Nominee – JD Parr

What would you improve within the droid building community?

A key area I would like to develop is the opportunity to improve communication between all builders and sub groups for both new and old, this can be done by making clearer communication pathway i.e. promoting email addresses for queries and issues with a focus on who could be the best person to be contacted for what situation.

I would also look to coordinating smaller regional DBUK-Minis to allow builders to get together in person more frequently.

I would also like to open discussions to review how events are handled and handed over to a lead coordinators, it took me a while to have the confidence just to mention organising an event as I was unsure the processes and policies.

What could you bring to the committee that may be of a benefit to the droid building community?

My key specialist area is education, as a teacher of a STEM heavy subject for over 20 years I am highly skilled at conveying complex information to people who may lack the confidence in their own abilities and I have already been involved with delivering and coordinating STEM activities under the droid builder flag and working with our international peers. I am also a skilled programmer and could assist with developing of custom apps and applications. I have previously worked with Darren and Rob Howdle on community software. I have already written bespoke software to use at the afore mentioned STEM sessions.

Please include a builder profile of yourself, as though we don’t know anything about your droid
building journey over the years.

I have been an active member of the Droid Building Community for the past 10 years, focusing on 3D printed droids and using my own custom control systems and electronics.

I wanted to get into robot building for as long as I can remember. I did start to make small mobile robots out of cheap RC cars and PIC chips around 25 years ago and did want to make an R2 then, but could not quite afford the wheelchair motors that seemed to be the motor of choice at the time, so I shelved the idea..

I continued to make little robots along the way. I did apply for robot wars during the first season with my friend, but realised we did not have the funds to get involved.

3D printers then arrived along with cheaper servos and more affordable ESCs, so I started to fulfil my childhood dreams.

My current line up is 2 Astromechs, Huyang (with some custom animatronics), WA-7 Waitress Droid, BattleDroid, IG12, RideOn baby droid, a range of baby droids, plus quite a few more in production. They make use of RC, PI and ESPs to control various systems.

Prior to Starwars droids I made many small robots for teaching programming, based on PIC chips, Arduinos and ESPs.

Thank you for your consideration.