Alfred C Thompson II
Educator, Author, Speaker, Software Developer
Photo Gallery
I've been a big supporter of FIRST Robotics for years. I've done a lot to help build the relationship between FIRST and Microsoft. In this picture Iam talking with Dean Kamen about that relationship at the 2011 CS & IT Conference. The woman on my left is Suzi Levine, then with Microsoft and now the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
At the 2012 FIRST World Championship event I had the chance to discuss FIRST, the Kinect sensor and other innovations with Woody Flowers the amazing professor from MIT who helped create the FIRST program.
Rob Miles is an outstanding lecturer from the University of Hull in the UK. I am a big fan of his books and his blog. After knowing each other online for years we met in person at the World wide finals of the Imagine Cup in New York in 2011.
Another of the many outstanding educators I have been able to meet in recent years is Lou Zulli (pictured below) Lou does amazing things with his high school students in Florida and has received national and international recognition for his work.
I was pleased to give some talks on using the Kinect in education at TCEA in the winter of 2012. Visiting Texas for TCEA and other business have been a joy for me the last several years.
When the Kinect sensor was first out I was asked to do a talk on how it works at Boston's famous Museum of Science. It was recorded and museum staff gave the presntation themselves several times after that.
I'm a big fan of the Imagine Cup. In the spring of 2012 this team of high school students managed to finish second in the US in the game challenge. Most of them were juniors so I can't wait to see what they do this year. Their teacher/mentor Pat Yongpradit (on the far left) is a truly gifted teacher who I am proud to call a friend.
On a recent visit to MIT I was able to get my picture taken with the Scratch mascot. Yes it is made of Lego blocks. It's pretty cool but then so is Scratch.
The last two years I have helped with the development of curriculum for South Dakota GEAR UP which is a summer program for students in that state. I have also helped training the trainers who actually work with the students. In this picture I am with the team of students who had the best project after the first year (summer 2011)
Here I am presenting a workshop on Kodu for a group of teachers and high school and middle school students in Vermont.
Below I am presenting a workshop of programming with the Kinect
sensor for use with in FIRST robotics competition at FIRST HQ in
Manchester NH
Robert Scoble and I at a John Edwards rally the day Edwards announced he was running for President. Robert and I first met while we were both at Microsoft and run into each other from time to time. I have no idea why we were not smiling.
