Celebrate US National Robotics Week April 10-17!

The first annual US National Robotics week will be observed  the second week in April 2010. It will  celebrated across the United State  with  competitions, open houses, demos, and  networking events for humans who design, build market and use robots.  US Universities, institutes, and robotics companies have organized  these events and invite school children and adults to come, have fun  and incidently learn how robots are playing an evermore important role in  the US society.

The website, http://www.nationalroboticsweek.org includes a calendar showing events which have already been scheduled. 

A resolution was  introduced earlier this month in the US Congress to officially designate the second week in April as "National Robotics Week". Among the 'whereas's' in the resolution is " educate the public on robotics technology’s broad potential, growing importance, and future impact  on American society, underscore the need for increased investment in robotics technology  research and development, and inspire the Nation’s youth to pursue careers in robotics and  other STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.
 
The resolution is one small but tangible outcome of the efforts of a large group of industry and research leaders, including a number of RAS members, to raise awareness of the importance of robotics to the future of US industrial and economic development. There is now a Congressional Caucus on Robotics, and work on a national roadmap for robotics technology is underway. 

The following events, with more listed daily,  are on the National Robotics Week Calendar. Sponsors of other robotics events taking place between April 10 and April 17 in the United States may enter them on the calendar via the website

• April 11. Hartford CT Trinity College Home Fire Fighting Robot Contest, an international robotics competitions featuring assistive and fire fighting robots. 
• April 13-14. Blacksburg VA. Virginia Tech .RoMeLa Open HOuse  http://www.romela.org
• April 13. Cambridge MA.. Workshop, demos and newtworking events  on opportunities for entrepreneurial opportunities for robotics companies in Massachusetts and hiring opportunities at growing robotics companies in Massachusetts. http://www.masstlc.org.
• April 14 Stanford CA.  Silicon Valley This Robot Block Party  organized by Adept Technology, the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology and The Tech Museum in Silicon Valley.
  http://www.law.stanford.edu/calendar/details/4049/
• April 15 Washington DC AUVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems) Sponsored Unmanned Systems Day on Capitol Hill
• April 15 Winston-Salem NC. Winston Salem State University Open House (Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact) and The Altria Group.
• April 15 Atlanta GA FIRST Robotics Competition Championship Competition,  Georgia Dome http://www.usfirst.org  and Georgia Tech.
• April 15 Philadelphia PA U Penn GRASP Lab Open House
• April 16 Madison WI U  Wisconsin Computer Science Dept. Human Computer Interaction (HRI) Lab Open House
• April 16 Pleasanton CA Robots in Action at Adept Technology
• April 17 Baltimore MD JHU Robo Challenge five individual robotics challenges, speakers on robotics, tours of the Johns Hopkins University  campus and the robotics buildings, and lots of prizes! http://cissrs.lcsr.jhu.edu/JHRC2010
• April 17 Fairfax VA. Greater DC Botball Regional Tournament.http://www.botball.org/events/2010-greater-dc-tournament  
• April 17 Cambridge MA. Robot Block Party with guest from iRobot, current research presentations, and lots of robot activities.