Last week Adrian Bowyer came to FOSDEM in Brussels and to University College Ghent. This event didn't pass unnoticed by the Dutch and Belgian press: 

• Het nieuwsblad
• De Gentenaar
• NRC Handelsblad
• NOS Journaal
• URGent radio (live interview, but it hasn't been recorded...)

Thanks to Erik the entire RepRap talk at FOSDEM is now watchable on youtube:  

Some pictures of our attention drawing RepRap stand:

More pictures:

 With my exams finished, some predictions for the year 2010:

2010 will bring us... 3D: Video Camera's and Photo Cameras will do 3D

For a couple of years now we see 3D movies like Beowulf and Avatar but I expect this year to be a year of growing number of Youtube and Vimeo movies being made with consumer 3D cams. Youtube already supports 3D videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GcLW0g_c1s

2010 will bring us... Mendels

As you may now by now I'm a big RepRap addept, and I believe everyone will be in the next couple of years. The new, improved version of the RepRap, Mendel, is out for a short while now, and already there are many Mendels out in the wild... like here, and prusajr over here and here.
I'm getting about 2 mails a week with people asking me to print them Mendel pieces. The demand is way higher than the offer right now, this is a good from a growth perspective.

2010 will bring us... the iTablet and better gAlternatives

I think the iSlate, iPad, iTablet or whatever, will be a huge hit. But I'm not an Apple fanboy. At all. I expect the iWhatever to be a cash sucking machine. It will be connected to the iTunes store, where you can buy books, movies, songs and lots of other stuff... It will be a nice, slick machine, but very expensive.

On the other hand, I am a bit of a Google fanboy (As long as they are on the path of Open Source projects, and use the everything-is-Free-but-has-adds strategy). Hence I much more interested in the Chrome OS. And the effect it will have on the tablet world. I can imagine lots of tablets everywhere, in your living room, kitchen, in the lobby of a hotel, etc.
You just pick one up, log in with your google account and *bam* there you have your custom os, your email, your bookmarks, your documents, your videos (on a free service like revision3.com, or paid services like netflix.com), your passwords, etc. 

Perhaps it wont be free, or as 'designy' as the iWhatever, but it will be Open!

2010 will bring us... A.I.

As computing power keeps on getting cheaper and cheaper simple A.I. will also improve. These technological improvements will not be as spectacular and visible as the items above. However they will be important. I'm thinking about industrial techniques to improve manufacturing, controlling traffic, detecting potential dangerous situations in traffic. Automated maneuvering with you car, automated watering your plants, ... etc.

2010 will bring us... Robots!

As you know I'm a real Robots addict. And I'm also graduating this year as an Industrial Engineer Electromechanics, Automation. A "Robotics guy" for short.

So I'll promise you this. I'll do my very best to push Robots in the industrial world, but also in peoples everyday lives.

Now, have a nice 2010!

Extruder Fail!

... And a quick fix!

Finally, some time to post pics from the past Hackerspace/RepRap meeting @ Ghent.

It was a very fun and interesting meeting! Met a lot of Hackers, artists and tech people. And as from January we will start having regular meetings to organize a Hackerspace@Ghent. 

And there is a Wiki is online! http://ghent.hackerspace.be/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page go check it out!

More pictures at: http://makerbot.kd85.com/images/20091124/

And: http://www.flickr.com/photos/batistleman/sets/72157622780042757/detail/

Tuesday November 24  there is a RepRap workshop in Ghent (Belgium).

At the workshop I will give a small introduction to the RepRap project itself, show you the steps from design to 3D print. And we will also print some models! After this short presentation we'll have a talk, and you can ask anyone any question you like. Free drinks! (Free, not as in free software)

We also offer the possibility to buy a Makerbot at the workshop (We have a reseller in Ghent! Yesss!)
You can contact us if you're interested)

After the RepRap workshop we will shortly discuss the founding of a Hackerspace @ Ghent.

You can register here: http://reprap.be/RepRap-Workshop

Some practical stuff:

Where?

Timelab, next to De Vooruit.
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 21, Gent
More info: http://tinyurl.com/TimeLab

When?
19:00 November 24'th

For Whom?
For everyone! Students, lectors, engineers, artists, you're all welcome!

By Whom?
This is an initiative from the yet to found Hackerspace-Gent, from TimeLab and from WVS (Workgroup Free Software) a project supported by "het actieplan wetenschapscommunicatie, een initiatief van de Vlaamse Overheid."
De workshop will be 'lectured' by Batist Leman (Me!), member of the WVS and student representative @ INWE, student Electromechanics Automation (I like to call it "Robotics") at the University College of Ghent.

PS. Attached the poster in Gimp format. Use as you like. (But I would like to see your addaptations!)

Big news! My mother, "juf magda", has her own blog now! And it's about technology!

Kids are very creative and should be stimulated in exploring the outerlimits of their thoughts. During these 'workshops' they explore different materials and make creative constructions.

You should check out her blog (It's in dutch): http://hdhmagdav.wordpress.com/

Some cute pictures: (more pictures on the blog)

As from one October I'm working partime as a research collaborator at the University College of Ghent. I'm working on a project called EHBO₂, which stands for "Eigen Hart en Bloedvaten Onderzoek & Ontwikkeling", translated: Own Heart and Blood vessels Research and Development. The target audience of this project are young people, one of the aims is to draw their attention to the importance of sports, healthy food, being a non smoker and stuff like that.

Another aim of the project is making aware the different processes of research and development. The cycle Designing, Virtual Testing, Redesigning, Prototyping, Testing and Redesigning is demonstrated. The step Prototyping is where the RepRap comes in.

At the University College of Ghent we do have industrial quality printing at the CTO - Rapid Prototyping & Tooling. But as these techniques are rather expensive they are not suited for use in our workshops. (Also these big machines are not very mobile...) In these workshops we show them the abilities of prototyping with 3D printers like the RepRap. Practically we have one RapMan (currently mine), and ordered a second. Since Friday(16 October 09) we also have a Makerbot but this bot has yet to be assembled. These bots are put into action at the workshops.

Last Thursday I had my first EHBO₂ workshop. Some pictures & info:

First we do a dissection on the heart of a pig. Students can do their own dissection in groups.

Second we do a simulation of the blood circulation in our body using water and pumps.

And finaly we printed a keychain for each participant. 32! EHBO₂ keychains!
(Luckily skeinforge has a function called 'multiply' :-)

I'm exited about how this is project going to evolve! Stay tuned!