0Posted by skullkey on September 22, 2014 at 8:24 am
A bunch of us celebrated Software Freedom Day this year at a very special school, African School For Excellence in Tsakane (near Brakpan). The day was a tremendous success, with 106 kids attending (on a Saturday!!) our technology roadshow.
The school consists of some pre-fab buildings and is in the process of creating more permanent structures
Learners on their way to ASE
ASE from the skye taken by Arnold during one of the quadcopter demos
The day started at 9.30 with Jay (the school’s founder) introducing us to the learners (a very special experience – all of us got cheers, even the software developers!).
The day started with Jay introducing us and explaining the day to the learners
Then the group was split into three, rotating through two classrooms, each with three tech tutorials. The group not in either of the classrooms spent some time dreaming and scheming about their upcoming projects and interacting with demos in the tented area.
Philip tells the story of our High Altitude Glider FPV flite. The project was a huge success and went without a glitch…we released the glider at 20000 ft and the balloon + camera payload went to 32km.
We completed this project in collaboration with the HABEX team – we loved working with these like-minded guys, and they
organized sponsorship of the hydrogen from AFROX
sponsored the balloons
sponsored the APRS units used (three in total for cars and glider)
communicated and liaised with CAMU for permission to complete the endeavour
providing lots of wisdom, advise, support and direction
lots of other things, without which this would not have been possible!