Photos by Matthew Albasi and Erica DePascale for Technically Philly.

Hotdog hats, bright white lab coats and Rosie the Riveter costumes set the atmosphere Saturday for the Penn First Lego League Championship Tournament, held in the Irvine auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania Saturday.

FLL, a robotics program designed for kids ages 9 to 14, aims to get young students excited and involved in science and technology. Fifty-two teams from across the tri-state area traveled to University City to participate in FLL’s annual championship tournament after advancing in regional qualifying rounds in December. Like elsewhere in the region, the City of Philadelphia’s School District is grappling with the need for strong STEM education.

This year’s theme was ‘Food Factor Challenge’, where judges evaluated elementary and middle-school teams on three events.

“It’s basically an exhibition of elementary and middle school students to show what they’ve learned in the area of robot design, core vales, project presentation and robot performance,” said Kendrick Davis, the head judge advisor.

Photos by Matthew Albasi and Erica DePascale for Technically Philly.

The Robot Game challenged teams to create a Lego-based autonomous robot that performs on a playing field in order to score points for their team. The project portion allowed teams to create a solution to a food-based problem they have identified, all while following FLL’s core values.

“It’s a little overwhemeling, we’ve never been in such a huge competition,” said Marlene Houlihan, the mentor for Beck Robotics Team from Beck Middle School in Cherry Hill, NJ. The competition provided pit areas for teams to practice with their robots and fix potential kinks in their designs before heading to the main stage competition. On stage, rounds of three teams cheered on their teammates while judges evaluated robotic performance. Separate judging allowed individual teams to present their Food Factor topic in conference rooms.

“They’re amazing, look around at all these kids. All they have is me. I don’t know much about this stuff, it’s all them,” Houlihan said.

After a day full of judging, teams finished out the day with a ceremony in the main hall. Awards went to teams with best performance, design, project, and core value.

“The most exciting part for me is when the kids feel like worked so hard and they don’t have everything together as much as they would like and they win an award and they’re like ‘Oh my god!’” Davis said.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

Without raising the alarm of an artificial intelligence-fueled planet takeover, robots are everywhere in Philadelphia.

The Transformers franchise, which has grossed over $1.5 billion to date, is set to release its third installment this summer.  YouTube is inundated with videos of robots doing everything from walking to playing the violin. Honda is set to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its humanoid robot Asimo this fall.

Philadelphia is quietly becoming a hub for the continually exploding robotics industry, especially in the robotics research and education fields.

“In the Philadelphia region we’ve seen so much interest and passion around robotics. There is so much cutting-edge robotics going on in Philadelphia and it is really starting to become a go-to place for robotics,” said Youngmoo Kim, an assistant dean of media technologies at Drexel University, which hosted the first ever Philadelphia Robotics Expo during Philly Tech Week this spring.

Drexel Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Youngmoo Kim worked with a graduate researcher to program one of their robots for a demonstration.

“Robotics is a tremendous motivator. Let’s face it—kids think robots are cool. I think robots are cool. Half the reason we do what we do is because it’s cool,” said Kim, who also heads the Music Entertainment Technology laboratory at Drexel, known as MET-Lab, which deals with how technology can be used for creative purposes.

The lab has developed a robot that can dance. But unlike other robots that dance in viral videos, this robot can recognize changes in a song and adjust accordingly.

“It’s a little bit different than other robots in that it is actually listening to the music. If you change the music, it will adapt to the different music. Most other robot videos you see are pre-synchronized so ours is an actively listening robot,” Kim said.

The lab also does work with HUBO, an advanced adult-sized humanoid robot through its partnership with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, as we’ve covered. Drexel is the only university in the United States to have a HUBO robot and the unique access it provides. Kim said that Drexel is looking to expand by adding more HUBO robots and partnering with other institutions for collaborative research efforts.

“We’re getting several more HUBOs in the future and basically sharing them to do joint research,” Kim said of a project that includes relationships with the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Virginia Polytechnic Institute among others.

One of the robots used at the Drexel MET-lab is a Robonova that has been programmed to dance and adapt to tempo when the song is changed.

Drexel is also partnering with public high schools right here in Philadelphia. Along with hosting the Robotics Expo this year, Drexel also sends several graduate students to work in classrooms around the district as part of its GK12 program.

The program has engineering graduate students work 10 hours a week with a teacher from the elementary to high school level. The goal of the program is to make the connection between what the kids are learning in the classroom and the exciting applications of that knowledge in engineering fields such as robotics.

“The students will say, ‘Wow, you work with robotics—that’s so cool,’ and we try to show how that involves physics and math to try to get high school students more interested and motivated to study science,” Kim said.

The School District of Philadelphia is not receiving this aid in robotics and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives externally without making the program a priority internally. The district puts on three different high school robotics competitions each year including the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology competition, Boosting Engineering Science and Technology competition and Marine Advanced Technology Education competition, which District Robotics Coordinator Kendrick Davis said is the only underwater robotics competition in the state.

“Robotics is definitely growing a lot within the district. For instance, the BEST competition at one point had only four schools participating in it, but now it has grown to over 30 schools,” Davis said.

The district is currently putting more resources into initiatives like robotics thanks to the GEAR UP grant, which was awarded to the district last fall and runs for six years. The GEAR UP program seeks to increase college readiness in public school students from early on in their education.

Although the GEAR UP grant has helped the district in its efforts to increase science and technology resources, there are still gaps in the capabilities among schools, especially in activities as expensive as robotics.

Kendrick Davis, the robotics coordinator for the School District of Philadelphia discussed the growth and future plans of robotics in Philadelphia schools.

“Part of the reason is that people aren’t educated in the importance of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] so they don’t see the need to invest as is necessary to run a sustainable program. Some schools are few and far between and others have an overabundance. So a lot of it is showing why it is important and the impact it has on our student’s academic experience,” Davis said, who also noted that thus far budget cuts have not seriously affected the districts STEM efforts.

“We’re always looking for support. All the teams need financial support and engineers to get involved with their teams,” said Dan Ueda, who leads the Central High School robotics team.

With scarce resources at some schools the district and individual schools have reached out to business to help support STEM initiatives including robotics programs.  The main goal is always to continue the expansion of STEM education and enhancement of student education.

“It’s a double play of what the district is doing and what individual schools are doing to get support,” Davis said, “Our major goal is to keep things running. STEM is definitely a part of the districts action plan. We want to make sure we keep having STEM initiatives and make sure our students are continually exposed to things that are outside of the curriculum, things that will bring it alive.”

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

The Central High School Robolancers in Olney should be designing a robot for a different task than usual: one that gives out a good pat on the back. The team of robot-building students placed in the quarterfinals of the local-regional For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology robotics competition in Philadelphia, and took first-place overall in the local-regional Boosting Engineering Science and Technology competition.

The Robolancers competed in grueling competitions which required them to put in long hours designing, building and programing their robots. (Photo courtesy of Central High Robolancers)

After winning the BEST regional, the team traveled south to Alabama for the BEST south-regional competition, where they took sixth-place overall. The top eight teams competed in the national BEST competition in Florida, and the Robolancers placed second in video presentation and third in engineering notebook.

The team also competed in the local underwater Marine Advanced Technology Education competition for the first time this year, placing first in presentation but taking second in the overall competition after a blown fuse disabled their robot. They then went on to Texas for the international MATE competition in Houston earlier this month.

Daniel Ueda, a former mechanical engineer, is director of the Robolancers. He serves as a teacher and guide to the students, with help from a few parents and mentors from local companies like Boeing.

“We need more adults who understand engineering to be involved in the mechanical design process,” Ueda said in an interview with Technically Philly at his lab in Central High.

“There are so many components to a robot, and so many different people working on it, that we need more people who know what they are doing,” Ueda continued, gesturing to the various electrical and mechanical components that cluttered the sparse furniture of the room.

“The designs are completely done and built by the students,” Ueda said. “I’m just here to guide them along the way.”

The competitions require teams to put together a full engineering document, complete with computer-assisted-design drawings, electrical schematics and programming, as well as an explanation of the process and how it works. In addition to the lengthy paperwork, students must also give an oral presentation in front of engineers and also maintain a vendor table where they must pitch their ideas and demonstrate their knowledge.

“Competitions vary year to year, but the parameters are basically the same,” Ueda said. “The whole gamut of engineering is included in these competitions. It goes beyond just building a robot.”

STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] programs like the FIRST, BEST and MATE competitions are working at schools like Central High to engage and interest students in engineering.

“This year we graduated six students, and of those six, four are going into mechanical engineering,” Ueda said. “It is amazing that some of the kids come in here knowing nothing about engineering, and then graduate and enter into the professional field and do wonderful things.

“The things they are doing now in high school compares to things I did in my senior year of college,” Ueda added.

Being a part of the Robolancers not only challenges students academically, but also socially.

“You have kids start freshman year who don’t really fit in sometimes,” Ueda lamented. “But throughout the four years in the robotics program, they learn how to be socially comfortable with themselves.

Daniel Ueda, director of the Central High Robolancers, demonstrated how a robot works at the team's Central High lab.

“They develop so many useful skills that they can use in life—reading, writing, teamwork—that don’t come as easily to some of the students as others,” Ueda said.

Kevin Mai, head programmer of the Robolancers and a recent graduate of Central, agreed that STEM programs such as the FIRST, BEST and MATE competitions were invaluable learning tools for him and his peers.

“Winning regionals and making it to nationals meant a lot to us as a team,” Mai said. “We really bonded together as a family.

“These programs really teach us to think outside of the box in ways that normal classes do not do,” Mai said. “Math and English classes just teach us to memorize stuff, but with robotics we get to see our skills actually applied in real-life.”

Mai and his peers often volunteered long hours after school to work on their robots, sometimes staying until the building closed down at 11 p.m. “That is what is fun about robotics though—the challenge,” Mai said.

Most kids, not to mention adults, think robots are cool, so getting them interested is a job that really does itself. Events like the Robotic Expo during Philly Tech Week and the School District of Philadelphia’s Summer Bridge program allow students to test robots and experience how they work. The biggest problem he faced engaging students, Ueda said, was getting girls involved in the mechanical aspects.

“The girls are always very involved in the writing process and presentations,” Ueda said, “but they generally aren’t as interested in using tools as the boys.”

Robotics programs are becoming more popular each year, Ueda said, but communication between schools needs to improve.

“Some schools have more resources than others,” Ueda said. “We have decent financial support from the district as well as from generous alumni.”

Ueda has been reaching out to other schools in Philadelphia to interest pupils across the county in robotics and engineering.

“We’ve been working with the Philadelphia Girls School to start a BEST team there next year,” Ueda said.

The Robolancer's robots were designed, built and programmed entirely by the students.

Ueda and his students will visit the neighboring school twice a week to train the students and assist them in building a robot.

“We are trying to work more this year on getting other kids in the city and other teams involved,” Ueda said.

STEM programs are something teachers like Ueda and students like Mai said they want to see available for every interested student.

“These programs should be available for younger students, too,” Mai said.

“My younger brother is interested in learning software development, but his middle school doesn’t have any STEM programs,” he continued. “This is something that every school district in Philadelphia should have, not just three or four.”

Those clever programmers at the GRASP (General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception) Lab at the University of Pennsylvania have made these quadrotor helicopters autonomous, teaching them how to work together while building things.

Read MORE or watch the video below.

Central High School's Robolancers team 321 had six weeks to design their manufacturing robot.

High school students throughout the region are headed this morning for Alabama to compete in a regional robotics championship.

Seven Philly school groups are headed south to compete, including Murrell Dobbins CTE High School, Baldie Middle School, Northeast High School and Central High School, the top four competitors from the city of Brotherly Love.

“We’re increasing the visibility of technical fields and the artificial intelligence world and making sure that our students are developing the skills necessary to work in a team,” says Velda Morris, Robotics Education Specialist for the School District of Philadelphia.

In her role, Morris oversees the district’s secondary robotics initiative, a pre-engineering vehicle for 60 schools, 1,000 students and 84 teachers in the city.

She’s participated with the robotics initiative since 2003, a project that is funded by the district and by various universities in the region. A modest budget, Morris says, pays for equipment and operations.

Central's completed bot

Morris was also excited to share that the district had helped launch the state’s first underwater robotics platform this spring, just one of the several seasonal rounds of competition that it participates with.

This fall, students from around the region competed in a production and marketing-oriented competition designed by BEST Robotics, Inc., which stands for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology, an Auburn University-based nonprofit organization.

Students were required to develop a robot that is able to ensure quality assurance, and they were judged on facilitating projects, like a product marketing plan for bringing their robot to market.

Robotics and engineering teacher Daniel Ueda, who leads Central High School’s Robolancers Team 321 says his 29 students — a diverse group of 18 boys and 11 girls — learned mechanical design, electrical design, programming, construction, and more.

“They also learned how to work as a team over some very long hours,” he said.

Those long hours paid off.

After a six week design process constrained by strict rules — robots can weigh no more than 24lbs and must fit into a 2-foot by 2-foot by 2-foot box — the team took home top honors for robot performance against tough competition with 34 other groups at the High School of the Future last Wednesday.

Though the team took first in performance, students spent the past few days perfecting the robot for the next rounds, improving efficiency across its disciplines, Ueda says.

And even if they don’t win?

“We were [working at school] until 9 o’clock on Friday,” Ueda says. “The kids do everything they can to get the job done. Even if it doesn’t perform well, they know they did everything.”

“It’s a good lesson,” he says.

DEFINITE READS

• Mike Armstrong of the Inquirer puts a critical eye to the big-scale, $129 million energy innovation hub planned for the Philadelphia Navy Yard, as led by Penn State.
• The New York Times highlights how an 800-pound Benjamin Franklin butter statue has led to the next great biodiesel fuel craze, with the help of Center City-based BlackGold Biofuels.
• Keystone Edge profiles Center City-based design firm Bresslergroup and Lititz-based Woodstream and their collaboration around improving the mousetrap. Yup.

Below, find what Philly developer was listed as 15 nationally to follow on Twitter, robots at Pennsylvania Hospital and more.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• The Inquirer reports on the growing use of robots in surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital.
• The Inqy’s Mike Armstrong also reports that only six Philadelphia companies grew quickly enough to make Inc. magazines 500 list. Philly was listed by the magazine as just the ninth most successfully growing business metro area.
• Mashable ranks Jenn Lukas of Center City’s Happy Cog one of its 15 developer and hacker women worth following on Twitter. H/T Philly Tech News
• Science Cheerleader continues its playful series profiling really hot people with science, math and technology backgrounds by interviewing a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader and software engineer.
• All Facebook digests numbers, statistics and demographics of Facebook users in Philadelphia.
• As we reported, nearly a dozen locals are vying to present at South by Southwest, but the Philadelphia Business Journal and Geekadelphia give particular love to XIPWire.

GIVE A GLANCE

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that SEPTA is trying again to get funding for smart transit payment cards.
• Joe DiStefano of the Inquirer reports that the Center City office vacancy rate has climbed to 15 percent, the worst since 2004. The Wall Street Journal echos the trend. [Paywall]
• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that AT&T Wireless has installed a new wireless antennae at the Phillies home ballpark.
• Mike Armstrong of the Inquirer report that economics consultancy Econsult and financial advisory firm Fairmount Capital Advisors are combining their practices.
• Philadelphia-based food canning blog Food in Jars gets spotlighted in the Los Angeles Times.
• Philly Tech News reports that Radnor business intelligence software provider Qlik Technologies has done well since going public.

The Viddler blog has a Q&A with wine and social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

DEFINITE READS

• The New York Times reports that two University of Pennsylvania professors are challenging Alzheimer’s disease with a new drug-discovery program and a $1.5 million robot.
• Inc. magazine lists Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail of mobile payment service Venmo on their 30 under 30.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Geekadelphia reports on PHILO, a Philadelphia based startup connecting social media and TV watching.
• The Flightster blog shares something of an essay on Philadelphia still being a city of revolution, focusing on Indy Hall, Nat Mechanics and Old City.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Peter Key at the Philadelphia Business Journal reports that “RoseAnn Rosenthal, the president and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, has been selected by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”
• On his personal blog, Duck Duck Go founder Gabe Weinberg announces the launching of his duck.co community forum.
• Geekadelphia also gives us the latest on the Walnut Street Apple Store — a sign.

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

Still recovering from that Super Bowl party you went to last night?

Well, get some coffee and shake off that headache. Our event calendar is packed with worthy events and it would be best if you paid attention.

Start your week off right, and head to Callowhill to see the the map-happy geniuses at Avencia talk about their Walkshed project and the company’s entry into the NYC BigApps contest. On Thursday, Hive76 hosts the Philly robotics meetup and cap your week off by taking PhillyCHI up on its offer of design-focused quizzo.

And, if you’re still feeling some withdraw from football, click through for your event highlights. This time with 60 percent more sports references.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

Monday, February 8th: As covered on this very site, Avencia’s Walkshed project covers the “walkability” of our city’s blocks. Creator Aaron Ogle has invited Refresh Philly attendees to Avencia’s office to talk about the project as well as its entry in the NYC BigApps content. Don’t know if you’ve heard, but the last time Philadelphia competed in NYC, it didn’t work out. Why can’t us? 6:30 p.m. Callowhill. DETAILS. [view more events]

Thursday, February 11th: Postponed from last month, the Philadelphia robotics meetup promises “filter based Inertial Measurement Unit code for our Quadrotor controller board.” Yeah, we don’t know either. We’re not going to lie to you though, we were hesitant to recommend the meetup. The last thing Philly needs is the looming threat of robotic-like humans. Plus, we already have Andy Reid’s press conferences. 7:30 p.m. Callowhill. DETAILS. [view more events]

Thrusday, February 11th: If robots aren’t your thing but CSS is, PhillyCHI is hosting design Quizzo at National Mechanics. The group promises questions about “technology, design, architecture, and other related topics.” What that really means, of course, is that you don’t have to bring along your jock friend just for the sports questions. 8:00 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

If you have an event that you think we should be listing, email us or fill out our submission form for best results. We promise that no submission falls in to the contact form netherworld.

Temple University computer science professor Dr. Longin Jan Latecki (center, facing camera) speaking about his research with colleagues and students.

If you ever want a robot to be able to get you coffee, they have to be able to see.

So, really, Dr. Longin Jan Latecki, a computer science professor at Temple University, is doing us all a favor. Latecki, whose research focuses on the half-century-old concept of computer vision, is one of 22 Temple faculty who are participating in the university’s inaugural Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP).

The program gives students the chance to earn up to a $4,000 stipend, funded by an equal match between the College of Science and Technology and the researcher’s grant.

Latecki is originally from Poland and is one of two professors working on more than one project for SURP. He came to Temple in November 2001, after stints at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Hamburg, both in the storied German university community.

SURP, which includes faculty from Temple’s CST, the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, aims to bolster the research chops of Temple undergraduates. More than 270 students applied for the program, and some 150 interviewed with faculty for just 40 available positions during a university event held on March 31.

Below, Latecki, who is also leading a project on the interaction of light with matter, talks to Technically Philly about SURP, his computer vision research and what it takes to get a robot to get me some damn coffee.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Talk to us about your academic pursuits.
My main research area is computer vision, finding ways to understand images the way humans do and to do it by intelligence testing… We’re in the age of digital photography, so getting digital images into a computer is easier than ever, but understanding what is in the image, well there still is a lot of work done to be done there. You can find a car or chair in an image [with] no problem, but computer software is still not there. Computers do a lot of things better, but in basic cognitive abilities, they still don’t match what humans can do.

Tell us about SURP and your involvement.

I have a research grant from the National Science Foundation and the college [of science and technology] that lets you apply for this supplement, this [matching grant]. …Our dean supports research for undergraduates, and I can really support this program… so I got involved. The main change is to really get undergraduates exposed to, to get them a better understanding of challenging problems. Whatever we do, we get them thinking and researching like a graduate or more… Three students work with me for 15 weeks. They started May 18 and work until the end of August. That way they can understand better what I’m doing and really contribute and learn something.

Explain your SURP project like I was a 10-year-old.
[Laughs] The key idea is to, well, if you have a computer algorithm that is supposed to give a computer human-like ability to detect and recognize images, how do you test the algorithm to make sure what it is supposed to do is what it does? You have [a] standard test data set. It would be there, say 1,000 images, 100 of a car, 100 of a chair 100 of another object and so on, and you have the computer ask what is this image, and you measure to see if it got correct. We are testing, yes, but the problem is that if you just take those photos and the computer doesn’t do a good job, you don’t know why.

If you generate computer images and have that computer evaluate, you have control of… whether the camera picture was missed because the image was too bright or whatever else, because all of those features are very important.

It is very useful to find out if something didn’t go well just as much as what did go well. Meanwhile, we just learned the best algorithms for object recognition [by seeing what didn't work]. When this stage is reached, we try to analyze the main problems when the algorithms fails, why it fails. With human vision, we are not really aware of the process. When you look for an object of whatever, [we] do it nicely. Our human vision can do it well… but computers still can’t. We want to figure out… what are the biggest problems.

Why is this research important?

This is very important… for the future of robotics. The main resource for humans is vision. Most of our brain power goes into visual input and analyzing it. This is the main window into how we see the whole world. So if you want robots running around doing useful things, we need to give them useful vision abilities. This is something very necessary for the future. You may find shortcuts for controlled environments to let [artificial intelligence] develop without vision through some other means, but this is not a robot that can go get a cup of coffee for you.

Tell us about the undergraduate students on your team.

The selection process was very nice[ly] organized through the dean’s office. The matching program is more suitable for putting undergraduates on the job, ones who go through an interview process and are recommended by other professors, which was a two to three-month process. … I am now working with three students with different strengths. They all have a background in mathematics… one is strong in math and computer sciences with some software development, another student is stronger in software development and one student does very nice independent work separate from any specific field… It’s about advancing research and learning, and it’s a chance to mentor them, give them a taste of real applied research, with the grants and a real end goal.

So, what is the goal for this project at the end of this first SURP session?
Whether I achieve it is another question, but if I can really get an understanding of the real challenges of evaluating state of the art object detection and recognition, this will be a great success … This research has 50 years of history, in trying to get computer[s] to analyze images, to get computers to understand. This is not research known to the public because, well, there are not so many useful systems [using the research]. This is something for the future.

Watch a Stanford professor discuss groundbreaking computer vision research in 1971

You’ve come from some prestigious European research communities. Can you discuss Temple and Philadelphia’s technology research community, particularly in computer sciences or robotics?

I think it’s a great environment. Starting in 2000, before I got [to Temple], the university’s computer information sciences department… started growing as a research institution. Meanwhile, since 2008, more researchers have been hired, and we are all working in data mining, machine learning and computer vision. We have a very nice research environment with a lot of interactions within Temple University.

And this is a city of interaction, with places like the information sciences at Penn. Also, we have… interaction with researchers at other departments inside this university. This is definitely a good place to be. The leading research [on computer vision] is done in the U.S. You can see this in Philadelphia. This is a very research active area, particularly in computer science… I’m happy to be here.

[Full Disclosure: The author of this story is a 2008 graduate of Temple University.]

-30-

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia�s technology community. See others here.

Lancaster security cameras on the streets are monitored by civilians working for a nonprofit group. They pan, zoom and call police if they see a crime. Linda Johnson / For The L.A. Times

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

You’re probably being watched in Lancaster.

This city of 54,000 in the middle of a rural county of the same name just may be the most closely scrutinized place in the country, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

As many as 165 closed-circuit TV cameras that will soon bring constant live surveillance of very nearly every street, park and other public space. That would be more outdoor cameras than cities as large as Boston and San Francisco.

Two more things are unique about the camera network, as the L.A. Times story suggests: it was built and maintained by a private nonprofit group and few seem concerned about the privacy implications.

The group, which hires civilians to move and follow the cameras and dispatch police to suspiscious activity, hasn’t found much public outcry.

“Years ago, there’s no way we could do this,” said Lancaster’s police chief Keith Sadler told the Times. “It brings to mind Big Brother, George Orwell and ’1984.’ It’s just funny how Americans have softened on these issues.”

There is some question as to the effectiveness of cameras, though. In what the Times report calls the largest U.S. study, US Berkeley researchers evaluated 71 cameras that San Francisco put in high-crime areas beginning in 2005. In December, they released a report that found “no evidence” of a reduction in violent crime, though it did note “substantial declines” in property crime near the cameras.

Hat Tip Philly Tech News.

After the jump, the continued spat over a state film tax credit, robot-loving high schoolers and eight more of the week’s tech stories you shouldn’t miss, including our best read story of the last seven days.

In order of importance for your ease.

• The San Jose Mercury News reports that a study from the Association for Computing Machinery released last week, says a sizable gap in technology interest remains between boys and girls. Forty-five percent of 13-17 year old boys thought a computer science degree would be “very good,” compared to just one in ten girls.
• Geekadelphia reports on a recently released free iPhone application that helps you find upcoming concerts in Philadelphia. They can be searched by date and venue, and include features that locate venues, offer audio samples from performing bands and sell tickets.
• Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey reports that with the state budget deadline next week and a lingering $3.2 billion deficit, a real debate remains regarding Pennsylvania’s $75 million film industry tax credit. The film credit is never broached in Philadelphia without the mention of Shooters, the tech-savvy Old City production company we profiled earlier this year. Relatedly, the Inquirer reported on the first ever Philadelphia Film Market.
• Information Week rags on Northern Liberties marketing firm Razorfish pretty harshly for what it asserts to be an outdated Web strategy. As Philly Tech News suggested: ouch.
• PE Hub reports on $2 million in new VC funding and what that means for a possible resurgence from RedLasso, the King of Prussia-based video-aggregation site. Check the SEC filing here, and read an interview we did with the firm’s CEO and president in March.
• A pun-heavy press release alerts us to the fact that TastyKake Baking outsourced the hosting and management of its voice and data networks to EvolveIP during their headquarters move to the Naval Yard. We covered EvolveIP last month.
• The Associated Press reports that the Italian trial against four Google executives has been postponed. The executives, who are accused of defamation and violating privacy for hosting a video that showed the abuse of an autistic youth, say the trial a threat to Internet freedom.
• The Inquirer reports on the trend of regional high schools adding FIRST robotics curriculum to encourage the study of engineering and related fields. The acronym FIRST means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Google confirms Street View tricycle on UPenn campus, reader snaps first pictures

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.