Outside of the Box

Fresh of the heels of Outside of the Box's first event, it is time to do a deeper dive into event organization. We have several perspectives on event hosting in this episode including talking collegiate events with Ryan and Uday from UIUC, a focus on being a brand new event organizer with Emily, George & Jair from MRCA and the journey of becoming an experienced event organizer with Carolina Combat Robotics' father/son duo Chuck...

It is fitting that this episode is packed full of builders who originate from the Midwest as we preview the MRCA takeover of NHRL in June. I first talk to Emily & Dustin of Nacho Robotics about their pair of hard hitting bots that have impressed in MRCA events. Then, we shift into shenanigans with a group of folks from the Outside of the Box discord server and get even more amazing Frank lore (IYKYK). We wrap up talking to Alex...

There were some pretty spectacular runs at the May NHRL event and I spoke to a few builders who had amazing performances, but were all stopped by the eventual winners of their respective weight classes. Cameron from Sad Octopus talks about an amazing day of fights culminating in a fun fight versus Jelly Baby, Matt Lantry talks about the journey from control bot driver to his success with hard hitting horizontol Sievert and Joe From...

Have you ever thought about driving a combat robot using video game controllers? The builders on this episode did and even WON using these unconventional transmitters. I talked to Tim Hebert about his recent NHRL appearance where he won fights using a DDR pad and Rock Band drums and attempted the same with a Guitar Hero guitar! He breaks down his process for this and potential ideas he has for future implementations. I also talked ...

New episode for you featuring some of the most exciting builders at the upcoming Round 4 NHRL event on May 3rd. Gwen is so backalope with her already qualified robot Jackalope, but is setting her sights on the Golden Dumpster for this event. Jim and Andrew Kazmer talked all about meltybrains including some cool facts fans may not have known! I also sat down with Kevin, Ariel & Corey from Team Pandamonium to talk about the army ...

We are back with another NHRL recap, this time highlighting a few of the amazing competitors from the Round 3 April event. I talked to Ben & Razi Strano about Bean Supreme Refried's amazing qualifying run, heard all about Trevor Sommer's run with Void including a heart-stopping win against Minun & Plusle, and chatted with Nick Grumski about his robot Alan and how exciting/terrifying it was to battle against Battlebots legen...

On the heels of the big event announcement, I wanted to give fans a little bit more information on what they can expect from the Circle City Clash tournament and PopCon as a whole. I first sat down with Kris Keys, co-owner of PopCon, to talk about how they value diversity in the many experiences they offer at PopCon which will include things this year like an even larger film festival and Purr Con for cat lovers. I also talked to C...

We've got some heavy hitters in this episode as we talk about the upcoming NHRL Round 3 event happening on April 5th! It will be the 2025 debut of Chainsaw Kitty and the return of fellow Sleepy Anime Girl bot Usawgi whose builders Kezia and Mint are hoping not to face each other until deep in the bracket. I also talked to BattleBots veterans Matt & Jason Vasquez who are bringing a couple of robots that have the NHRL community b...

On this final STEM Spotlight ahead of the National STEM Festival, I chatted with Ishaan Kunwar - a high school student who was able to use AI to develop a better way to detect cataracts. His project could help many in less developed countries or in underserved communities where it would be difficult or a financial burden to obtain this diagnosis and get treatment.

Please check out https://www.nationalstemfestival.com/ for more info...

I had the pleasure of being joined by the amazing Jenny Buccos with EXPLR Media who has been running the National STEM Festival going on its second year. We talked about the surprising and exciting amount of kids whose projects centered on using AI tech for good to help people, what kids attending the festival get to experience while there and the importance of kids having mentors to help get them more engaged. You can watch the li...

Check out another STEM Spotlight and this time Christine talks to Bryan Hijam whose project focuses on prostate cancer research for better treatment and management of this disease that impacts so many. Hear him talk about his passion for this area of research, his plans for future career paths and what he is looking forward to when attending the National STEM Festival.

You can check out more info about the festival at https://www.n...

It feels like we just wrapped up Round 1 of NHRL and we are already so close to Round 2 of more exciting robot fights!

Join Christine as she talks to a number of builders about their plans and predictions for March's loaded event. We talk to Zech Matthews about the hype surrounding his beetleweight Fragment X, chat with Peter and Destiny Garnache about their respective robots and getting to attend an event together again, and lastl...