Chris Siebenmann2d ago

In the get people Fedi-hired category, my university department has an opening for a senior (research-side) sysadmin where you'll get to do fun things in a dynamic group that's doing stuff at the crossover of chemistry, robotics, and computing. It's sadly not open to remote people, so Toronto only. And you'll be my indirect colleague (not in my group but working closely with us).

https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-Research-Computing-Support-Specialist-ON/603316117/

(boosts welcome)

Research Computing Support Specialist

Research Computing Support Specialist

Show threadChris Siebenmann
One of the interesting and absolutely sensible things this research group is doing is that they're testing their robotics chemistry stuff by having the robots use common kitchen ingredients to mix and make things. Kitchen ingredients come in various powder and liquid forms, there's lots of ways to combine them and get various outcomes, the expected results are often known, and the result is pretty much always going to be safe. Why work with dangerous chemicals when you can start with flour?
Jun 16 at 2:45amWeb
Show threadChris Siebenmann2d ago
(I'm aware of flour explosions. I believe the group has their robotic arms and vision systems and all of that work only with small quantities of the various ingredients. No one is making a cake today, not yet.)
Show threadKrzysztof Sakrejda2d ago
@cks I see you are ready for the pedants of the fediverse!
Show threadRobin Tarsiger1d ago
@cks I briefly attempted to play research assistant and exploratory programmer for a lab-automation-related thing with a friend some years ago, and in design sketches I called a (hypothetical) test backend that would just spit out a sequence of instructions for me to pick up cups and move them around the “RAK” backend, for “research assistant's kitchen”.