This weekend, we celebrate the second annual National Maker Faire, in Washington D.C.. The gathering of makers of all sorts is accompanied by numerous activities and announcements. We’ll keep you updated with a close-up look at it all here — keep refreshing to get the latest.
As Makey the Robot takes his bow, National Maker Faire 2016 is a wrap. We hope you had a fun time, made some great connections, and that you found what you saw inspiring. And we hope we’ll see you again next year. Next stop, World Maker Faire 2016, Oct 1 & 2, New York City! (Gareth Branwyn, 6:25pm) [Makey print and photo by Charles Webster, @wareFLO]
Happy Father’s Day to Dale Dougherty. If there is a father of the maker movement, it is most certainly Dale. We all owe him an enormous amount of gratitude and thanks for all he has done to tirelessly nurture and promote this movement and to so eloquently convey what it means to so many of us. Here Dale poses with his daughter, Katie Kunde, Maker Media’s Senior Sales Manager. Happy Father’s Day to all of the maker dads out there! We hope you had a great day. (Gareth Branwyn, 6:15pm)
One of the more promising pieces of hardware that got released at National Maker Faire was the Matrix Creator. This is a RBpi hardware development platform that attempts to integrate as many components, sensors, and communication and connectivity functions as possible onto a single disk-shaped circuit board. The list of what’s on-board is impressive: ultraviolet, pressure, temp, and humidity sensors, 3D accelerometer, 3D Gyroscope, 3D Magnetometer, 8 MEMs mic. array, FPGA (Xilinx Spartan 6), microcontroller (ARM Cortex M3), Zigbee, Thread, Z-Wave, NFC, IR RX/TX, 2 ADC channels, 17 Digital GPIOs, SPI, I2C, UART. All on a board that fits in your hand and retails for $99. It will be interesting to see what people do with this. The board is on sale now and will ship on July 15th. (Gareth Branwyn, 5:58pm)
Marc de Vinck talks to Brandon at the RadioShack Learn to Solder tent about the return of RadioShack (“The Shack is Back!”), the fact that they are developing new products, and their ongoing commitment to the maker movement. (Gareth Branwyn, 5:52)
Brian Jepson interviews Umberto Crenca about the origins and history of AS220, an amazing Providence, RI maker and artspace. Bert’s work with AS220 was responsible for him being chosen as one of the White House’s 2016 Champions of Change. (Gareth Branwyn, 5:40pm)
Uh-oh, everybody be cool, the Stormtroopers have showed up. (Gareth Branwyn, 5:32pm)
It has been so heartening to see how many local and city groups are getting involved in the maker movement, how many makerspaces, government departments and organizations, and others are being represented at this year’s National Maker Faire. One really gets the sense that the maker movement, the values and benefits of it to organizations large and small, have finally been understood and embraced by the mainstream. There’s a lot going on, nationwide (and beyond). And there’s a lot that still can be done. Making is starting to have a significant impact on education, government, industry, and community, but we’ve still seen only a fraction of its potential.
One important tool that got released during this weekend’s National Maker Faire is The Maker City Playbook. This is an online resource manual written by Dale Dougherty of Maker Media, Peter Hirshberg of The Re:imagine Group, Marcia Kadanoff of City Innovate, and several others. The purpose of it is to help city leaders better understand the maker movement and the economic and community opportunities it can offer cities. You can read the guide here. If you know anyone in any sort of a municipal or government position who might benefit from seeing this, please pass it on to them. (Gareth Branwyn, 5:28pm)
Frank Palmer with SmartCloud shares how to make a cloud with addressable LEDs that tell you the weather. (Jade Garrett, 3:49pm)
Erin Riley from Green Juggling demonstrates using upcycled plastic bottles that are perfectly weighted for juggling. (Jade Garrett, 3:44pm)
In Burlington, NC the new mayor collaborates with various community spaces, libraries, community colleges, schools, to help people discover the joys of make. Here they show off their collaboratively-made jumbo Tetris board. (Chelsea Kirkland, 2:31pm)
Check out Craig Trader’s Chaos Machine, an interactive, mesmerizing marble wonderland. (Chelsea Kirkland, 2:06pm)
Necia Disse of Tech Shop prints mustaches on the shop’s large vinyl cutting machine. (Jade Garrett, 1:38pm)
Stephen McInturff showing some muscle with his EMG arm which moves as he flexes. (Jade Garrett, 1:25pm)
Sean Grimes, with the Digital Harbor Foundation, promoting how to save the Chesapeake Bay with a 3D printed oyster ball. (Jade Garrett, 1:22pm)
Vincent Rossi and Megan Dattoria (from the Smithsonian’s 3D Lab) speaking about scanning the Apollo 11 command module and how you can download and 3D print them for free. (Jade Garrett, 1:19pm)
Check this out @DaphneRichards one of the many impressive makes at the #NatlMakerFaire #WeekOfMaking pic.twitter.com/LxBM98iFaD
— Paul Hill (@PaulHill_io) June 18, 2016
Marta Ali is an Ethiopian designer and architect. She is using 3D printing to explore and better understand the impressive art and architecture that flourished in Ethiopia from the 4th to the 12th centuries. (Gareth Branwyn, 12:10pm) [Photos by Don Russell]
Happy Father’s Day! Take dad out for an afternoon of inspiration and making at National Maker Faire. It’s a lovely day for it. The Faire is in full swing and will be until 6pm. Come on down! (Gareth Branwyn, 12:00pm)
Daniel Lofaro, from Lofaro Labs, shows off his human powered vehicle after his Make Live talk. (Jade Garrett, 5:30pm)
University of Wyoming’s Tonia Dousay shows children how to program robots by finger painting with Spheros. (Jade Garrett, 5:15pm)
Mana Momen, of the Nova Labs Biohacker Group, lets people try on EEG so that she can see if they are paying attention to her by the changing colors on their neurons. (Jade Garrett, 4:59pm)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGzhJvzEQQi/
You think it’s easy hosting an event like Maker Faire? Challenges at every turn! But rest assured, the amazing Maker Faire team is always ready for solving the problem. Go Enki! (Gareth Branwyn, 4:50) [Photo by Louise Glasgow]
Nice to see the Edgar Allan Print project here, a project of Baltimore’s We the Builders. The project is dedicated to creating distributed, 3D printed 1:1 scale replicas of prominent Baltimore public figures. Contributors to the project print out and mail in 3D printed sections of the life-size figures. (Gareth Branwyn, 4:42pm) [Photo by David Mordini]
Paul J Chase’s 3D printed kinetic chain art at the Nova Labs booth. (Gareth Branwyn, 3:30pm) [Video by David Mordini]
360 degrees of RadioShack’s Chief Creative Officer NickCannon bit.ly/1WTQcHd #NMF16
3D printed wind turbine blades from the Dept. of Energy. By 3D printing and then fiberglassing, production time on a blade is reduced from 10 months to a month at 30-35% of the cost. (Gareth Branwyn, 1:00pm)
Two amazing maker movers and shakers, Limor Fried, of Adafruit, and AnnMarie Thomas, author of Making Makers. Female engineers in colored hair, FTW! (Gareth Branwyn, 12:24pm)
Paper Roller Coasters: A fun DIY marble maze kit built entirely out of paper! (Matt Stultz, 1154am)
Piper: A Raspberry Pi based DIY computer kit with a custom Minecraft MOD to encourage kids to build and play. (MS, 1112am)
Who needs CAD when you can control your CNC from an Etch-a-sketch. (MS, 1114am)
Marble madness at the NOVA Labs booth. The click and clack of this 3D printed marble machine is providing the beat to National Maker Faire. (MS 1139am)
The irons are hot and the lines are forming at the learn to solder booth (MS, 1148am)
Making art with toy robots at National Maker Faire. (Matt Stultz, 1213am)
John Ellis, showing off the TLT Board, a three-wheeled electric sport board developed by Israeli maker, Eyal Aloni. This is a prototype of the board which is being developed into a commercial product. (GB, 12:06)
“Creativity is intelligence having fun” –@NickCannon LIVE at Center Stage
Learning to solder with RadioShack. After lots of concentration it was a success. #radioshackisback @makerfaire pic.twitter.com/rDH6ntsCR1
— Kyle Gregerson (@gregerson_kyle) June 18, 2016
Just met nice guy Nick Cannon at @makerfaire in Washington DC. @ARInnovationHub pic.twitter.com/BL7uvtQZNu
— Joel Gordon (@tinkerguy1) June 18, 2016
The folks from TOOOL (The Open Organization of Lockpickers), regulars at Maker Faire, begin their lock picking classes as National Maker Faire opens its doors and gets under way. (Gareth Branwyn, 11:11am)
President Barack Obama’s proclamation for a National Week of Making. (Gareth Branwyn, 10:59am)
“More and more institutions of all kinds are waking up to the opportunities and benefits of being involved in the maker movement.” -Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology (Gareth Branwyn, 10:14am)
Megan Smith, US Chief Technology Officer, speaking on celebrating “heroic engineering,” the early days of the space program as an example of what amazing things can happen when collaboration and can-do innovation are supported. (Gareth Branwyn, 9:56am)
Dale speaking on what the maker movement is, how we got here, and where we might be going.
“People go to makerspaces for the 3D printers, but they stay for the laser cutter.”
“Empowering students to be makers, to do what they are inspired to do, not what they are told to do.”
-Dale Dougherty
(Gareth Branwyn, 9:41am)
Dale Dougherty is about to begin his “State of Making” morning address at the UDC Student Center. (Gareth Branwyn, 9:31am)
The RadioShack team getting set up and ready to run the always-popular “Learn to Solder” tent at National Maker Faire. If you’re at the Faire, stop by the soldering tent and learn to solder a Makey the Robot LED pin. (Gareth Branwyn, 8:08am)
We hope you’re planning to join us today for the 2nd annual National Maker Faire. The event is being held today and tomorrow at the University of the DC – Van Ness, 4200 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008. Admission is free and gates open at 11:00am. Check out the Maker Faire website for full details and schedule. (Gareth Branwyn, 7:57am)
Watch a replay of the White House Champions of Change for Makers announcement here.
#NationofMakers kickoff panel w @dalepd @make Umberto Crenca @AS220 Sonia Pryor-Jones @FabFndn Renee Fredericks pic.twitter.com/eFSdhLzm1C
— sabrina merlo (@sannmer) June 17, 2016
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