Technology Education Collaborative (TEC)
The Technology Education Collaborative (TEC) empowers everyday people to become informed users of today's extraordinary technology.
We help people better understand the tech that surrounds them on a daily basis. TEC does this through practical application by hosting in-person, hands-on events ranging from Right to Repair workshops, Privacy meetups and tech field trips and demos.
Our agreement with the Advanced Cyber Systems Lab at GateWay Community College helps us give the general public hands-on access to advanced technologies from 3D printers to a podcasting studio people can use to learn, discover and play.
February Events & Tech Meetups
Join the TEC Amateur Radio Club & Study Group (Become a HAM operator)
Interested in getting your HAM operators' license and/or leveling up to Extra? Keep "meaning to" study for the test? Join us for some external accountability (and fun!).
We'll meet twice a month for two-hour dedicated study sessions at the Advanced Cyber Systems Lab, located at Gateway Community College. The first cohort will work towards its FCC's Amateur Radio Service Technician Class license exam.
We'll be using HamStudy as our general guide. This will be fun, but it's not purely social - the goal is to be ready to sit for the exam!
Amateur radio licensing is managed by the Federal Communications Commision (FCC). Being licensed means that your name is listed in the FCC Universal Licensing System with an associated ham radio callsign.
February 2025 Privacy PIE
Moved from January
Three Cheers for the Privacy Protecting FCC!
Join us at the Advanced Cyber Systems Lab on Tuesday, January 21 at 6 p.m. to learn about the best privacy-protecting friend you never knew you had!
Just like Clark Kent, the Federal Communications Commission hides behind its painfully boring, stodgy and bureaucratic exterior whilst valiantly fighting (and winning!) raging privacy battles against massive anti-privacy foes.
The FCC's PRIVACY & DATA PROTECTION TASK FORCE is basically the Avengers of Privacy. The court filings, administrative notices and procedures are boring, but the stories behind taking on anti-privacy corporate interests is exciting (no, but really, though!).
ICYMI TEC TALKS EPISODES
We took December off for the holidays but are back in the studio this month, recording even better TEC Talks episodes. We have some incredible guests lined up for our "What Does a [Technologist] Do?" short episodes and will explore a lot of compelling tech and society topics in our longform episodes. So stay tuned!
In the meantime, catch up on some of our favorite episodes from last year!
What Does a Front End Software Engineer Do? Featuring David Koontz
In our What Does a [Technologist] Do? episodes, we ask a professional technologist with real-life experience five questions about what their actual day-to-day looks like. The questions remain the same, but the answers are often surprising.
Sam Stone Discusses How Tech Policy and Legislation Gets Made
In this longform discussion, national political consultant and co-host of the Breaking Battlegrounds podcast Sam Stone tells us why lawmakers from municipal government to Congress just don’t seem to grasp what tech is, what it does, or how to regulate, govern or legislate it. This is a nerdy, nuts-and-bolts discussion of tech policy and governance, not a political debate episode.
Eric Miller Discusses His Extraordinary Experience Doing ALL the Tech Things
We chatted with Eric Miller about his experience working in tech. Eric is the co-owner and principal of Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies, a Chair Emeritus of the Arizona Tech Council and a regularly contributing columnist for the Phoenix Business Journal. A bastion of the local Arizona tech community, we were so excited he sat down with us to chat. The conversation did not disappoint.
Unhappy Programmers?
Inspired by a Fireship video discussing the 2024 Stack Overflow survey that said 80 percent of programmers were unhappy, TEC called in a few of its own programmers to discuss.
January 2025 TEC Article Club
The Technology for Autonomous Weapons Exists. What Now?
In a phenomenal piece for Undark, reporter Sarah Scoles deep dives into the technological advancements and ethical and human implications of autonomous weaponry. Combining meticulous, deeply researched reporting - yes, there's plenty of tech specs - with unparalleled narrative nonfiction skills, Scoles examines both the technological challenges and triumphs of modern weaponry while also giving every argument about its use and ethics fair due.
As both proxy and direct wars continue to rage at the dawn of 2025 with very little sign of abating, the technical, political, ethical and human implications of AI weaponry is no longer a theoretical dorm-room debate; it's the world we live in now. That's worth learning about, and you can't get much of a better guide than Scoles. If you've been waiting for a piece to talk about, this one is it.
Author: Sarah Scoles
Date Published: November 26, 2024
Publication: Undark
Undark is a nonprofit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society.
Long and Ugly Link:
https://undark.org/2024/11/26/unleashed-autonomous-weapons/?src=longreads
Length: 4,857 words
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