WonderCon Anaheim 2026

Each year, the droid builders display such amazing creativity at WonderCon Anaheim! Fun to hang out with these talented builders. Mike spoke on a panel about how to build an R2-D2. 

 

 

Ben Burtt photo ops at Academy Museum, LA

Ben Burtt has won 4 Academy Awards for his work in sound design. He is best known for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and being the voice of R2-D2 and Wall-E. The Academy Museum invited us once again to provide photo ops with WALL-E in the lobby before/after Ben Burtt’s presentation. We enjoyed a nice chat with Ben, such a nice man. It’s always fun to see so many WALL-E fans of all ages make a meaningful connection with their favorite film character.

 

 

 

SoCal Droid Builders build day

We hosted an informal build day for members of the droid builders club, for a full day of sharing innovation and ideas, troubleshooting, camaraderie, collaboration, socializing, and pizza. 🍕

About 25 talented veteran and newer builders drove from throughout Southern California, as far as San Diego and Ventura counties. It’s always so enjoyable and rewarding to interact with such creative and friendly people, strengthening friendships, and building new ones. Southern California Droid Builders are a special bunch.

 

Progressive Automations Engineering Career Development Webinar

Mike was happy to share his professional insights on Career Development in Engineering for a recent webinar hosted by Progressive Automations. In the session, he covered:

• Essential engineering skills for today's professionals 
• Future trends in engineering 
• Real-world applications via Mike's robotics projects 
• Q&A

The webinar recording, filled with insights and tips on developing key engineering skills, is available to view at this link:

YouTube: Progressive Automations Engineering Skills Webinar

 

A Place Called Home Comic Art & Literacy Expo, South Central LA

Always a pleasure visiting the wonderful people at A Place Called Home in South Central LA. This year we brought WALL-E for photo ops at their annual Comic Art & Literacy Expo. He made a lot of new friends!

WALL•E & EVE at OC Spiritual Center

Our favorite sweethearts were invited to be part of a Valentine themed sermon at OC Spiritual Center in Irvine. Dr Jim chatted with WALL•E, interviewed Mike, then Eve joined and the two were available for photos afterwards. 

WALL-E at UCLA

UCLA’s chapter of ASME invited Mike to give a presentation on building WALL-E. This was of particular interest to their X1 Robotics team, which is working to build their own WALL-E. Dozens of students attended the presentation in the campus’s newest lecture hall, the Mong Learning Center. Many students stayed after the presentation for one-on-one questions. Mike then did a partial tear-down of WALL-E to show the inner workings.

We were honored to be invited by Professor Dennis Hong to tour the Robotics and Mechanisms (RoMeLa) lab. We were blown away by various high tech robotic innovations created over the years by UCLA students. Including their newest full-sized humanoid robot ARTEMIS.

For details on their robots, check out Professor Hong’s latest TED Talk:

Dennis Hong: 7 new species of robot that jump, dance — and walk on water
ted.com


Thanks UCLA for inviting us out!