LEGO society in UL

Landoflemon

Hi guys,

Trying to gauge some interest here.

I've been in contact with Paul Lee in relation to setting up a Lego society in UL. I'm not only talking about the standard Lego blocks for building the typical castle or police station but also the more advanced Technic and Mindstorms sets to get some engineering and mechanical design as well as programming involved. Another idea would be the to rent Lego sets out, a typical large enough set might cost €100 to €150 but if students could rent it out for 3 days or something to build the models (which is 95% of the fun with Lego anyway!), with renting costing in the region of €5 or something like that.

There could be regular workshops and competitions (individual and team) if we had enough parts and then bigger more long term projects, something along the lines of this project which I completed last year. It's a functioning 3D scanner which a dented aluminium plate from the engineering department in UL, probed the plate and then exported the data into a CAD package to reproduce it in 3D.

Another long term idea that I had was to possibly build a large, scale replica of the entire UL campus for display somewhere, again this would be somewhere down the line when we have the funding necessary to purchase all the correct parts.

Well, let me know if you have an opinion on it anyway,

Thanks,

Landoflemon.

Mikel91

Why not just make a engineering soc and have lego as yer prime thingie

Polar Ice

I'd feel sorry for whoever was the equipment officer.

Dan, in case you weren't aware, there used to be a LEGO soc (of sorts) years ago.

Landoflemon

Polar Ice wrote: »

I'd feel sorry for whoever was the equipment officer.

Yeah, someone else said the exact same thing to me too! Once people are just honest and neat in their work with the parts there shouldn't really be a problem I hope.

In response to Mikel91, I think an Engineering society probably sounds too broad (As in if someone else was willing to do that I would be very happy to participate, but for me it would be too broad to manage successfully), plus I work in the Engineering Department as a postgraduate student after doing mechanical engineering undergraduate so I do not want anyone to feel that I'm trying to represent the Engineering Department in any official capacity through a club in their name. Besides, I had always planned for essentially everything to be done through the medium of Lego as all the parts are universally compatible which cuts down on certain complication, so I don't see any harm in it going under the guise of Lego Society. Plus there would be other sorts of not-so-technically building I imagine, like making scale models of structures in Lego form which I don't see fitting under the banner of 'Engineering Society'.

I was aware of the previous Lego Society, I contacted a friend recently who was in college here at the time, but he could not give me much information on what they did or what ultimately lead to their demise.

Polar Ice

Landoflemon wrote: »

I was aware of the previous Lego Society, I contacted a friend recently who was in college here at the time, but he could not give me much information on what they did or what ultimately lead to their demise.

I can give you contact details if you're interested.
Their demise was due to someone stealing the lego...

Landoflemon

Polar Ice wrote: »

Their demise was due to someone stealing the lego...

That would do it alright!!

I suppose if you keep a record of who has what and when, and keeping everything under lock and key is the best defense, but I could see how it could happen.

Is there any chance you could send me a PM in relation to someone who was involved in the previous attempt at a Lego Society?

Stuxnet

thats sounds wicked ! id be interested ! never too old for some hardcore lego action (32 )

Landoflemon

Stuxnet wrote: »

thats sounds wicked ! id be interested ! never too old for some hardcore lego action (32 )

Great, hope to see you at the clubs and soc's drive in week 2 if you're around

Jester252

If you need any help with the mindstorm I'll be glad to help spend last summer working with it

Chimaera

I was involved in the original Lego soc, though it wasn't my idea. It only lasted a year and it did not stop because the Lego was stolen.

Most of us who'd been involved left UL in the same year and there was no-one to take it forward the following year. IIRC the Lego we'd collected was donated to charity.

Activities were limited at the time to weekly meetups where we'd build stuff. I've a bunch of pictures around the place somewhere if I can find them and scan them.

New plan sounds good - go for it

Landoflemon

The proposal was put together and it was submitted for the clubs and soc's executive today, but the two of us who were trying to establish it have decided that we can't see it working in the current format that we have come up with.

We reckon we'd have difficulty attracting members, particular as it's the 2nd semester of the year, and we need to think of a better way of getting a supply of Lego to begin with (rather than people bringing in their own as pieces could get lost or mixed in with other peoples, and the logistics are just impractical), until we sort out some way of financing the club or getting sponsorship as opposed to asking members to fork out money collectively to buy one set at a time with C&S subsidies.

The whole thing needs to be thought through a little more carefully and it may be more suitable to propose this club again at the beginning of the September Semester rather than rushing it now and failing. I'm involved in starting another club this Febraury (so it's still likely you'll see me at the clubs and soc's drive!), and I will use my experience with that to gauge the practicality of reinventing the Lego Society in September.

Thanks to everyone who shared an interest in the proposal.

Stuxnet

well try organise it and have exec approval for next Sept, and if ye do, ye will get a budget of ~3000 euros from c&s more then enough for some top notch lego, trip to legoland maybe !!

TheInquisitor

For marketing and recruiting, it may have been a good ploy to give people that properly attended a few meet ups, a free lego keyring.Lego have the black ones reduced to 75p now from £2.99...

http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/LEGO-Black-Brick-Key-Chain-852098

yuppy700

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/25407-irish-school-kids-to/

Landoflemon

Stuxnet - As far as I can tell with the current system we need to go on a 15 week trial first before we can get a budget assigned to us.

TheInquisitor - Thanks for the great novelty idea, and good value too.

Yuppy700 - Thanks for the link, I was aware of the FLL but was unaware that Ireland participated. As it happens I will be in Galway City this Saturday so I will definitely go to that and figure out if it's the kind of thing a University society could participate in, in some capacity. If I get photos of the event I'll put them up here on this page on Saturday evening so as anyone who's interested in the club may get a chance to see how a national event may look like that we could attend next year or get involved in.

If anyone else has helpful suggestions, they're much appreciated!

Chimaera

If you have the time and the help, get it running now. IIRC you can still apply for special app funding, so if you collect enough in membership subs, you may be able to buy a few things that way.

Whatever way you go to work, there'll be a period of time without access to mainstream SU funding, so you'll have to figure out things to do in the interim.