Exploratorium: XBee Workshop

On the evening of December 1st, I got to teach an XBee Wireless Networking workshop for the staff at my favorite interactive science museum, the Exploratorium in San Francisco. We went over the basics of wireless networking, made a chat session, then built out interactive doorbell projects. Finally, the staff got a homework assignment for creating more advanced sensor networks. My former student and fellow ITP alumni Chris Cerrito put together the event, with generous support from Bill Meyer, Exploratorium’s Director of New Media. (Equipment and teaching time for the workshop was donated by Digi.)

Staff participation came from all walks of Exploratorium life. We had ambassadors from their online group, Institute for InquiryExhibit Services, Outdoor Galleries, Visitor Research as well as folks from the new Science of Sharing grant and others. Next step, maybe early next year, is to teach a follow-up class on connecting stuff to the Internet, including using iDigi with other gateway and cloud services. I’m hoping this will help the museum create new outdoor science data networks on the Embarcadero as well as explore online real-time data with published APIs for sensors and exhibits.

It’s been terrific working with everyone at Exploratorium so I’m looking forward to continuing the collaboration. Here’s a few more photos from Thursday, including the workshop room, the hall with visitors and the Cubatron set up for their amazing After Dark event: