Mechatronics Meltdown: BBCC event highlights technology with fun
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 6 months AGO
BBCC Industrial Systems Technology Assistant Professor Justin Henley, left, shows attendees of the 2024 Mechatronics Meltdown how to navigate an activity.
COURTESY PHOTO/BBCC
A child attending the 2024 BBCC Mechatronics Meltdown tries out a virtual reality system.
The BBCC Mechatronics Meltdown aims to inform the public and celebrate mechatronics and computer science.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | February 20, 2025 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Fans of the future will want to be at Big Bend Community College Saturday for Mechatronics Meltdown.
“A lot of people don’t know that we actually have robots here at Big Bend,” said Mechatronics Club advisor Justin Henley.
The show will highlight high-tech robotics and mechatronics from a number of BBCC programs: agriculture, computer science, manufacturing and process technology and STEM fields.
“We are so excited to welcome the community to our Mechatronics Meltdown,” club President Anthony Simon wrote in a statement to the Columbia Basin Herald. “The event will have demonstrations and activities for all ages and will showcase some of the amazing programs Big Bend has to offer.”
“We're going to have little drone tanks that you can play laser tag with using an iPad,” Henley said. “We're going to have robotic arms that you can use to try to pick and place blocks. The ag department is going to have a little seed planting station where you can come and you can plant a plant a seed and take it home with you, as well as showing off some of their technology. And I think they're going to have an RC tracker obstacle course and some little mini drones to fly. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
This is the second year the club has held Mechatronics Meltdown, Henley said. In the past the college has held events centered around the Raspberry Pi, a bare-bones, inexpensive computer about the size of a wallet that students use to learn coding. Many of the machines on display Saturday will be controlled by Raspberry Pis, Henley said.
“Instead of doing a Raspberry Pi event and talking about just the computer science applications of these boards, we wanted to bring the mechatronics in, the mechanical and the electrical and everything else, to show you that you can do more than play video games and write code with these boards and with technology,” Henley said.
Membership in the Mechatronics Club varies, but Henley said there are about a dozen active participants. Besides the devices the college uses in its educational programs, the club members will have some of their own projects on display,
“They’ll have a drawing machine that they built that could be used as a router or a laser or anything else, but we’ll have it set up as a drawing machine, and then some 3-D printer modifications that they’ve done,” he said.
Cookies and coffee will be supplied free by the club, Henley said, and a food truck will be outside for those looking for something more substantial. There’s no charge and the event is open to all ages, Henley said, although it’s really geared toward ages 8 and up.
The club will also raffle off items donated by faculty and staff. Raffle tickets can be had in two ways, Henley said: by bringing a non-perishable food item to the door, and by going from display to display collecting stamps. The raffle will be drawn at the end of the event, and hopefuls don’t have to be present to win.
“Everything that we touch today has a computer attached to it,” Henley said. “What I'm talking on right now is a supercomputer and it fits in our pocket. The days of not working with technology are gone. Rather than have it be something that's intimidating, we really wanted to showcase the ways to have fun with technology and maybe learn through having fun as well.”
A child attending the 2024 BBCC Mechatronics Meltdown tries out a virtual reality system.
The BBCC Mechatronics Meltdown aims to inform the public and celebrate mechatronics and computer science.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.