This is a great opportunity for children who want to learn more about robotics and the First Lego League program. It is a hands-on workshop with lots of personal help from the EOT team. These kids won the RI FLL championship two years in a row and they really know their stuff.

David

A thriving Arts community is why I live in the city. If I wanted low taxes and a low cost of living, I would be in rural Missouri. The value of the Arts is reflected in all aspects of life: the opportunity to be in a wide variety of relationships, the free exchange of ideas, innovative educational opportunities for kids, inspiring and thought provoking experiences. The same conditions that promote innovation in business and technology, also promotes innovation in the Arts. The Arts and Technology communities share quite a few people. In the music graduate program I was in over half of my peers now make their living in the software business, but they remain interested in music and contribute to their local culture in an informed way.

Before I moved here I lived in Brussels for three years and we have a few things we could learn from the Belgians. One of the advantages there is that the government support the Arts more there that here, but the important thing is that the Arts are supported by people. There is a long tradition of challenging art, theater, dance and music events and people attend them in large numbers. They know the value and pay their hard earned money to attend. Building a vital city takes effort from everyone; vision from community leaders, commitment from artists and business owners and support from citizens. It is a long process, but there is a lot of momentum here. It bodes well for the future of Rhode Island.

This is a great program. My son has been on the Engineers of Tomorrow team for three years and it has been the highlight of his year. The kids learn both mechanical and software design as well as teamwork, research and presentation skills. I have watched these kids wrestle with problems like dependability and revision control that many software engineers don't encounter until they are out of college. It is great fun and a big leg up in engineering experience.

dB

EC3 looks like it would be a great idea for computer animation which has episodic need very high computation loads. Downloading the rendered files may be problematic, but this is a very cost effective way of obtaining arbatrairily large amounts of computer power.

dB

One indication of the vitality of music in a city is the different kinds of musical subcultures. Meeting one new person in a city this size can take you into a whole new world. I am involved in both Folk and Avant-garde music and find a very interesting cross pollination between the two. A genre that seems weak here is Jazz, I am a bit surprised by that.