Related to MAKE 04, MakeShift
MakeShift 04: Analysis, Commentary, and Winners
by William Lidwell
March 16, 2006
Introduction
Few people know that part of the hiring process at Dean Kamen's research and development firm, DEKA, is a sort of real-time MakeShift challenge: applicants are brought into a large conference room where Kamen and a dozen of his top engineers rapid fire seemingly unsolvable problems at the aspiring makers in order to observe and evaluate their problem-solving prowess. It is trial by problem solving, and the faint of brain need not apply. It is in this same spirit that Dean's team offered the MakeShift problem for Make 04: a rural setting in Mexico, summer drought conditions, and a family in need of a water irrigation solution ASAP.
MAKE readers answered the DEKA challenge with all manner of pump and irrigation solutions. MakeShift solutions ranged from cloud seeding to ancient pump designs to solar Stirling engines. Then, Kamen and his team took a brief break from working on the world's water, energy, and transportation problems to select the winners. Over 100 solutions were vetted down to the winning entries below.
Thanks to the MAKE readers who took up the DEKA challenge-and sorry for the delay in getting the winners selected. Without further ado...
Winners
Winners receive MAKE T-shirts to celebrate and show off their unique brand of genius and the ultimate MakeShift master tool-the SWISSMEMORY USB Victorinox 512MB -equally useful for hiking and hacking. Honorable mentions get fame and recognition for their excellent contributions. In exchange, we at MAKE expect great things. Go forth and solve the world's problems!
The winners of the MakeShift 04 challenge are:
- MakeShift Master - Plausible: Matthew Sparks
- MakeShift Master - Creative: Mark Trageser
- "Zeno of Elea" Honorable Mention: Vinnie Forgione
- "Hans Christian Andersen" Honorable Mention: Bobby Joe Snyder
Congratulations to the MakeShift Masters and the Honorable Mentions (applause ... accolades ... bowing). All did a great job of taking on the DEKA challenge and communicating their solutions in a fun and effective manner. I encourage all readers to study these winning entries and share this link with your friends. Until the next MakeShift challenge - the dreaded vault escape - happy making!
Discussion
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- South Pointing Chariots?
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Some great winners--much cooler than anything I submitted!
It's a bit of a shame, though that the evaluators evidently didn't take the lessons of Makeshifts 1-3 to heart, or their own best advice about "south-pointing chariots." What we have here are some examples of great gadget-makers... making gadgets. We're ignoring the simplest solutions of all:
Take all the stuff lying around, put it in the wagon and take it to town. Now barter it for a small gasoline-powered water pump and a dozen cans of gas. This is the solution each of *us* would consider first, why not this family?Posted by kiteship on March 18, 2006 at 17:15:38 Pacific Time
- South Pointing Chariots?
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Good point, I suppose you could have just run down to the store and bought them a pump and given them gas and asked to be paid back after they sold their crop. kind of defeats the makeshift idea though.Posted by maltedfalcon on March 24, 2006 at 10:29:33 Pacific Time
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