Our Mission: Hack to Learn, Hack to Imagine, Hack to Share

A mission to explore strange new worlds… to boldly go where no (body) has gone before.

What are Robot Hacks? At Maker Media we’re on an adventure to explore activities beyond traditional publishing and broadcasting.

We’re creating live online participatory events for the MAKE community, and re-making what it means for you to take part. Our new Maker Session concept includes video presentations by Master Makers with opportunities for you to be creative and hack in your own locations. We are thrilled that you will be able to brainstorm, build your projects, and be inspired by what you are learning, wherever you are. The early results are promising: Last month’s Urban Sensor Hack, our first Maker Session, included energetic teams and fascinating projects from across the U.S. and Europe.

You could call Maker Sessions ‘hacks of hackathons.’ Our live sessions will be devoted to noteworthy themes and trends. We’ll feature experts and authors who can provide you with sparks of inspiration, combined with the nitty gritty of how things are built.

To stimulate your imagination and get you started, registered participating Maker Session teams are eligible to receive a package of components, parts and instructional materials so you can build while learning. Along the way you can share your ideas, problems and solutions via our G+ community page. To apply to participate in Robot Hacks, click here.

At the end of the sessions, we will invite you to show off your work, whether it’s a concept sketch or a fully functioning project. The Robot Hacks content we generate, including Master presentations, team postings, questions, answers and comments, will remain freely accessible through our community page to anyone who signs up. In fact, our Urban Sensor Hack G+ community has grown by nearly 50 percent since the end of the last organized session!

This weekend we invite you to join the launch of our inaugural Robot Hacks Maker Session. The program kicks off Sunday Nov. 3 at 1pm Eastern Time (Don’t forget the time change!) with a live event and a Google hangout from Olin College in Needham, Mass, where we’ll converse with Intel Futures and 21st Century Robot author Brian David Johnson, illustrator Sandy Winkelman, designer/fabricator Wayne Losey, and Olin College Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Design Dave Barrett. If you are in the Boston area and want to attend the live event you can register here.

Robot Hacks will continue with additional sessions on Nov. 6 with Michael Overstreet, 13th with Gael Langevin and Chuck Fletcher, and 20th, where we’ll check in with our participating teams and see their work.

Are Maker Sesions the final frontier of online events? Unlikely. But we’re excited for you to join the Robot Hacks Community, and join folks around the world as we hack to learn, hack to share and hack to imagine.