Riding the train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had attended Maker Faire in the former Chinese megacity before — a well-established event supported by Seeed Studio’s Chaihuo Makerspace, Maker Faire Shenzhen draws over 100 projects and 30,000 attendees each year. But how would Guangzhou’s first attempt, organized in only a few months, compare? I was nervous, but excited to find out.
I had met virtually with event organizer Warisi “Nemo” Mijieti before, and was impressed by his energy and enthusiasm. After dropping my bags at the hotel, I headed over to the event venue, Guangzhou (International) Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Tianhe Base, to see how things were looking the night before the event. I was immediately blown away upon arrival. Large gantries advertising the event were positioned at each entrance, with a FIRST Robotics Competition demo being set up out front. Walking through the door, I saw a giant display saying “Welcome to Maker Faire Guangzhou,” as I was literally welcomed to Maker Faire Guangzhou by Nemo. We took a tour around the facility, and it was far bigger and better appointed than I could ever have guessed a first-year event might be. With areas for education, project displays, interactive experiences, and “Little Maker Fans” I was excited to see how they would be filled the next day.
A sweltering, bustling Saturday in Guangzhou began with a stage full of humans dressed as giant robots, and incredibly advanced actual humanoid (and quadruped) robots. A dramatic opening ceremony (including remarks by yours truly) gave way to Nemo declaring that the first ever Maker Faire Guangzhou had begun, and we all dispersed to explore the many exciting projects.
The first table I visited was Openterface, my very close friends who I had originally met at Maker Faire Shenzhen, and who came to Hong Kong airport this time to help me navigate the more difficult visa process and transportation for Guangzhou vs. Shenzhen. In addition to their Mini-KVM, they were demonstrating a prototype of their new KVM-GO, which crams advanced KVM functionality into an even smaller, keychain-sized form factor. I then bumped into Maker Faire Hong Kong organizer Eric, who excitedly showed me projects that had traveled from HK to join MFGZ, including an automated glockenspiel that was playing Christmas music, and a DIY mini hovercraft.
ACMER were on-hand with their new K1 portable engraver, as well as their BeaverBot cardboard (and felt!) cutter. MoSense were demonstrating some very cool capacitive “robot skin” that allows robots to respond to touch in a more human manner, as well as an interesting system that uses magnets embedded in a squishy 3d-printed sponge of sorts, measuring deformation based on the magnets’ angles. AICORUMI, a cute AI agent stuffed animal gave us a glimpse of how such interfaces may present in future, while an extremely impressive phantom limb rehabilitation system prototype combined an Arduino-powered glove with TouchDesigner to help patients suffering with pain from the syndrome.
One project that immediately caught my eye was a wind-tunnel for 1/64-scale toy cars. Using water vapour from the air, it creates a tiny visible stream over vehicles placed inside, along with (scale) speed monitoring.
The AI Chinese Doctor was a fun interactive experience. After sticking your tongue out at the built-in camera, taking your pulse, and answering a few questions, the doctor makes dietary, exercise, and even music recommendations to help improve your health.
TroubleMaker‘s Henk Werner gave a fantastic product brainstorming workshop, centered around six dice: Material, Motive Power, Scale, Device, Consumer, and Action. Our team rolled “Metal, Manual, Giant, Computer, Personal, Flying” and came up with a recumbent pedal-powered personal blimp, which we then presented Shark Tank-style to the other participants.
The latest from Guangzhou Yunhexue Intelligent Robot Technology Co. was on display, as well as FanciSwarm’s drones.
One of the coolest projects (and an Outstanding Maker winner) was CodeeBot, which effectively recreated the block-based visual programming language Scratch in real life, using magnetic cubes, and even a laser guide for indenting conditional statements.
South China University of Technology (SCUT) students shared some interesting prototypes, including an AI-empowered water bottle/pill dispenser, a smart lawn mower, and a smart warning triangle to improve road safety.
One of the best aspects of the event was how many kids were there. While Maker Faires are generally considered family-friendly events, sometimes an emphasis on startups or academia results in an older crowd, and the minds who we hope to inspire are not always present. But a curated “Little Maker Fans” area, including staples such as Nerdy Derby and drinking straw-based structures gave the little makers plenty to do. They also seemed to really like the Make: stickers that I brought, with the entire supply vanishing quickly each day.
Saturday night was the Maker Party, with soft drinks and cake and an assortment of fun games, like “telephone” and a competition to see which team could create the tallest structure from a deck of cards and roll of tape.
The event closed on Sunday with the announcement of six Outstanding Makers winners (the first four of which were already mentioned above):
Smart Warning Triangle
Bilateral Rehabilitation Device for Hemiplegic Patients
Remote-Controlled Hovercraft
CodeeBot
AquaSentry — an AI-powered device, similar to a t-shirt cannon, but instead dispensing life jackets when it detects that someone might be drowning
Experimental Study on Socially Transmitted Anxiety-like Behaviors in a Mouse Model — an astonishingly advanced high-school project that measured stress in rats by injecting them and dissecting their brains
Overall, the event was spectacular — an unprecedented success for a debut effort. With a population of over 72,000,000, and a long history of craftsmanship and creativity, the Guangzhou and Pearl River Delta region is ripe for the celebration of ingenuity that Maker Faire brings. I can only imagine how next year’s event will exceed my expectations, and I commend Nemo, Professor Zhou, and the entire team on such an outstanding show!
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