Tune In: Maker Faire Bay Area 2025 Line Up

Makers generally have something interesting to say about why they do what they do, how they’ve made their next best thing, new ways other makers can approach the challenging questions they face building their projects, or even what it means to live a creative life. Each year at Maker Faire Bay Area the Make: Live Stage is home to some of the brightest minds and most interesting projects in the makerverse. From the best way to harness new tools to old machines used in unexpected ways, Maker Faire presenters always have something interesting to say. It might be hard to drag yourself away from the cacophony of fascinating bells and whistles and shiny things that crowd the esplanade at Mare Island, but we assure you its worth your time to engage the stage! Read on to learn more about this year’s Make: Live Stage line up. There’s even a maker movement origin story in the mix!

Looking to learn a bit more about how Maker Faire got its start? Tune in on Saturday, September 27th at 2pm where Make: magazine and Maker Faire founder Dale Dougherty will share his experiences of 20 years of publishing Make: and producing Maker Faires.

Don’t miss the rest of the fantastic speakers Saturday and Sunday on the Make: Live stage. They are listed in order of appearance, on the half hour, starting at 10:30am. The last presenter will go on at 4:30 pm each day.

Follow Survy Vaish‘s journey of creating a robot for RoboMagellan, an outdoor autonomous navigation challenge where robots use GPS to reach waypoints while avoiding obstacles. This talk shares the complete process—from the first “shoebox” prototype to a robust system with computer vision (YOLO-based cone detection), 3D-printed chassis, and adaptive wheels for rough terrain. 

Have you ever come across a strange LEGO piece and wondered what set it came from? Or was there a set you remember playing with as a kid but can’t remember what it’s called? Sam Suksiri has helped hundreds of LEGO fans reconnect with lost LEGO sets by identifying them with just a few pieces or even just a faintly remembered description. Sam will share his LEGO knowledge from working as a LEGO Master Model Builder and online LEGO Master on how you can ID LEGO sets using helpful LEGO search terms, online LEGO catalogues, even AI image search!

The recent rise of “Vibe Coding” is just one part of AI Large Language Models (LLMs) being used in ways that the user may not fully understand. Particularly in engineering education, the use of such AI tools while allowing for rapid prototyping for weekend projects, can result in the user potentially not understanding the generated code. Furthermore, it can result in unintended security vulnerabilities or codebases the user can’t fix or scale for production. Chatbots are an invaluable educational tool for students to help them learn by using LLMs to provide instant feedback with suggestions for improvements, or to act as a tutor to clarify the student’s understanding. Unfortunately, some students use them to cheat on assignments, resulting in them failing to develop the requisite knowledge. This talk will explore some of the ways AI and LLMs can be used to improve education and discuss ways that educators can identify which students are using these tools to cheat.

There is a wave of interest in using fungi to grow materials for building, textiles, packaging, and remediation to address some of our most pressing global challenges. Fungal materials are easy to create at home, unlike many other contemporary biotechnologies. Rolando Perez and Rachel Linzer from Open Fung – a scientist- and artist-led nonprofit building accessible tools for applied mycology – will talk about the possibilities of fungal materials on Earth and beyond, and how you might begin making mycomaterials of your own.

At xTool, we’re transforming the world of metal working and laser engraving and cutting by offering powerful, easy-to-use tools for everyone. Whether you’re a DIY enthusiast or a business owner, our machines are designed to bring your ideas to life on a wide variety of materials – from wood and metal to leather and acrylic. With xTool, creativity knows no limits! https://www.xtool.com/

Debra Ansell of GeekMom Projects makes all sorts of things pop with lights! This talk will cover practical techniques to add LEDs to clothing, costumes and, accessories for fun and fashion. Debra will discuss different methods to light up your wearables aimed at makers with a wide range of sewing and electronics skills. You’ll learn some common wearable pitfalls to avoid and what qualities work best when selecting a garment or accessory to illuminate.

The Riddle of the Sphinx. Rubik’s Cube. Wordle. The Kobayashi Maru. If you’re a maker, you probably enjoy puzzles — discovering how something works scratches an itch and brings a sense of order to the world. That thrill is at the core of Game On, a live-action puzzle experience in Berkeley, California, cofounded by childhood friends James Hopkin, Tim Alley, and Eric Mittler. Unlike an escape room, where players linearly move through a puzzle-solving narrative like, say, a zombie apocalypse, Game On features puzzle rooms that operate independently. One room not to your liking? Try another that has a different type of puzzle to solve. Our motto is “try, try again” both in the experiences we create, and in our approach to imagining, prototyping, building and rebuilding our game rooms. In this presentation we’ll show off what we’ve built and rebuilt, what we’re working on now and some of the many dead ends we’ve gone done along the way. Read more about them in V.94 of Make: Magazine.

Chloe has lived in a short school bus for the past 5 years and spent much of her time fighting the disparate solar and IOT ecosystems. Home Assistant has made much of that easier, but there’s been a lot she’s learned and many considerations to take before jumping in. She’s even taken her time to create open-source hardware with ESPHome to make it easier for everyone. She chronicles her journeys with tech, off grid living, and the aptly named Gary Bussy at https://www.clomads.com/featured/gary-bussy

The film industry is more than just actors and directors—there’s an amazingly broad set of roles that contribute to the art and entertainment that grace the silver screen (and stream to your TV!). Join three movie professionals with diverse backgrounds as they share their unusual journey to working in film, as well as reveal unexpected positions that have played key roles in some of the most popular Hollywood blockbusters. They’ll also be judging the inaugural Two-Minute Film Festival – check out the submissions in the big bus down the alley and cast your own vote!

Wearing LEDs isn’t just for raves, robots, or Burning Man. Why not wear them to brunch? Or your next Zoom meeting? Or while waiting in line at the DMV, radiating calm, glowy energy? In Casually Glowy, Charlyn Gonda — coder by sunlight, maker by moonlight — invites you to add a touch of futuristic fantasy to your daily life. She explores the world of wearable LED art and shares her quest to normalize wearing LEDs like they’re just another accessory. You’ll discover how she finds inspiration, balances aesthetics with wearability, and creates interactive pieces that express unique style. Charlyn will show off some of her favorite creations: from dazzling jewelry to glowy home decor like enchanted lamps and wall art that vibes time. These gently illuminated objects prove that a few glimmers of light can completely transform how something feels. With a mix of code, craft, microcontrollers, and lots of brass, Charlyn turns everyday items into delightfully glowy artifacts. LEDs are like modern-day gems: bright, hypnotic, and dangerously hoardable — and honestly, they go with everything. So if you’re into wearable art, cozy glows, and things that make people say, “Wait… how is that lit up?”, this talk is for you. Fair warning: you may leave with the urge to put LEDs in everything. (Sorry not sorry.)

Join Odd Jay as he shares his experience working on taking his comet crawlers robots from Version 1 through Version 2. Jorvon Moss, a self-taught maker and robotics enthusiast, developed the Comet Crawlers to share his work and inspire other people to build their own projects. The Comet Crawlers are a series of compact, walking robots, with version one (V1) being open-source. Moss has created many different robots, often using 3D printing for the components. Interested in trying it yourself, he’s also created a DIY guide with DigiKey HERE.

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Mastering prototyping can boost your productivity, creativity, and resilience. CrunchLabs toy designer Bam Singhasaneh shares the what, why, and how of prototyping, and reveals how embracing a prototyping mindset can enhance your everyday life. In fact, ANYTHING can be prototyped! Leveraging her interdisciplinary experiences as a mechanical engineer, designer, and educator, Bam develops toys that inspire children to become creative problem solvers by evoking their curiosity in science and engineering. Outside of work, Bam is a member of team Valkyrie on the show BattleBots, as a designer, builder, and driver. She also competes regularly with her own robot at local events, sharing her love for engineering and problem solving through the excitement of combat robotics.

Electrical engineer Greg Leyh is no stranger to high voltage. He invites it, measures it, and controls it. You could safely say he’s been a lifelong enthusiast and researcher of high voltage and nature’s incarnation: lightning. Notably, he’s previously built two coils that were the largest in the world at the time they were built. Recently, he’s been playing with large scale physics and plasma effects — he been smashing watermelons with lightning scale currents — and he’ll be sharing the details!

Hi! We’re Kausi (“cow-see”) and Max (“max”)! As product designers, we know the power of quick, hands-on prototyping for testing ideas and refining designs. We’ve seen how this process sparks problem-solving and creativity, especially for kids. However, the tools that make prototyping easy for adults are often too complex or unsafe for young makers, making materials like cardboard more frustrating than fun. We’re here to change that!

How has our small special effects shop stayed afloat while the US entertainment industry has faced huge challenges? By staying ahead of new tech to cut our development time in half. Join RHFX owner Jesse Velez and members of his team to learn about how they once again brought Wednesday’s THING to life for Netflix’s Season 2 Premier. Using advanced prosthetics, drone batteries, common wifi modules, and state of the art motion capture gloves. The video above – the Korean trailer for Wednesday – really shows just how vividly this project comes to life.

What happens when the maker movement meets the Nordic school tradition? In Denmark, through big national educational initiatives like cfumaker.dk and the Playful Learning program, we have explored how tinkering and maker activities can become part of everyday classroom practice—not as an add-on subject, but as a new pedagogical foundation. With New Nordic Tinkering, we connect tinkering and maker culture to core Nordic educational values such as community, democracy, and character building. This approach is about more than just building and experimenting – It encourages students to ask big questions, share their insights, and develop the agency needed to navigate in an increasingly complex world.

Manage your moods, make mischief, and manufacture magic! This talk is crammed with real-world hardware devices that can make our lives better (or worse) – including 13+ years of open-source tutorials by presenter Alex Glow. We’ll take a tour through DIY wearables, robots, and other tools for self-actualization, then some notes on how a technology-mediated environment can produce weird and exploitable effects in our brains.

In this presentation, I’ll talk about how I built a Capacitive Touch Piano/Synthesizer/MIDI Keyboard. The platform consists of a Raspberry Pi Pico, capacitive touch sensing, RGB Leds, audio synthesis and more. We’ll look at the design considerations and how the project came together. I’ll end the presentation with a demo, and open it up to piano/keyboard virtuosos in the audience!

The Connect 4 Musical Instrument transforms a classic game of Connect 4 into a live musical performance. Two players face off in a standard game, but with each move, they collaboratively generate a unique musical composition. The red player triggers the drum patterns, while the yellow player controls the melodic sequences. As the game progresses, lights flash to indicate the rhythm and position of each beat in the musical grid. Learn how Ben created this novel use for an off the shelf toy and give it a try yourself.

Author/musicians Mark Vail (Vintage Synthesizers) and David Battino (The Art of Digital Music) invite you to a backstage tour of their mobile music systems — battery-powered and built into briefcases for instant jamming in concert halls, cafes, and parks. The duo discusses how to choose instruments and effects; route audio, power, and MIDI; capture high-res recordings; and package everything in a compact case that’s easy to carry and play. Mark and David also show ultra-portable rigs they’ve played on airplanes and one-of-a-kind DIY instruments like SwineWAV, SoundBite, and Slugoscillator Pro. 

Check the Make: Live Stage schedule to get the exact times and updates! If you can’t make it to Mare Island for Maker Faire Bay Area, you can catch the Live Stream on the Make: YouTube channel.