for PICAXE education, Roland CAM, New MDX-540 ,Techsoft CAD, Intellecta control, Atmel, Arm and Microchip
Intellecta Technologies Pty Ltd
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News 1
- New Roland machining centre
- New aviation Boeing 747 on the drawing board
- INTAD conference 2005
- Partner schools in Queensland
- Work Experience and launch of partnership with Westminster School, Adelaide
- Workshop with DeLaSalle College
- PICAXE education distributor
- Launch of Prodesktop and support centre at Erindale College, Canberra
- Intellecta at National Manufacturing Week
- Technology Education Association of Victoria conference at Northcote High School
- Picaxe workshop
- Open Day at Trinity College, Colac Victoria
- PCB Design and Make get together at DeLaSalle College
Go to second news page that covers activities and developments from July to August 2005
Third page that covers activities from August 2005 to December 2005
News 4 for news items in 2006
News 2007 for 2007 news
Roland MDX-40R - CAM with attitude
We were very pleased to attend the INTAD conference in Brisbane and launch the new Roland machining centre. The generous volume together with the rotary axis, means that students can easily machine their designs.
Easy to use
Teachers from the state were impressed with the ease of set up and the attractive price. As always, the Roland software is included and the system will run out of the box. The only problem is that the box is big and heavy which meant our offer to teachers “if you can lift it, you can have it” went unchallenged.
New design project
Intellecta and Roland will reveal a new Australian initiative to capture the design skills of students that will integrate the CAD/CAM into science, technology and engineering projects. Current Roland schools will be the focus of a range of training sessions and it is planned that the MDX-40Rwill be the main delivery vehicle for great activities and projects.
The technology education group at Griffith University have been long term Intellecta partners and the group will provide education support and curriculum linkages.
Control Technology and aviation
Intellecta is developing a model of a Boeing 747 model that will be entirely controlled with a series of control interfaces running Intellecta. Extra materials will be developed for embedded controllers.
The cross section of the plane has a passenger floor as well as cargo hold. The curriculum materials will use the various sensor and control interfaces to set up the control of the model. All the CAD drawings are in Prodesktop format and machined on the Roland CAM centres.
As always, the learning plans integrate science and technology so there are examples on accelerometers as angle sensors and measuring current in motors driving landing wheels
Thanks to Phil Cooper from Aviation Australia in providing excellent drawings.
Stewart Dunn from Kre8 in the UK supplied the obligatory overseas expert and he spoke at length on the use of the innovative Kre8 materials. Special thanks must be extended to his wife who ran videos, set up tutorials, packed sample bags and was really a pleasure to talk about the education process. It was clear that a team effort is critical to sucess.
Paul Bray from REA spoke on the innovative engineering projects and the need for excited students.
As always, the catering was excellent and the attendees were spoiled with lashings of greek salads, cheeses, fruit and a mountain of hot food.
Intellecta supplied the beer and refreshments for one of the sessions and it was good to see the local Queensland boys get into the amber fluid regardless of the fact that it was supplied by a South Australian. The beer must have eased the pain of defeat of their local Brisbane lions at the hand of the SA Port Power.
INTAD 2005 in Brisbane, April 2005
The technology trade show season opens with the INTAD show in Brisbane. Teachers from the huge state come to the Greek club to hear excellent talks, attend tutorials and workshops and view the presentations from the trade exhibitors.
Intellecta and Roland were there in force with MDX-15, MDX-20, TS40R, scanner and all the regular Intellecta mechatronics models.
One mill was dedicated to turning out excellent printed circuit boards with the Techsoft PCB Design and Make software. Many teachers were interested in the ability to handle class projects with the machine.
Intellecta ran four workshops on the PICAXE range of microcontrollers that have been designed for education. Much of the time was spent on learning management - folios, documentation and programming skills.
Intellecta visited Griffith Uni to see the great Rolandtraining centre and set up some machines at Clontarf High School , Redeemer College and “Churchie”. Niel Butters and Mark Prowle took delivery of a new MDX-20 with PCB design and Make
As always, the teachers were most appreciative of the time spent with them and it was good to see the facilities and discuss the current and future training directions.
Special thanks for Dan O’Kane from Clontarf who is doing a great job getting the centre up and running.
It is planned to run some special workshops in these schools in the future..
There can not be enough thanks to Andrew McIntyre and family from Caboolture. They extended to Tony Pugatschew, MD of Intellecta, a warm welcome and provided lodgings, meals and great company. The hospitality was fantastic but nothing beats the the realisation that friendship and “matesmanship” are part of our great Australian culture. . It was good to see the classes in Andrews school at Narangbar and assist in some discussions on technology get- togethers.
Also, thanks to the McIntyres for providing a bag of Macadamia nuts gleaned from a neighbour. There is something stronger than diamonds!!!!. I think a hydraulic nut cracker may be on the drawing board.
Westminster School partnership and work experience
Intellecta values the contribution of young minds to its products and vision and it was good to catch up with the Westminster staff - Nathan Burgess and John Warren on projects based on control, machining and the Pedal Prix.
The Pedal Prix is a huge project where students design and race their pedal vehicles. Intellecta will be a major sponsor of the event and work on a range of data acquisition and performance recording technology.
Intellecta is hosting work experience by Callum Martin who is focusing on Radio connectivity with Picaxe devices and other exciting projects.
Callum will master some common PCB design tools and other skills
Critical thinking skills day at DeLaSalle College, Victoria
Ihis meeting was held with Keith Hoy - strategic partner on control technology and Prodesktop at DeLaSalle College in Melbourne. Keith has a fantastic atmospheric technology workshop with two Roland machining centres and many microcontroller projects.
John Sturm introduced range of exciting critical thinking attributes that will be assimilated into technology projects.
This aim is in line with Intellecta 5IT philosophy that unifies thing, designing, making controlling and measuring skills
This program will be developed with Keith and John over the next few months.projects.
We are pleased to announce that Intellecta Technologies and Revolution Education from the UK have signed a distribution agreement for the great PICAXE training materials.
The chips, boards and educational resources provide an excellent start to microcontroller applications.
Teacher training and special projects will be launched over the next few months including focused weekends that set up lesson plans and units of work for students.
Email support@intellecta.net if you want to be emailed the newsletter as well as specific education materials.
Launch of Prodesktop CAD in Canberra, April 2005
The first teacher training session was held at Erindale College, Canberra, in the nations capital.
15 teachers from local high schools and colleges attended the two day session under the expertise of Ivan Chester from Griffith University and Allan Thomson from Erindale.
Intellecta displayed the MDX-20 undertaking basic milling processes and 3D scanning. The MDX-20 was purchased recently by Erindale and will form the basis of the CAM strategy.
The venue provided an excellent insight into CAD thinking and design architecture that is removed from just the basic software processes.
Allan’s school will be the hub of the Prodesktop support group in Canberra and this vision will be supported by Intellecta
National Manufacturing Week is a highlight of the Victorian industrial calendar. The state is the manufacturing power house of the nation and the show had all the impressive laser cutters, plasma cutters, water jet cutters etc etc. It is very impressive to see a 30mm sheet of steel being machined like butter.
All the big names were there - DMG, Hass, Triumf and Roland. Yes, the small Roland machines are seen to be important design aids for many industries and the stand was very well received.
Intellecta supported the staff with educatonal focussed inquiries from the hundreds of visitors.
Intellecta displayed all the Roland CAM systems, Design Tools software and the education PICAXE materials at this Victorian teachers conference.
The conference logo was “IGNITE” which was an excellent logo for the cold mornings in the school hall. There was much interest in the Roland MDX-20 making PCB’s with PCB Design and make. The new VCAL course has considerable emphasis on electronics and the Intellecta supported combination fits the requirements.
Intellecta showed the new range of new engraving cutters that make light work of machining fibreglass based PCB’s with excellent hair width cuts.
It was good to attend the Prodesktop course run by one of our strategic partners - Keith Hoy. His 2 hour workshop was well attended and all teachers managed to get through the introductory examples. Keith uses the software extensively with the students at DeLaSalle college and could address many of the teaching related questions.
It was a pleasure catching up with Shane Murphy who ran a PICAXE education session at TEAV. Shane was one of our original PICAXE training group whilst he was at Western Heights High School in Geelong. He has now moved to Kardinia College in Geelong and has developed a number of learning strategies on the PICAXE system.
He is now the proud owner of a Roland MDX-20 with PCB Design and Make and will be part of our Geelong training hub in the future.
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Pat McMahon from Diamond Valley showing his PICAXE 08 buggy. Pat is a long time Intellecta user who has expanded into microcontroller applications |
Shane Murphy examining a PICAXE board that is controlling a set of flashing lights |
Two teachers having a great time with the innovative Flow chart programming feature of the Programming editor. |
Can the flowchart symbols accurately re-create the BASIC program structure? Let’s find out |
Trinity College Open Day at Colac Victoria
Intellecta is an education company and therefore it is part of our mission to meet with teachers and students to discuss education directions and assist where possible.
Colac Victoria was the scene for an open day at Trininty College. John Sturm is one of our most devoted and inspiring science teachers and it was fun to assist him on this day.
We ran the MDX-20 mill and PCB to show parents and students the safe way to make PCB’s.
John ran demonstrations on Photonics and the Robosoccer program. Congratulations to his son Ben in winning the Australian challenge and gaining a spot in the OZ team in Osaka Japan.
As always, deep discussions were held on teaching methods in science - watch out for some new products.!!!
The only way to keep John quiet is to tie his hands together!!!
Intellecta ran a quick updater session with Keith Hoy at DeLaSalle College in Victoria. The highlight was the trial of the new engraving cutter that makes light work of PCB laminates.
Tony Pugatschew ran a quick design tutorial for some students who were designing some PCB’s and needed some assistance.
The PCB Design rules were clear with long-time favourites such as
“ I don’t care what track angles you use as long as you use 0, 45 and 90 degrees”
Or the long time favourite - “ where is your documentation and design history file?????”
Keith Hoy turned his dapper hand to running some wood-working classes and amazed everyone in missing his fingers with the hammer.
To be serious, we really appreciate the opportunity of working with teachers and students in their learning environments.
It gives us insight into potential product shortcomings and opportunities for new supporting materials
It really enables us to design education materials that encourage “learning without limits”.
Technology and Enterprise Conference , Perth
This short conference was held at the Edith Cowan University campus at Mt Lawley. Perth
It attracted a large number of teachers with a broad range of interest in the technology and enterprise curriculum.
The trade display was well received with a poster of the MDX-40 substituting for the real thing.
The PICAXE chips and education materials raised interest together with the small Roland mill that was busy churning out printed circuit boards and engravings.
We certainly look forward to building on our customer base in Western Australia and starting some new initiatives.
The Packaging and Printing trade show is a huge affair and completely fills the exhibition centre ( affectionately termed “jeffs shed” being the dream child of a previous premier of Victoria- Jeff Kennett.).
The Roland display featured a design and manufacturing production line where a product was scanned, copy milled on the MDX-650 and vacuum formed. A complete vac fomed package solution was possible in one hour.
Intellecta managed to get a look at some good examples of control technology and these examples will be in our new curriculum developments
Partner meeting at DeLaSalle College, Victoria
One of the strengths of a great company is the attention to the desires and wishes of customers. This was demonstrated when it was mentioned to Toshihide (Toshy) Yahiro, Assistant Manager from Roland Japan, that it would be good to see one of our development sites. The response was enthusiastic and we bundled the crew into the van and headed off to Hawthorn.
A Prodesktop course was running so it was possible to look at the school setting and meet with some teachers.
Syd Gordon from Hampton Park Secondary School ( now a proud owner and user of the Roland MDX-20) was the trainer for the day and he took some time to run through Prodesktop with Toshy.
Mattie Landrigan from Roland Sydney came along to view the great technology set up at DeLaSalle.
Launch of Applied Design Education Centre at Hawthorn Secondary College
April 2005 was a hectic month and the pinnacle was the launch of the first MDX40R in Australia at the Hawthorn Secondary College in Melbourne Victoria. The centre is the most recently built arts and design centre in Victoria.
Its purpose is to stimulate integration of applied learning across the whole curriculum and foster a “hands on” approach to learning, using the latest technological processes ( roll on 5IT!!).
It is a fantastic and exciting resource for the whole school community.
Fantastic machine set up record - 1 hour
The plan was to set up the MDX-40R on Friday afternoon to get ready for the open day on Sunday. Software was loaded, USB cable connected, tool installed and a 3D part was machined within the hour. It is a tribute to the design team. Warwick Bennett from Hawthorn is the teacher designate and we spent time on the finer points of operation
Open Day Sunday
Everything was ready for the community visit to the centre. Peter Wakefield was resplendent and Keith Hoy from deLaSalle dropped in to wish the best to the staff and the centre. His experience and insight will be a valuable resource ,particularly for the development of machiing examples.
The MDX40R churned out fan blades in tooling board and a variety of foam models.
It was good to see budding young engineers have a look inside the machine ( maybe too apprehensive). We reinforced the concept of engineering and the translation of an idea into a product via a CAD/CAM pathway.
“Where did you think the mobile phone came from - a phone tree???” was common bait to get the brain working.
A formal opening of the centre is planned for later in the year.
PICMicro & Microchip, Picaxe logo are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Inc. AZ. Atmel AVR & Atmel logo are registered trademarks of Atmel Corporation. CA. Philips Logo is a registered trademark of Philips Semiconductor Inc & Philips SA, Netherlands. Picaxe is a registered Trade mark of Microchip. Intellecta is a registered trademark of Intellecta Technologies. All other logos and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Revision Date June2006
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