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02/21/2018 07:30 AMIt all started with a Raspberry Pi—Steve Robillard had an old one sitting in a box, and thought he’d donate it to the Hagaman Memorial Library with the intention that someone would be able to use it there.
A little background: Raspberry Pi isn’t a food, but a single-board computer developed to promote the teaching of basic computer science.
“I had seen where libraries were starting to become maker spaces. It wasn’t just one [library], it was sort of a trend in that direction,” Steve says.
He got in touch with Matt Earls, head of technical services at the library, who was thrilled with the idea of the donation. The two talked about how they could expand on that, and both liked the idea of creating a maker’s space at the library.
“It’s kind of taken on a life of its own,” Steve says.
Now, in addition to his day job as a consultant with SR-PS Custom Computer Solutions, Steve teaches Python programming and physical computing a couple times per week, has been asked to help out with a new STEM program for five to eight year olds, and does a maker night once every two months.
At the last maker night, Steve says the participants built BlinkSticks, which are colored LED lights plugged into a computer’s USB drive. The BlinkSticks can be programmed to alert the user of something like an email from his or her boss.
On Thursday, March 1, Steve will lead a soldering class in which participants will build digital clocks. The program is free, but spaces are limited. Anyone interested in attending can call Cynthia Gwiazda at 203-468-3891 or send an email to mearls@hagamanlibrary.org to reserve a space. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
For Steve, the maker courses are a chance to share interest in modern technology with some hands-on skill with today’s youth.
“We’re teaching soldering skills—skills that, back when I was a kid, were…easier to come by. Some of those skills that nobody learns anymore,” Steve says.
Another way Steve helped was when one of the librarians wanted to give more options to a patron who has limited vision and likes books on tape. While not his own idea, Steve took a Raspberry Pi and made it into a book reader for the patron.
“I heard a need, and I knew there was a way to meet the need,” Steve says, adding that he’s meeting with the patron again to make sure she likes it and it works for her.
He’s working on “version two” of the reader, making it battery powered and implementing voice controls.
Helping out at the library was an easy decision for Steve, who says libraries have always been a nice place for him. Some of his first rock music albums came from the library, and the first time he read a car magazine was at a library.
He came about his electronics skills out of curiosity and necessity. In 1993, he says news came out about a comet that was going to crash into Jupiter; he learned that one of Jupiter’s moons “spits out” radiation that can be detected on Earth with a radio telescope. He built a radio telescope to listen to the crash to see if there would be any changes after the comet hit.
“I didn’t get great science out of it, but I learned more than I ever expected to…like I wound up with a ham radio license as a result,” Steve says, “You learn more from your failures than you do with successes.”
Steve says he acquired a lot of other skills from attending a technical school, and having uncles who were handymen. He recalls being in auto shop for a year, and how he decided to rebuild a motor.
“I was always ‘I’m going to take something apart,’ just see how it works, and I was usually pretty good about putting it back together,” Steve says.
He’s always been curious, saying he started as a physics major at the university he attended before switching to computer science. He enjoys what he does now, whether it involves computer programming, robotics, or anything else he’s versed in.
“I enjoy that and I enjoy passing it along,” Steve says, “[There’s] nothing worse than wanting to learn something and not knowing who to go to ask, or how to learn it.”