actual
aspects so you have this Clubhouse so
like Insurance rent utilities like what
actually makes that Clubhouse what
allows that to happen so those are a lot
of the nuts and bolts that you have to
um you have to deal with because so I
knew
so I came back from a stellar experience
with my kids at an event saying I will
move this rock so the first thing I did
was I called the league and I said how
can I help your league and that's where
initially you know the gentleman I spoke
to was very nice he was like well you
could help with this you could help with
that and I was like it seems like a lot
of work to set up these events and he's
like well in this other city um somebody
donated a Safeway that uh basically was
in a part of town where it was defunct
they couldn't rented uh you know but it
had it had a I described I'm like you
got to have parking because if you want
people to come in from another area in
most cities you're going to need parking
for the county people to get to the
urban place though usually Urban places
are a central spot for a lot of counties
good figure the um but you have to have
a big room you have to have electricity
you have to have safety because children
are involved and you have to have a lot
of power but it doesn't have to be real
pretty okay uh and you know it can be a
boom to an area because people are
trapped there all day they buy coffee
sodas um Chick-fil-A whatever the so I
started with that premise and then I
figured I would figure out the rest and
I'd be flexible I thought I was going to
have to do a lot of construction in this
case the uh The Entity owned the
building was already heating it was
already paying the power and doing all
these sort of things so I just need to
handle Insurance okay well I'll um so I
do a lot of work with the Boy Scouts and
one of the reasons I work under that
umbrella is because they have great
insurance
and they're used to covering things like
repelling and things like that and the
Boy Scouts is very effective um but I so
I was looking for a nonprofit that would
be able to give credibility handle the
insurance and cover that thing and then
somebody reminded me I had a day job and
wasn't going to be able to be there to
run the gym all the time and they were
like you need a person yeah and I really
was against this because I wanted to
keep the overhead super low and somebody
would need a salary and they were like
well you should get a Vista okay and I
was like what the heck's a Vista and
they were like we'll take care of it and
they led me through the process but
basically it's like a peace core like
program where somebody gives a year of
service to the country basically for
minimum wage and they work um under a
nonprofit okay and so my umbrella
nonprofit got the Vista and that person
turned out to be awesome okay handling
all the minutia of scheduling and
contacting people and we had an event
snowdown and you know all this stuff and
so he's analogous to that you know if
you had a big gym that was running
basketball stuff all the time you'd have
some guy that had keys to the gym that
signed everybody in and had a clipboard
and he's my guy for the robot G so all
these so those were the major things
like power
rent
um somebody to run the facility and
insurance and once we had those things
it would work so was it it's not
terribly difficult and had something not
popped up in the way it did I would have
solved it in a different way and the
trump card is being able to raise money
yeah you can buy your way out of
anything and so far I've been able to
avoid having to use that card but I felt
that this was um there's a lot of people
in the corporate space that were very
interested in developing resources being
involved in stem and doing and through
my other experiences in robotics and
computer science I knew a lot of those
whether they were defense contractors or
corporate entities and
uh I I believe that even if you didn't
have benefactors like I've had you could
potentially get large grants and we'll
probably do a bunch of that in the
upcoming year to um do bigger things to
be able to buy robot kits which are
fairly expensive for an individual for
people to take it up to the next notch
or to send pay for registration fees for
leagues so that they can go to just you
know a lot of teams even if they won a
chance to go to the world championship
it would be expensive for them to go to
Anaheim or Orlando and we it so much
like you know a uh booster club for a
you know Regional say football program
would do all kinds of different things
and have Awards back withs and bigger
trophies and things like that we'll try
to continue to push push the edge and
also try to get kids directly out of the
gym into internships yeah through so a
lot of times part of these connections
with corporations is to generate funds
and everything but it's also on the back
side a way to make them aware of the
league so they know to where to go for a
geeky techy intern Mak sense so with
this so so you have 5,000 square foot
facility with utilities with the Vista
person with actually pretty pretty going
pretty good here so for you has there
been any out of pocket out of your
personal pocket to get this accomplished
um yeah yeah on on sort of a
um on a small scale like I've bought
pieces here andan we're talking
thousands or tens I think if you added
up all the 20s you might you might get
to some big numbers but um so far um
it's it hasn't been yeah it hasn't been
a lot and and but
um that's I've invested a lot of time I
think it's the time part that's been the
biggest investment on my part okay but
on the other hand I I will say that it's
been exceptionally rewarding um it it's
just been you know that was probably the
biggest thing to me Is We I talked about
this weren't on it for a long time and
when we ran our first scrimmage it it
was so funny cuz these two teams walked
into the gym and they're both both City
teams and one is very established and
one is very Junior and it was kind of
like the Sharks and the Jets kind of you
know sizing each other up and everything
and then we started the scrimmages and
we mixed up the teams and everything
else and the next thing you know me and
the moderators are just sitting there
watching the kids teach one another yeah
just like kids in a gym teaching one
another another basketball tricks and
going hey check out this shot can you do
this one uh how do you do that and it
friends were made and stuff was learned
and it was like geeky basketball but um
anyway so that part yeah that's so more
more time than but I mean like so if
somebody was thinking about this you
know that that's always the qu I don't
have enough money you know is is this
something that the average person if
you've got the energy and the time the
money I always tell people like so when
I first started on this thing I was
talking to some initial big time funders
and I'm like I don't need your money
just give me a building with power
insurance and safe parking and I'm good
okay and then some of the nonprofits are
like you can't say that out loud because
they they will think you're crazy that's
so out of model for a nonprofit and I'm
like well the league does this it's
really just a venue and it was actually
easier to get people to give me money
than to give me a building because it
was kind of out of model and I'm like
you got to think differently and in many
urban areas there's tons of
buildings um and they lay empty or
underused or or just like poorly used
and it's if we can get better at doing
those things um there's plenty of money
out there for stem education and for
stem grants and things like that I
happen to be on the board Bo of a art
nonprofit as well and I'm like their
their world is like nobody wants to pay
for art or or it's much harder to find
people to sponsor a art gym than a
robotics gym uh so I count myself lky
I'm not it's not like people are driving
armored cars up and dropping out gold
bars but the uh I think it's much easier
to do but it's not okay yeah but you
have to be good at explaining the
benefits but then people intrinsically
know that there's going to be a lot of
stem jobs yeah and we need to generate
more stem oriented people so and if you
can go this does that it's not about
working in a robotics Factory that that
would be nice it's about somebody gets
charged up about this stuff stays in
school and then comes to work in your
manufacturing plant and is smart enough
to work its way through college and be a
foreman one day
through just like you can tell kids that
play sports and are dedicated and show
up every day great attitude you can see
that on in both gyms so when he's
talking about stem It's s it's it's it's
an acronym I guess uh science technology
engineering medical math math oh it's
math ma ma
okay it's sort of a uh and and people
are like why do you use that label we
like steam where you add art or or
agriculture into it I like the EG but uh
and it's just a label that makes it you
know there's funders that are like are
you doing stem and it's like yeah we're
doing stem so they put you in the stem
bucket uh and to me my my saying and I
may get t-shirts made is there's more to
stem than
SNM because um there's so much stuff in
classical school in Academia and they're
like we're doing stem and I'm like
that's really the same old science that
you've always done and when when kids
and and agencies are talking about stem
they're talking about the part that
we're not doing well which is really
programming high-tech and Engineering
you
know kids don't know how to use a pop
rivet gun or drill a hole straight and
that that's sad they don't know how to
take the lug nuts off their car you know
and why why you would not use a crescent
wrench to do
that but anyway so um and it and I don't
mean necessarily engineering on a super
high rocket scientist level I mean like
you should see these kids that build
these robots with a robotic arm and the
first time out they put the arm back and
the robot follow us over on its back and
it sits there and then they go huh that
physics and they don't say physics but
you know I know you know the momentum
and counter balancing and center of
gravity suddenly they're like oh that's
how it happens um so anyway yes so okay
so you've been doing this project for
for a year and a half and so not getting
snark we've talked about your benefactor
a little bit but one of the questions is
like you thought you you were really
excited you thought you had the space
everything was going like Field of
Dreams right until about a week before
everything was supposed to open up or
something along those lines
so with the problems that you ran into
because you did run he did run into some
I don't want to get snaring down the P
but you did run into some problems do
you feel those problems
were like who side were you naive like
walking into it or was it just like wow
this this
is I was naive about it but the other
part is um if you go off to do this you
and in 2020 hindsight and so hard is
this was so easy in that point and it
was so perfect that I did not have plan
B and C going and generally in business
I always have like Plan B andc and
contingency things and I kind of got a
little enamored with the whole thing and
it's not my day job so I think I you
know cut me a break man I do know the uh
but the other part is it's classic
persistence you're you're
if you go after this stuff and you're
very polanish about it and you think
everybody's going to help you and
understand what you're doing and
everything else no that is not going to
happen and you're going to get strange
I'll tell you one of the strangest
things was not the the person with the
building going hey I got a paying tenant
I may not be able to do this because
that made logical sense to me it was
people who
were outside who were part of the league
but had a different agenda going well
maybe we don't want to help you get that
cuz maybe we want to do it
someday and I was like what yeah I'm
like I thought you'd be all about this
I'm doing your job for you and they
didn't interpret it that way and you in
in I don't know in Academia and in
nonprofit World there there like any
place is a lot of turf protection and
that's my thing and what are you doing
in my thing and you might get my funding
and this the other part was this concept
of the it's a pie yeah and if you get a
slice then my slice might be smaller
yeah and and I question that whole
premise I'm like it's not a pie at all
the more we do of this and the more
successful we all are high tides raise
all boats and they will dump more into
it um you know if suddenly tons of NBA
Scouts were hanging around Baltimore
City gyms then they' build more gyms not
like you know you're because more kids
would be going into it um so but you
have to be that was probably the biggest
thing was when stuff that stuff is going
to happen okay and it's just like be
ready for it don't be discouraged have a
Siege mentality if you want to do that
that said if it's too hard going in this
direction like a startup you may want to
Pivot in a different direction
um so you're going to have to have your
own judgment on that now a little more
of the brass te so they were saying you
should be a 501c3 or you were told so
you decided you kind of lashed on to
another 501 C3 they did say we can't
lease it unless the the person that's
going to sign the lease has to be a
nonprofit a real nonprofit and now now
I've dealt with people whove created 501
c3s and those can be a bugger and you
need to get a lawyer so that's really
horrible now ious if you just kind of
latch on as a department of a 501c3 or
whatever you're doing how hard is that
it's not hard if it's the if it's a good
match okay and that that's easier said
than done it's sort of like a Business
Partnership it's like and and of course
you have to run under their rules or
their stuff and if it's a good match
like um mine
is that's not hard yeah but you know
if um
and I would say probably the biggest
problem is if you're going for
Grants um I may want a grant and they
may want a grant and now we're both
trying to get the same thing which can
cause like a problem okay um but I think
that I
wish you know tons of nonprofits would
just collapse into a few few well-run
well done nonprofits because it would
the inefficiency of having dozens of
people doing very similar things in all
paying lawyers and all paying accounts
and everything else I would um you know
I would get out of this in a moment if F
if if I saw somebody that was taking
this on and doing a better job of it my
thing was to be egoless about it whereas
some people really like to be the
executive director of something it's
like being the president it's like well
you know that Miss isn't needed anymore
they like I got a new Mission and and me
I'd be like oh it's not needed anymore
woo I can go back and play with my own
stuff um and and and Go in different
directions but uh right now I was needed
and I I had the wherewithal to do it so
I jumped into it okay and then with the
so like I believe in them enough I've
donated to you but I've donated to them
so how how do you how do you make sure
you like how is that money divied up is
there any kind of contract is it a
handshake how do I know it's not going
off to buy you know coloring books I I
took yours and I went to Atlantic City
and I was really I was up for a while
and then no uh in so actually a little
known fact there are nonprofit entities
that exist for people like me to
Umbrella under and uh many of those take
a percentage Yeah Yeah Yeah uh and I
didn't realize this and at the beginning
of the equation with the folks that I
work with they were like well we won't
take a percentage and I was like well
that's great I wasn't offering you and I
didn't realize that it was sort of that
was a great gift of taking on the
overhead and everything else and just
kind of keeping a side Ledger of this
one came in through the robotics Center
thus the little till of robotic Center
money and it's like 100% oh interest so
so you can do this and sometimes they'll
take the donations for you but take
their little 10% or 5% as a well or they
do it just like we did it and it's
like a assumed gratuiti or whatever you
want to or feeling the transaction and I
never even thought about that part of
the equation but it's kind of um the
more I hang around in the nonprofit
World there really is a nonprofit does
not mean people are not making a lot of
money and um you know that's why you
should always research a little bit into
it it's much easier now there's a lot of
different ones where you can see per
dollar like in my case I don't get paid
for this and my other volunteer is paid
um sort of by the federal government um
and I'm getting all this um help from
another um 501c3 that lights me so any
dollar somebody gives me currently right
now yeah actually go not only goes to
nonprofit but I in a way match with you
know 20s for pizza out of my pocket so
we're sort of on the other end of the
skew whereas in some nonprofits you know
the executive director alone pays the
salary and that gets people upset when
they find out that the executive
director of you know some nonprofit is
making in you know half a mill a year
they're kind of like what the heck is
that all about and I question that as
well um but anyway it's kind of
interesting on this whole thing but
that's we kind of have a very um um
unofficial way of done it because they
really don't want to advertise I'm sure
that they're being um that nice or
everybody would flock over and stop
using the 10 percenters um and you know
that may just be the thing where they
kind of you know Point pushed me out of
the nest when I'm can fly on my own and
got enough coming in that I can pay the
lawyers and everything else but they
felt this needed to be done and that's
why they did it okay and then so like
with 51 so you have the Vista so you
just call them a Vista like what what
actually is that because I mean it's
like one of those things you vaguely
hear about but yeah americ corpse runs
this program where uh people um decide
usually it's like after college and they
get and I I'm would be terrible at
giving you what this is why I needed
people to know how to do nonprofits like
all the different pieces of applying for
them and what they can do there's
there's like for example a soup kitchen
could ask for a Vista but that person
the way I understand it cannot actually
Ladle soup he's got to help the mission
of the nonprofit not be hands he's got
to work in the business work on the
business not in the business or the
nonprofit so it's kind of limited that
it can't be like politically oriented
there's a whole bunch of different but
this guy's a full time like a 40 hour a
week employee for you yeah and then so
do you do you do you pay anything for
him you don't pay a dime for him I try
to buy him pizza now on pizza pizza
pizza yeah I'm like I feel ter you know
in a way you know really smart guy yeah
really like you
know I know that he's going to do big am
amazing things and when I think about
he's making this poverty wage during
this period and and there were and
during the the government shutdown
certain Vistas didn't get paid at all so
here they are and they agreed to get
minimum wage or some pathetic amount per
hour and they based the rent and
everything else on that and because the
government shut down they basically
couldn't even afford to be a Vista um
and I don't know what happened
in those cases luckily mine because the
program he was under he was getting paid
through that period okay um or I would
have figur it out some way to pay him
because I mean he you know it's these I
in a way it's like you know going into
the Arm Forces or something you're you
know worth a lot in the private sector
and you're deciding to do this thing so
you're kind of giving uh of yourself in
kind for working at this wage I know
this guy you know he's got a degree from
major university and lights on he could
be making Serious Coin somewhere he
decided to do this for you so um and the
final one on the on the clubhouse itself
so the clubhouse is near methadone Clin
I mean it's it's Baltimore city which
means probably over things near a
methodone Clinic um now especially
because I mean that's one of the things
if you want C land or for free space
it's probably going to be in a curious
area especially in the city so since you
have kid like if you have adults you're
an adult deal with it
with kids so what are the security
concerns security PR what hurdles do you
have to jump through have you jump
through do you care I don't know because
of the security right yeah so um I would
not Advocate this is not an
advertisement for looking for methodone
clinics in your city to run a thing it
do not consider this this way but our
initial mission was to run events on the
weekends yeah and do after school progr
programming methodo and Clinics
basically run in the morning and don't
run on weekends so the amazing thing
about this place is if you come first
thing in the morning it looks like crazy
town
um you come on like a Sunday or
something like that it looks like part
of the tourist area that's been deserted
okay I mean it's cobblestones Bri
walkways old buildings that have been
renovated I'm like this is so in our
case um and then and we've agreed to do
and and there's security there during a
lot of the times that we run stuff
anyway uh even though there's not a lot
of people there it's just they pay
security guards for this thing and we've
agreed at any other time to to pay for
security but it for the after school
programming and the events it's I don't
want to say it's a Manch m in heaven
because I wish it was like totally but
whatever it it it appears that that's a
good match so that's why we got a
distressed property easily and I went
down there A lot of times to look at
this to eyeball it um but then here's
the problem because it's been successful
people want to run summer programming
there like the kids are out of school
we'll run summer camp in your place and
I'm like heck yeah and then I'm like oo
no you don't want to drop kids off here
at 8:00 in the morning so is this
all like when you talk about like
bringing in security for events or any
of that is this all your ethics your
morals or is this some kind of
Regulation or imposition from well we
believed that we needed to do something
like that and we tending to but we and
it's not a regulation that I know of
okay um could you just have kids by hey
look methodone people yeah yeah cuz it's
a hospital you know it's run by the
hospital system it's not like um but it
the um the hospital system actually
asked because they're involved as a
major leaser in the property that we
would do this thing they were the ones
that were like look we we want to make
sure that everything's good and let us
know and and what's kind of weird is in
that area there's um there's a lot of
different things in the hexual methodone
Clinic folks are the most responsible
and the most you know security and
they're associated with the University
of Maryland Medical system so they they
do um work very hard on that part of the
equation okay so um yeah you know I it's
a concern
but and I'm not advocating going out
looking for meth clinics because they
have an inversed hour thing for doing
this in a best case you would uh find a
distressed Safeway that had nothing
around it and somebody wanted to T I
thought it somebody would do this to get
a major tax right off I see this thing
rents for n right now I can't rent it
for anything anything but in 5 years the
neighborhood's going to come back or
something's going to move in I just need
to like there's actually a space in Hunt
Valley Maryland yeah which because it
wouldn't was like a second tier one yeah
um that um Ray Lewis I don't know if you
remember this story was going to
renovate this big part of the Hunt
Valley Mall that's like this open thing
and it was like stalled stalled stalled
and I'm like man I could run it in there
for like three years until they work the
developer stuff out and then leave out
of it uh so that's what I thought it was
going to be and that so if somebody
wanted to do this I would look for
something like that I would not I think
it personally would be cool to get a old
you know um you know Warehouse from the
Industrial Age and renovate it but the
nightmare of asbestos lead and then if
you cure all that there's still a bear
to heat and to secure and um even though
visually would be cold and it be monster
sized unless somebody and you know who
knows in an area like we live in where
you have large entities that have
airplane hangers and things like that um
you know so I'm always kind of
like don't speak too fast on this and
then I guess the final fin on the the
clubhouse thing so why Baltimore then
cuz you're a Baltimore supporter even
though you're like you don't actually
live in Baltimore and all these leagues
I mean they're everywhere so you could
have done this in kensville which is
outside you could have done this outside
of Baltimore
so it's Baltimore like why what's what's
the support for Baltimore just what's
what's your what's your thought of not
doing this in the county or something
like that it's really about the kids
yeah the kids in I would meet so many
really
smart um
really passionate energetic kids in
Baltimore City not that the kids in the
county aren't passionate but the kids
from the city were like so hungry yeah
and they could be succeeding in many
different ways and they didn't it would
be like seeing kids that really wanted
to play basketball and had no courts
where their courts were cruddy yeah and
nobody was coming to see him play and
nobody was buying him J
it's very much like but out in the
county they were so in this area it was
like where it would most make the most
difference and then it was like hearing
over and over again from major
corporations we can't find any
entrylevel smart kids and I'm like okay
can't change anything but the biggest
bang for the buck would be to create a
bridge between these two so is sort of
naive and panish is that sounds that's
where it all started and and that's
actually the biggest gratification of
the whole thing is I honestly believe
that is going to work the kids are going
to get much better at this sport by just
playing together and having a field but
there's more the more that I get into
this the more I'm seeing pipelines from
this
Clubhouse to internships and to work
real Workforce Development and is coming
back towards my computer science day job
orientation of
um like for example SharePoint and I'm
sure I'll get questions about this as
soon as I say the word in the Baltimore
area there is a huge shortage of
SharePoint people um and many of the
jobs do not require a rockstar level of
SharePoint knowledge so my thought is
that with some exposure training and
what have you you you could easily
create a small army of SharePoint
enabled people that could go off to
Corporate America and government
SharePoint is huge in government
agencies they could probably suck up
every SharePoint enabled high school
graduate that uh that Baltimore City
could produce so who knew SharePoint but
and I tell you if you don't believe me
go into wherever you're sitting go into
monster.com or Dice and put on like
Maryland or Baltimore area and then
click the SharePoint flag and see how
much that jumps the like you know
whatever the average software developer
thing and then you can add on I know
this and that I last time I I checked
and I talked to a recruiter about this
earlier today yeah SharePoint is the
number
one you
know huh it's supply and demand
that's so going to professional then
we'll go to their questions then so I
see you had a lot of stuff and you have
time to do all this so this is a lot of
work
so how do you have so much time to do
this do do you actually work in your day
job why does your CEO pay you when
you're I mean oh that's a good question
it's and I it looks like I think there's
an impression that I'm doing a lot more
than I'm doing that okay um and my day
job is to to be
out um in the technical sphere doing a
lot of stuff and sort of the interesting
part of that is that I didn't I started
this a long time ago and it wasn't as
clear how synergistic the two things
would be no um but there's often times
where I'll be talking to somebody about
this robotics League or the robotics
Center through a uh a connection that
somebody in Academia has given me to the
head of it at XY Z big company and then
he'll go what's your day job and I'll go
well we do this thing and SharePoint he
goes we got SharePoint we go some
problems with it can you help me fix
this thing okay so that's why actually I
mean that's very oversimplifying things
but um I work for great comy with a very
um Forward Thinking uh president but in
the end I think the reason um is because
strange Good Karma
profitable things have happened because
of it uh sometimes I I started off like
ring announcing at these competitions
and I'll never forget I'm standing there
this has happened twice now where I've
been ring announcing somebody walks up
and goes Ed what are you doing here and
there's somebody from the corporate
world and one time I hadn't seen the guy
in years I'm like I'm doing this thing
what are you doing oh my kid plays in
this league and he's like but you should
call me we have this big project that
we're taking proposals for and I'm like
I can't make this stuff up it literally
I'm like really and um so by doing this
outside stuff it actually brings your
company money then at the end of the day
yeah yeah
yeah it's uh and and when you if I would
have thought about it ahead of time you
know people that are CTO and cios yeah
you know generally are of a certain age
of having children of a certain age and
what would you know if you're going to
stereo ype what would a you know
highlevel technology person's kid
stereotypically do in high school yeah
and it that turns out to be sort of kind
of true okay the final question before
we go to their
questions if you wanted to get into
technology now because we've talked
about this because your kids are high
school graduation into college age so
for the newbies out there that want to
get into all this stuff certifications
School startup land like if you were n
when you look at your kids like what
would you tell them to do right now if
if they wanted to F in the modern P
since since since you've been a CIO
you've been basically what most of these
folks want to be at the end of the day
like if you were 19 now and wanted like
what would you do certifications or
college or well it's interesting you ask
this question there are two very
different answers depending on whether
you want to write code yeah and whether
you want to do it and C IO stuff um and
what's kind of interesting is I have a
kid one kid headed One Direction and one
headed another Direction um my one son
is like really into ethical hacking and
network engineering and PC repair oh you
guys see some of the Franken laptops
he's made out of your stuff and likes
that which I think is crazy because I'm
like a software guy that likes to do
algorithms and thing with program for
fun um and I've been asking a lot of my
CIO friends this question and they're
like you know there's a couple colleges
that do a good job but the bottom line
is start doing it now whatever it is
whether it's like wiring up your house
or wiring up your friend's house or
doing things like that I'm like really
my kids really like college prep hoping
for you know the IV League of network
infrastructure and they're like
yeah just not good traction on that um
hear a lot of good things about some
schools like you know if you really are
determined to send him to college cuz he
you spent all this money on a College
Prep High School um you know send him to
Rochester Institute of Technology or
UMBC which is awesome in our area yeah
but the real thing is experience and
most of the people had gone on through
like Cisco certification or something
along or Microsoft engineer
certification
um in the comsi world it's a little
different it's there's much more you
know
Prestige of having the degrees and then
that gets you into the cool internships
which gets you into the cool positions
at the big companies oh really cuz I I I
thought I mean at least see here in
startup land they're all oh startup land
is different startup land is oh okay so
that's the third path and with my one
son I'm like you're really startup
material I don't even see why I'd spend
150k on you to go to
school when I could give you 150k and
you could rock it off you're wasting
four years and 150k and you're already
coding and making video games and doing
all sorts of bizarre thing I'm really
struggling with this startup land is not
first of all
um I would love to know the numbers but
in the Baltimore area startup land is
like
super tiny tiny this is the loud
majority yeah making people think it's
much bigger than it actually is the the
number of it technology jobs in an area
like Baltimore is mainly in healthcare
okay in I I would guess that the biggest
employer of it people in this state is
the University of Maryland Medical
system okay they I believe they're the
largest employer in Maryland oh W who
would think um and then the DOD
contractors are large and most of them
aren't headquarter in Maryland but they
employ tons of people in Maryland these
are all big boring corporate IT jobs and
those jobs run like old Fortune 500
companies you go up you get hired
because you went to Virginia Tech the
hiring manager went to Virginia Tech and
there's all this network through that
that is you're going to college to get a
network and to get the credentials so
they'll take you into the program to get
going is that fair is it logical
have I met a million people with Biology
degrees running great software
development departments yeah but they
had a degree and they figured out a way
to shift over um so in the startup thing
I
always you
know I
I I would say if you don't have a
college degree and you don't um have a
mechanism to get one that's no excuse
for being successful
if you have the opportunity I'm not sure
I would turn it down because you always
have that sheep skin and it always at
least according to statistics helps out
so it's not Mand so if you can't get it
you're not screwed but if you can get it
right as well right and and I will say
that in Corporate America you still have
this thing where I know people that
can't get promote it because they didn't
finish their degree yeah um but I was
talking to one of the major um man
recruiting company managers today and
I'm like if I can generate a high school
kid with several Microsoft programming
certifications but no college degree do
you think most of your big giant clients
will take them and they were like in a
harpy okay right and after your first
job people don't care too much about
where're especially in software I'm like
you know that's why I think software in
some ways is much easier than other
professions because people
don't care as much what you look like
what you smell like how you dress and
all these things if you can deliver if
you can deliver deliver and you know but
over time as you do bigger and bigger
projects the people skills and stuff
anyway okay cool so let's do our
sponsors and we'll get into some
questions do you have some more time
we've been here for like an hour you got
some more time oh my God it's it's easy
to talk in a webcam so I have time for
some questions some question okay we'll
get over to we'll get to our sponsors
our sponsors what help make pay for all
this make it all happen so let's go over
to camera 2 so uh so this is uh their
website if you're interested more in
what Ed mullan's doing Baltimore
robotics
center.com that's a very long.com name
but anyways Baltimore robotics Center uh
has all the information here but if we
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v.com and with that let us go to your
questions and of course remember
sponsorship is what makes all of this
happen so uh if you if you want to pay
me so I can do shout outs I I will take
your money please please email me and um
hey hey you always tell people what you
want um let's see here we do a new
window and we will start getting dear
questions yes the volume is a little low
soulless humans lovely um scroll down
nice welcome
back uh let's see Ed and Eli would you
rather have an OLED monitor or a 4k
monitor you want to the organic LEDs or
the 4K I would want the 4K I don't know
I saw one in the store the other day and
I'm like man it's just not doing it you
don't like 4k monitor what no I it it
was not maybe I over thought about it in
my mind but I'm like that's it I was
like expecting it to be more impressive
than it was at 3880 by like was it 2550
pixel resolution and you're like I'm
like it sounds cool I thought it would
you know when you first saw your first
High defition TV and it just for me it
just blew me away I'm like you were like
that's what I'm missing did did you see
it with like when I went to CES last
year it was 4K TVs with 4K video maybe
it wasn't 4K video maybe that's it cuz
it look it looks realer than real it
looks like creepy real at least maybe
that's what you know some of the HDs
look creepy real I'm like are they
that's not what that's supposed to look
at like um I think I was watching Avatar
or something on one of the creepy real
ones and I'm like this is a different
experience and I'm not sure I like it as
much maybe I need to wear you know foggy
glasses or something but uh I don't know
in my big spectrum of things I've got uh
a few things ahead of that okay um
that's awesome what do you think about
Raspberry Pi beagle bone and
arduinos how significant because I mean
like all the hobbyists are all like a
flutter like you as the robotics guy
what do you think about those uh I like
it so like I say but the the league and
the robots we used League are not about
me they're about accessibility and entry
level things but what happens like
especially um you've met my son and so
for kids that Master that sort of thing
um it's gets boring because it's like
snapping together Legos after a while in
their minds they still haven't mastered
the strategy the sport and everything
else but they're like mastered the
devices and uh so um am I allowed to
mention products yeah okay so um I A
friend of mine was like you got to check
out this Arduino uh inventor kit on
spark fun okay and I'm like okay
whatever dude so I take a look at it and
I happen to buy one I'm like what can I
lose if he doesn't play with it I'll
play with it and what's been amazing is
I'll just come home and he'll have done
a complex project so I'm like let me see
this and it was the doc the
documentation was really good and the uh
the information and the projects were
compelling so I was really and for me
that's like a whole new level of
Awesomeness the
Arduino has like opened up what what
stinks about the brains within the
competition robots is they're kind of
sealed and they require expensive
compilers and they're Limited in their
design to make things simple makes
things very
inflexible um
as I'm not going to say any Apple
related things at this point but there's
a benefit and a curse to be en closed
okay um I also think that having things
like the Raspberry Pi um you know bring
price points and power down to a level
that is just so extreme we're going to
see some wonderful Christmas order I I
hope it's not all Christmas oraments and
holiday light displays being made and
some really cool Nifty things occur
because of that I think that you know
just the drones and the Drone like
things that are coming out of hobbyist
basements because of having such cheap
price points on these things it's it's
like a wonder that and 3D printing
create this you know I feel like it's
back in the 80s the home brew Computer
Club and PE you know Bill Gates and
Steve Jobs are arguing about you know
whether it should be beagle bone or
raspberry pie or something I'm like it
doesn't really matter it's it's the
Breakthrough of the price point now with
that cuz everybody talks about Arduino
and Raspberry Pi in your world is there
something else that's cool but people
just aren't talking about anything along
those lines I don't there may not be I
was curious um no I mean the
coolness within the com in my day world
or my any of your world your world world
uh there's there's stuff in the
Microsoft world world that is um not
good not good where where if like it's
like Microsoft designed to make an
Arduino and um and you can imagine what
that looks like when it comes out but
then on the other hand you have to give
Microsoft it's D it does figure things
out the connect you know what's so funny
is people like beat Microsoft I can't
make Hardware can't do this can't I'm
like how about the Xbox and how about
the connect the connect is an amazing
piece of engineering yeah and it's not
like the whole thing was made from
scratch of Redman but they did identify
that this was the bee's knees and it
took like uh robotic Vision you know you
can imagine the you know Stanford's car
that drives around DARPA events and
things like that the vision system was
like
$150,000 now it's 150 yeah and it's
better okay I mean that is a so that's a
cool thing that's going on um a lot of
people mixing the different Technologies
hooking um up a drone make taking an RC
drone and controlling it with a uh
connect device through an Arduino yeah
and then 3D printing a chassis for it
you know for the
trifecta
um uh let's see here depends on what you
want I'll tell you one of the coolest
products I recommend to people if they
don't know about it is
instamorph insta I've never heard of
instamorph see there you go I some no
you'll look it up now it's a pelletized
low temperature melting nylon okay so
instead of 3D printing something yeah
you take a measuring cup full of water
and you throw a bunch of these little
pellets in it and it forms this silly
putty that's clear nylon thing yeah and
then when it cools it's as hard as nylon
huh and you could you you know you snap
some uh car part off like a car handle
and you're like oh my God Ford's going
to charge me 60 bucks for this I could
either 3D print one or you go to the
bottle instamorph make up one of them
you've never instam more I've never
heard of in that is the jello brand name
of a class of stuff but uh and the great
part of it um this should be on
everybody's Christmas list for their
15-year-old or 12-y old is if you screw
it up you throw it back in melt it down
and you can do it over and over again is
it very expensive for this stuff it's
not cheap like a container I don't know
B coffee can container size thing it's
like 12 bucks oh that's but it's not
like I I'm thinking 20 bucks I want a 55
gallon drum I could change the world uh
but yeah it's awesome it is like awesome
stuff and there's another brand name of
I can't remember but imagine uh you know
hot glue gun
sticks that lowered at a lower
temperature
and you could remelt over and over again
that's kind of the technology and what's
what's funny about it is the plastic
itself is in a a very specialized mode
it's not
um they knew what they were doing they
created a a pretty interesting product
yeah
um what's your take on an autonomous
vehicles in the world and where it's
going now with the vet I heard I heard
them talking about with these high
school leagues that they actually have
an autonomous component is that right
there when they do the event and the
rounds it's kind of like bull riding and
the rounds are very short it's three
minutes where your heart's pumping the
whole time but the first so many seconds
of it like 15 seconds or 30 seconds
depending on the event that year will be
autonomous so even and then they also
have autonomous competitions wow and
certain leges um focus more on the
autonomous like uh the lowest level um
first League which is LEGO Mindstorms is
actually much more about autonomous
really than the um but they they make a
driver control or remote control because
the kids think that's really fun and
programming not so much in some cases
but then in order to like win the big
events you better be able to do it so
it's a way of drifting kids into
programming and getting him up but uh
that's one of the most interesting parts
to me is and I
I I and
from the techn autonomous Technologies
are really exciting yeah and I cannot
wait for autonomous cars I'm like
tomorrow I'll buy one you know if they
start shipping them I'm like what it
will change the world and it will be so
much safer to be on the road once
autonomous vehicles kick
in
um let's see instead python oh you guys
are just having your own little
conversations today aha let's see here
Java
documentation um W3 schools Java New
Boston okay guys you guys are just all
talking amongst yourselves today New
Boston net beans
Java and that's cool cuz one of my
roboticist needs me to pick him up from
school oh okay
um is there any certain National or
international law on Vigor for robotics
Productions Do you know what that means
I don't know what that means Vigor Vigor
I don't know we don't know what you mean
um what's oh
yeah let's see what's the best first
language to learn do you figure if you
want to do programming
nowadays well so I'm involved did
another thing that's like teaching kids
to code yeah and I think the easiest way
to learn a language whether you're adult
or a kid is to sort of use what was the
old logo style Apple logo you ever seen
this Turtle Graphics no I think I've
heard of turtle graphic I don't okay so
the concept is to you have a cursor on
screen in the old days it was shaped
like a turtle and you would tell it go
three because it was pointed up you'd go
three
then you say turn oh okay and then do
something and then you do it four times
and make a square and and then be like
oh well I me Teach it and there was this
whole set of teaching kids how to
program yeah and I think it was actually
done best yeah in that time period and
then people tried all these crazy ways
and I've looked at a million ways to
teach kids and and adults how to
actually program as a opposed to like
doing a macro or something like that I
think that's the most effective way and
if somebody wants to do that now I would
recommend go Google small basic pull
down small basic from Microsoft site
it's a free basic has a whole set of
tutorials around this Turtle Graphics
thing and walk through that um step by
step and that'll give you a very
Elementary and basic is basic whoever
basic you're you're using yeah and most
people don't program much in basic
anymore but that's a great place to
start and to learn the basics very
quickly
of iteration and if statements and
looping and things like that uh if you
want to learn a real language because
you want to jump right in
um I don't know it depends on Flavor my
my first choice would be the most
efficient cost effective Revenue
generating one that's not terribly hard
to learn is in my mind is carp C really
right okay yeah but that you know
it would be have to be like an adult or
a very small smart high school kid that
is looking to get Revenue generating
longterm as quickly as possible it's so
easy to say a scripting language or
something like that um but that heads
you down this path where um it's it's
not it's limiting in and of itself it's
very accessible and easy to do but it's
a path that like keeps you over in that
easy accessible stuff um you're not
going to be able to do an iPad app one
day in that world because you really
need to know see and you're not getting
sort of a lot of the U you know compiled
language techniques and thoughts like
that in a scripting language if you want
bang at a website and stay in website
Dev world then I would kind of be like
go do scripting go do PHP and stuff like
that so small small basic or C if you
want to learn that would be my the final
question cuz you you're going to leave
um what the
hell H I will see if you can answer this
one and we'll call it a day do you
believe endomorphism will lead to
cognitive systems given the proper data
it seems like after all these years
Kismet and Cog are achieving a very
limited
intelligence
um I think that's because people are
trying to um anthromorph phasize
computers instead of going computers
you're really good at this and we're
really good at that we're going to try
to make computers learn the way we learn
and they don't it's like you know but um
so I wish people would stop trying to do
that and start trying to handle problems
um the computers do well I think one of
the most interesting ones like that are
recent like quadricopter
drones the the ability to syn all those
things and do things computers do that
great humans like a lot of the drones
that the dod flies you could not f a
human could not pilot them because
they're so unstable but because they're
unstable but the computers can
accomplish it they can fly upside down
and run around like an insect yeah that
a human you know if you were to put your
brain in an insect's body
it would wig you out because you don't
have you know 10,000 eyes or whatever um
so I'm like I I'm a big fan of use the
computers do the things they do well and
let the humans do the things they do
well and let's not try to um to mix it
up too much because it's it's sort of
like a Fool's errand it's like trying to
use a hammer as a screwdriver see so
you're not like I mean like the Japanese
are turning all their robots into little
squishy things you're not all you're not
into that no no I'm I'm much more into
getting robots to do tasks that people
don't want to do like scraping paint off
a building or or shoveling snow I'm like
if you would spend a little bit of time
creating snow shoveling robots or snow
blowing robots uh you could change the
world or or imagine this create
something that's an a autonomous vehicle
that doesn't have wheels it has
legs if you do that you no longer need
roads you no longer need to do all this
excavation you don't have to do all
these things if you have an Avatar Style
quadr pedal or bipedal locomotion
because and what that would do to the
economy and the amount of money spent on
roads Bridges and things it would be
mindboggling um so maybe that would
wreck the economy if we solve this
problem
know so I wish people would spend more
time trying to do the easy wins the easy
wins yeah that's a good that's a good
lesson the easy go after the easy wins
yeah build a bot like Amazon everybody's
all excited about Amazon delivering
packages and I'm like how about a pizza
I really do not need my book in five
minutes but my pizza come on what are
you thinking Domino's Papa John
somebody Amazon they're the ones like I
need a book in 5 minutes cuz I got a
Kindle if I need it in five minutes and
I'm sitting there going oh my God these
people who takes of this stuff anyway
all right so there we go so guys that
was the interview with Ed Mullen the was
it the executive director of the
Baltimore robotics Center very
prestigious sounding thing basically
robotics Clubhouse um yeah if you want
to know any more like I I I showed you
Baltimore robotics
center.com uh you can look there and see
all of the information um this was the
interview for today we had some some I
didn't get to all the questions cuz I
don't know there's a whole bunch of
conversation in there so it's kind of
hard to scroll through and Ed has been
with us for about an hour and a half now
so we've got to let him go so uh so with
that um thank you very much for having
it yeah yeah it was fun so let me let me
just shut this thing off and then we'll
go so I will see you guys at uh it's
Wednesday today right yeah so I'll see
you guys at 4:00 Eastern Standard time
tomorrow Thursday and we will talk about
something else cool and fancy so I will
see you guys
later so do these hang around forever or
do
you