Brazil joined the Maker Movement last year by hosting the country’s first large-scale Maker Faire Rio de Janeiro. The event, the first in Latin America, was hosted by Nuvem Criativa, and was enthusiastically supported by the community. Following the resounding success of the first year, the Faire is back again this weekend, November 2+3 at ExC (Jockey Club of Gávea), and is free to attend. There are a wide range of maker exhibits, workshops, and talks that will be featured, and impressively, a good number of them use maker smarts to try and make the world a better place for all. Cheers to that! You can see a full list of makers online. Highlighted below are just eight of the many projects working to make a difference.
Smart Helmet for Cyclists
Finally, a smart helmet for cyclists, complete with lighting system, turn-signal arrows, and Bluetooth. Smart-Capacete puts control of everything from changing the song to turning on the lights in the hand of the wearer, while lending safety through visibility.
Wearable Devices for Expectant Couples
Luma Rodrigues, an undergrad in Digital Media Design at PUC-Rio, has designed Ávidos, a wireless communication system to strengthen the affective bond between the father, the baby, and the pregnant woman during pregnancy in situations of physical distance.
Recycled Park
Recycled Island founder Ramon Knoester will be bringing a model of Recycled Park: a habitable floating island, made from plastic waste found in the ocean. On July 4, 2018, the first Recycled Park was opened at the port of Rotterdam. The floating debris of the rivers and the harbor is recovered and recycled to create a floating park of 140m2. The goal of this iconic floating park is to illustrate that recycled plastic from the open water is a valuable and suitable material for recycling. By reusing recovered plastics and producing building blocks with them, plastics are given new value and building blocks create a new green area.
Educational Biochemistry Game
A group of public high school students have developed an educational game to facilitate the learning of complex concepts in biology. This board game, made with recyclable materials, features a table of genetic code, where enzymes try to correct mutations.
Recycling Lab Plastics for 3D Printing
Grupo NanoBiotech is a research group focused on bioactive substances, nanomaterials, and synthetic biology. Their latest project, RecicLAB3D, a first step in making the research laboratory a self-sustaining environment. “This initiative aims to 3D-print necessary laboratory utensils (labware) by using as feedstock the typical products that are discarded on a large scale in the laboratory.”
Smart Cane for the Blind
Thomas Rossi, is a graduate student in Product Design at PUC-Rio, has designed Gala, an intelligent cane capable of detecting and reporting the status of traffic signals, in real time, for blind users.
TechTrash Recycler
TechTrash is a startup that facilitates, with the management of e-waste, people’s access to actions to protect the environment, reduce environmental impacts, and encourage social transformation and digital inclusion.
Open Source Mini Lab
The brainchild of visual artist Marrytsa Melo and environmental scientist Filipe Machado, pequenoLAB is a “mobile and free invention laboratory, a transdisciplinary open platform for developing projects in different languages.” The creators also make other educational kits, workshops, and other activities.
For all the information you need to attend, check out the Maker Faire Rio de Janeiro site!
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