The Illowa Council Boy Scouts began work on the new Robotics Merit Badge at Hamilton Tech on Saturday.  About 20 Scouts and 10 faculty, leaders and parents worked most of the day on Saturday in the first day of a 3 day Merit Badge class.  This Merit Badge is the latest added to the Boy Scouts.  Hamilton Tech is proud to have been selected as the first Robotics Training Center in the Illowa District. MC

Go here http://www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=574811 for a great article on the Festival of Trees Electronics Tree.  Thank You to Marlene Gantt, who writes for the Moline Dispatch, for the great story about the “Dancing Tree”.  The article appeared in the December 24th edition.  We are so glad you are enjoying the tree.  Thanks to all the Electronics students and faculty for creating this fun tree.  Scroll down for an entire blog article and pictures of both of the trees Hamilton Tech entered in the Festival of Trees this year.  MC

Just down in the Advanced Electronics building and saw this Christmas Tree in the main entry.  The sign beside it said “Resurrection Tree”.  I did some checking and found out Tim’s class was going to start learning about the “Propeller Chip” which is a computer on a chip.  He thought it might be a great project for his class to bring the old tree back to life using the “Propeller Chip”.  They dug into the project and the “Resurrection Tree” is the result.  The sign says special thanks to Mark Seivers and Dustin Shaw.  The tree looks great!  Thanks to everyone who helped bring the old tree back to life. MC

Like the Smartboard in the electronics classroom? Have an extra remote for your Wii gaming system laying around? Why not make your own multi touch smart board that can be projected anywhere: on a wall, on a table. Maybe you could even make one for your favorite teacher. The setup also works to turn a LCD screen into a touch screen.  Watch this video and see how:

What you need to get started:

• Projector
• Wii Remote Controller ($25)
• LED Pen ($10+ pre-assembled / build custom)
• Bluetooth Adapter (~$10, various vendors)
• Presentation Software – Smoothboard ($29 for registered copy, demo free)
• Other considerations: mount for Wii Remote

For more information, check out the source

Hamilton Tech’s evening Electronics Engineering Technologies students hosted Andy Andresen from Cumulus Broadcasting last Monday night. Andy is the Regional Coordinator for Cumulus in Iowa as well as being one of 2 full time engineers in the state and sitting on the development committee for new products.

Cumulus Broadcasting is the 2nd largest broadcast company in America (Clear Channel is number one). They currently operate 24 stations in Iowa, 5 of which are in the Quad Cities. Andy is in charge of those five stations as well as five more in Dubuque. The five local stations include: Rock 104.9, Star 93.5, 97X,  B100, and True Oldies 1170.

Andy’s presentation included a breakdown of how music and DJ banter makes its way from the mic to your radio. In order for you to hear your favorite song on the radio, it must go through processors, compressors, the studio to transmitter link and finally be transmitted through the transmitter. It is this signal that your radio picks up and you hear. He was able to illustrate his points with pictures of the actual radio stations and transmitter stations he works with, offering the students a virtual tour of Dwyer and Michaels’ studio.

After a thorough explanation of how radio works, Andresen then went on to explain the changes in technology that have emerged and how they are affecting his job and the user’s radio listening experience. The first major change was in how information is  transmitted through the station. Where bulky cables with only 24 channels once ran through the building, the same result can be achieved with ethernet cable and a node device connected to a computer.  Antenna lights that once only lasted a year, requiring a treacherous climb up the tower to replace have been usurped by high intensity LEDs that can last up to 8 years. The final technological advance was one that Andy had a personal hand in developing.  Previously, when radio stations did remote broadcasting, there was a lot of equipment that had to be brought and setup– microphones, mixers, cd players, antennas, etc. Cumulus has developed an ipad application that can tap into the station’s computer system and broadcast remotely with nothing more than an ipod, microphone and an internet connection. The end audio result is clearer than the previous system and is super portable and user friendly. Currently the Quad Cities is the only market using the remote broadcast ipad app, but they are looking to expand to other markets.

Thank you Andy and Cumulus Broadcasting for coming in and sharing with our students.

Hamilton Tech is once again participating in the Quad City Arts’ Festival of Trees. Two trees were designed by students in the Medical Assisting and Electronics Engineering Technologies programs.

The tree designed by the EET program is called “Dancing Lights” and is located at Designer Tree spot #123. The design team was: Steve Hamer, Dave Spittler, Davie Hinkle, and Tim Edens.

The tree designed by the MA program is called “Give Peace a Chance” and is located at Designer Tree spot #126. The design team was Heather Jenkins, Linsey Lyons, Cindy Hickman, Setiva Kasal, Chris Boehne, Carmen Moreno, Kenshanna Henderson, Nolan Ragston, Melissa Franzen, Stephanie Sims, Melody Reed, Erica Johnson, Brie Robacker, Rebecca Chesling,  and Kyla Hamilton.

The Festival of Trees will be held November 18th-27th at the River Center, 136 E Third St; Davenport, IA

For more information on the Festival of Trees click here.

For more information on the programs at Hamilton Technical College click here

Medical Assisting Students and their tree

Electronics Engineering Technology Students' Tree

Medical Assistant Students' Tree

Happy Birthday George Boole!

On this day, November 2nd,  in 1815, George Boole, inventor of Boolean Logic was born. Boolean Logic is said to be the basis of modern computer logic.

Fun Facts about George Boole:

• There is a crater on the moon (Boole) named after him
• Taught himself Greek, French, and German
• Started teaching at age 15
• Was self taught in both classics and mathematics