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itp-nerdy-derby
When Wired dropped by the World Maker Faire NYC 2012, we fell in love with ITP's Nerdy Derby. It's a 21st Century re-envisioning of the classic Pinewood derby and is ridiculously fun.
Here's what a Nerdy Derby looks like on the ground: You sidle up to a construction station where a pile of practical and crazy construction materials, along with correctly dimensioned blocks and wheels (so many wheels!), await your attention. Under the supervision of organizers, you can build and test the car of your dreams.
Once done, you take your creation to be registered. A photo of your ride is taken, and an RFID tag is attached to your car. Now the system knows who you are. Waiting vehicles are taken, three at a time, to the start gate. An Arduino triggers the start of the race and an IR sensor at the finish line registers the winner. That car's portrait is the automatically displayed on the big screen, and a new set of challengers is lined up at the start gate.
It's a real spectacle and you could hear the collective cheers and moans of racers and their friends and family as cars took first place or careened off the track in spectacular wrecks.The scope and scale of the team's work was breathtaking and judging by the packed car building area and continuous line, that work paid off.
We wanted to learn more about what when into making the project, so we reached out to the team to talk about their efforts. As it turns out, it takes a village to run a networked pinebox car race, so Wired ended up talking to ITP students/Nerdy Derby pit crew members Tak Cheung, Matt Richardson, Ben Light, Mark Kleback, Amelia Handcock, Surya A Mattu, Deqing Sun, and Oya Kosebay.
If you're interested in hosting your own derby, you can get in touch with the team on the Nerdy Derby website.
All photos courtesy NerdyDerby/ITP.
