Twelve-year-old Jordan Steel moves with his family from California to the City of Materials in Ohio, where science and technology permeate all aspects of daily life. At his new school, the Roberts Academy, Jordan discovers the secret world of the Robotics Club and the awe-inspiring Robot Wars. Even though underclassmen are rarely allowed to join the Robotics Club and participate in the Robot Wars, Jordan gets in with his new friends, the Silver triplets. They soon forge a team called the Warriors of the Old Republic. Paris is the electronics wiz and Friday is the welding guru. Goldie brings magnetics to life, and Nick is a computer ace. Together, they learn to depend on each others strengths to build a robot to compete in the Robot Wars. But not everyone wants an underclassman team in the Robot Wars. Jordan and his teammates cant be sure who their real friends are as they try to understand their new school, the secret Robotics Club and their competition. Even darker than some of their competitors intentions, however, is a secret housed in the halls of the Roberts Academy a secret that seems drawn to Jordan and his friends.

This book explores in theory and practice how artificial intelligence (AI) intersects with and alters the city. Drawing upon a range of urban disciplines and case studies, the chapters reveal the multitude of repercussions that AI is having on urban society, urban infrastructure, urban governance, urban planning and urban sustainability. Contributors also examine how the city, far from being a passive recipient of new technologies, is influencing and reframing AI through subtle processes of co-constitution. The book advances three main contributions and arguments: First, it provides empirical evidence of the emergence of a post-smart trajectory for cities in which new material and decision-making capabilities are being assembled through multiple AIs. Second, it stresses the importance of understanding the mutually constitutive relations between the new experiences enabled by AI technology and the urban context. Third, it engages with the concepts required to clarify the opaque relations that exist between AI and the city, as well as how to make sense of these relations from a theoretical perspective. Artificial Intelligence and the City offers a state-of-the-art analysis and review of AI urbanism, from its roots to its global emergence. It cuts across several disciplines and will be a useful resource for undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of urban studies, urban planning, geography, architecture, urban design, science and technology studies, sociology and politics.

The Superhero Multiverse focuses on the evolving meanings of the superhero icon in 21st-century film and popular media, with an emphasis on re-adapting, re-imagining, and re-making. With its focus on multimedia and transmedia transformations, The Superhero Multiverse pivots on two important points: firstly, it reflects on the core concerns of the superhero narrative—including the relationship between ‘superhero comics’ and ‘superhero films’, the comics roots of superhero media, matters of canon and hybridity, and issues of recycling and stereotyping in superhero films and media texts. Secondly, it considers how these intersecting textual and cultural preoccupations are intrinsic to the process of remaking and re-adapting superheroes, and brings attention to multiple ways of materializing these iconic figures in our contemporary context.

 They are invincible warriors of steel, silky-skinned enticers, stealers of jobs and lovable goofball sidekicks. Legions of robots and androids star in the dream factories of Hollywood and leer on pulp magazine covers, instantly recognizable icons of American popular culture. For two centuries, we have been told tales of encounters with creatures stronger, faster and smarter than ourselves, making us wonder who would win in a battle between machine and human. This book examines society's introduction to robots and androids such as Robby and Rosie, Elektro and Sparko, Data, WALL-E, C-3PO and the Terminator, particularly before and after World War II when the power of technology exploded. Learn how robots evolved with the times and then eventually caught up with and surpassed them.

* A much-needed clearinghouse for information on amateur and educational robotics, containing over 2,500 listings of robot suppliers, including mail order and local area businesses * Contains resources for both common and hard-to-find parts and supplies * Features dozens of "sidebars" to clarify essential robotics technologies * Provides original articles on various robot-building topics