Robots Taking over the Tech Tomorrow

Cutting-Edge Robotics Take Over The Tech Museum of Innovation

Museum hosts entire day of human-robot interaction activities on MLK day

SAN JOSE, CA –Bust out moves to your favorite tunes alongside a humanoid robot as your partner. Hear from experts leading the social robot evolution. Build a robot comedian and laugh out loud. There may soon be a day when robots are integrated into our everyday lives, and even be able to anticipate and adjust to human preferences.

For an entire day, The Tech showcases a variety of social robots and guest speakers at the forefront of their field. NAO, a programmable humanoid robot from France’s Aldebaran Robotics, will perform dances to popular hits throughout the day. Guests can also program Play-i' Bo the Robot to play a xylophone, as well as engage with Furby and Pleo and see how they respond to actions.

Over in the RoboTheater, visitors can try their hand at design by programming a human robot to perform a variety of tasks before heading into The Tech’s Social Robots experience to design and build their own robot that makes them laugh. The museum will feature a special theme in the experience that day – Robot Comedians.

Special speakers include Intuitive Automata’s Cory Kidd and Professor Andrea Thomaz. Thomaz is an Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and an innovator in the robotics field. Published in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Human-Robot Interaction, she is radically redefining how robots and humans interact.

WHO/WHAT: Special robot programming and special guests throughout the day featuring Georgia Tech’s Professor Andrea Thomaz, Intuitive Automata’s Cory Kidd, Play-i founders, NAO, and a bevy of engaging social robots. Free with Museum Admission.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. MLK day, Monday, January 20

WHERE: The Tech, 201 S. Market St., San Jose, CA

For more information and programming schedule, visit: http://www.thetech.org/

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 Richest City in America

You will have to hit the source link for the video, but San Jose was named the Richest City in America. There were some shots of Downtown both at the beginning and the end of the video. What do they attribute San Jose's success to? Tech, tech, and more tech.

The #2 wealthiest city was Washington, D.C., followed by Bridgeport, CT in 3rd. San Francisco came in 4th while Boston rounded out the top 5.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Bobby Guz Man from the San Jose Development Forum

JD Wilkes and the Dirt Daubers at The Blank Club, Jan 21st

If you are craving some dirty blues and rock n' roll, then there's a great band coming The Blank Club next week that I think you'll enjoy. JD Wilkes and the Dirt Daubers has just released their third album entitled Wild Moon. You can get a little preview by watching the YouTube video below. The band was originally formed as an old-timey acoustic outlet for JD Wilkes, but has since become fully amplified as you can hear in the video. Grab some Kentucky Bourbon and enjoy.

Tuesday, January 21st, 2014
JD Wilkes and the Dirt Daubers
@ The Blank Club
San Jose, CA
Doors: 8:00PM
Show: 9:00PM
Tix: $10 // 21+

BASIS Private School Coming to San Jose

BASIS is responsible for some of the highest ranked charter schools in the country. There operate a dozen for-profit charters across DC, Arizona, and Texas. However, it looks like there are branching out to the private school system and are launching their first two in San Jose and Brooklyn.

The Silicon Valley campus will be located in Midtown San Jose (1290 Parkmoor) and will eventually accommodate 800 students. The plan is to offer education from grades 5 through 12, with tuition clocking in at $22,000 a year (wow, private schools are getting expensive).

The San Jose site was chosen deliberately so that they could be in the "heart of technological innovation." It seems like their culture will mesh quite well with Silicon Valley, which comes closer to a meritocracy than any other region in the world. BASIS does not believe in the traditional "elitist model of private education," there will be no boards made up of influential parents/donors, and there will be no fundraising efforts. The curriculum is heavily STEM-focused (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). 8th Graders have access to nine different math options and the curriculum will be both challenging and based on international standards.

This sounds like a school right up San Jose's alley! They are even constructing it in an office campus ;).

Source: SVBJ

1290 Parkmoor

SJMADE @ SJMA Today

Come check out a great event showcasing locally-made art and goods today at the San Jose Museum of Art. It is free to access the SJMADE mini-mart in the lobby, but you can also visit the galleries for just $5 after 5 PM.

January 16, 2013

5–8 PM
Admission to the workshop and galleries is just $5 after 5 PM (free for members).
Admission to SJMADE Mini Mart is free.

San Jose Made (SJMADE) is a platform for local San Jose makers, labels, brands, small businesses, and artists to showcase and sell current projects and goods. For one night only, SJMADE will gather a small group of its independent makers in SJMA’s lobby for our SJMADE Mini Mart. You can peruse the wares and then create a unique, up-cycled cup cozy or t-shirt bracelet with the help of GoGo Craft, a mobile crafting workshop that provides exciting and accessible make-and-take projects for participants at all skill levels. 

New $35M Hotel Project in North San Jose

Remember the old Piercey Toyota lot on North First near the airport? That is about to become not one, but two hotels. On the table is a 145-room Hampton Inn and Suites as well as a 140-room Home2 Suites. Unlike the SpringHill Suites and Residence Inn project also happening near the airport, each of these hotels will be housed in a separate building. However, I would be surprised if they did not share some of their resources and staff since the owner is going to be the same (Kalthia Group Hotels).

I know some of the urbanists that frequent this site will not be impressed with five-story buildings, especially along North First where we could theoretically go beyond 30. Personally, I'll take it over an empty parking lot any day of the week. North First seems under-serviced by hotels, and we need these resources to help entice more large companies to the area.

Source: SVBJ

Wednesday Wishlist: Michelin Star Restaurants (2014 Edition)

This is the 5th time I am doing this post. Each year it is more or less the same... we need to start getting some Michelin-starred restaurants in San Jose! The Michelin guide is the most renowned rubric for measuring culinary greatness, and for the most part San Jose restaurants have been excluded from its pages. However, I think the foodie culture is growing here and I have high hopes for 2015.

Michelin has three different star categories:

One Star - A very good restaurant in its category with cuisine prepared to a consistently high standard. A good place to stop on your journey.
Two Stars - Excellent cuisine, skillfully and carefully crafted dishes of outstanding quality. Worth a detour.
Three Stars - Exceptional cuisine with distinctive dishes and superlative ingredients. Worth a special journey.

I created a Google doc listing all of the star recipients for 2014, along with tabs for all previous years and some general statistics. Below is an image capture from the doc. This year there were a total of 38 restaurants on the list, which is down from 42 in 2013 and the peak of 47 in 2012. 50% of the restaurants are locating in SF, 26% in Wine Country, 21% in Silicon Valley (split evenly between the South Bay and the Peninsula), and 3% in the East Bay. The only new restaurant on the list this year is State Bird Provisions (an American dim sum-style eatery).

I will also mention that there are some restaurants in the Michelin guide that do not get a star, but are considered "Michelin Recommended." Within this category San Jose scored a total of 8 restaurants:

• Downtown
• Vung Tau
• Back A Yard
• Santana Row
• LB Steak
• Pizza Antica
• North San Jose
• Smoking Pig BBQ
• East San Jose
• La Costa
• South San Jose
• Bun Bo Hue An Nam
• Thien Long
• Willow Glen
• Fratello
• Japantown
• SJ Omogari

Source: Michelin Guide

The Rise of a High Rise Tower - Centerra

An Axis resident has decided to document the construction of Centerra across the street from his condo. Check out his blog over at http://centerra.tumbler.com. Great idea!

January 5th