This weekend I attended the eighth annual Maker Faire with my son in San Mateo, Calif. The Maker Faire and the Maker Movement have gotten so large, it’s easy to take them for granted. In fact, after going four straight years, I almost skipped this year until my son begged me to go.
I’m glad he talked me into it. From the moment we walked into the Maker Faire and saw an art car covered with robotic fish and lobsters moving to the sounds of punk rock, I was glad to be there.
There was no one, jaw-dropping thing that struck me this year. Rather, what hit me was how much I see and hear about these things when I’m not at the Maker Faire. The greatest marvel this year may be the broader impact the event is having around the country, and indeed, around the world.
On May 16th, the White House is kicking off “We the Geeks,” a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the United States. Topics such as commercial space exploration, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, turning science fiction to science fact, and others will be discussed with Administration officials and key private sector contributors.
The first “We the Geeks” Hangout will focus on Grand Challenges, ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. Grand Challenges are an important element of President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation. On April 2nd, the President called on companies, research universities, foundations, and philanthropists to join with him in identifying and pursuing the Grand Challenges of the 21st century.
We’ve lined up 10 creative technologists to cover the hottest platforms impacting the tech world: Google Glass, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Leap Motion, 3D Printing, Drones, Depth Cameras and more!
Save 20% off any ticket with discount code: ‘adafruit’
FITC stands for ‘Future. Innovation. Technology. Creativity.’ – four words that capture the essence of what our company and events are all about. We produce design and technology focused events worldwide which inspire, educate and challenge attendees. Since 2002, FITC has brought together like-minded professionals and students in Toronto, Amsterdam, Tokyo, San Francisco, Chicago, Seoul, New York, Los Angeles and many other cities. FITC produces a number of events internally and in collaboration with other event organizations throughout the year.
What is it all about?
It starts with the presentations which are both technical and creative in nature and led by hand-picked experts from around the world who are eager to share and meet you. For our larger events, there are often multiple tracks to choose from which include content catered to a specific audience. It’s also about the networking. FITC provides the platform for people who share a passion to meet and interact, whether it’s at the presentations, in the exhibitor hall or at one of the evening parties.
Who goes to an FITC event?
Digital Creators of all kinds…designers, developers, motion graphics artists, digital artists and everyone and anyone who creates things in the digital space. From technical to inspirational sessions, there’s always something to choose from, regardless of what stage of your career you’re in.
MAKE’s Hardware Innovation Workshop explores the culture, tools, technologies and trends that are shaping the newly emerging businesses that makers are creating. And, it’s happening right now! Find out what leaders at the forefront of the maker movement have to say about trends like:
On the first weekend in June, civic activists, technology experts, and entrepreneurs around the country will gather together for the National Day of Civic Hacking. By combining their expertise with new technologies and publicly released data, participants hope to build tools that help others in their own neighborhoods and across the United States.
It’s a great cause and we’re excited to take part. On June 1, we’ll welcome developers and tech experts to the White House for our second hackathon.
We’ll be going over different robotics packages and shields available to the pi, and
implementing code to control servos using Adafruit’s 16 channel PWM driver. I’ll be
demoing the code with my mecanum platform, which was built for the raspberry pi.
Time permitting we will also cover communicating with an Ardunio over a serial usb
connection.
Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver – I2C interface – PCA9685 – You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realize that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout. (read more)
CodeChix is a CA non-profit public benefit organization for local women developers run by local women developers in a non-alpha, language/os agnostic, supportive environment with an emphasis on face-to-face communication. It is the first group of its kind and started in 2009 in San Jose, CA.
CodeChix Seattle and Digital Eve Seattle invite you to a special evening with lively discussions about Women’s Career in Seattle Tech Startups. We have a great panel of women currently working at some of Seattle’s hottest tech startups, with different educational background, training, experience and career levels. We will explore topics around career planning and development, work/life issues, mentoring and support. You will also have a chance to ask the panelists questions and get their insight and advice on career issues on your mind.
The eTextiles Summer Camp (eTextile-summercamp.org) is a five day event that brings together expert practitioners of eTextiles and Soft Circuitry in one place to share their knowledge and skills through hands-on workshops, and facilitate discussions around their practices. We are looking for makers, designers, engineers and artists, who work in the field of eTextiles and soft circuitry to participate.
The first Summer Camp was held in 2011 in Borås Sweden, with 20 experts (http://stdl.se/summercamp/). This year, we are planning the second edition of the eTextiles Summer Camp from 17th to 21st of July in Poncé sur le Loir, France, hosted by Paillard Centre d’Art Contemporain & Résidence d’Artistes (http://moulinsdepaillard.com/).
The E-textile Summer Camp’s 2013 theme will be “Soft + Slow Electronics”. Many of us as engineers, designers and artists are working with soft materials such as textiles and paper, exploring the potential of soft, malleable and flexible electronics. Our practices often involve techniques that require intensive hand work, often resulting in long production processes. Some of the techniques we employ are almost archaic, but because we see value in making our own materials in our own ways, old-fashioned and slow techniques often come into play. We propose to see these practices as “slow”, rather than “time consuming”.
In today’s society “slowness” has gained positive connotation and acknowledgement through movements like Slow Food, Slow Cities and Slow Design Principles. These movements not only embrace the amounts of physical time consumed in a process, but also the social and cultural impacts resulting from slow processes.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
On Wednesday Becky Stern (Adafruit’s Director of Wearable Electronics) spoke at Eyebeam about wearable electronics/smart textiles. We both wore our FLORA sparkle skirts which where a big hit with the crowd.
Supporters of Nikola Tesla, who lighted the planet with alternating current but died penniless, announced on Thursday that they had completed the purchase of his decaying laboratory on Long Island and begun raising $10 million for its restoration and the establishment of a museum and educational memorial.
BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on open-source hardware platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the “maker” community with greater focus
on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication, a transparent USB packet sniffer,ARM optimizations for XBMC, ARM optimizations for FFTs, make-shift pulse-width-modulation and RPC optimizations for OpenCV. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, CircuitCo, Digi-Key and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with
over 100,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution and Linux communities—and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, Debian, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.
Nerdy Derby Denver is a non-regulation miniature car building and racing competition inspired by the Cub Scouts’ Pinewood Derby and the first ever Nerdy Derby in NYC. With a larger, more undulating track and no restrictions on the size of the cars (as long as they fit on the track) or materials participants can use (as long as they are safe), the Nerdy Derby rewards creativity, cleverness and ingenuity.
The inaugural Nerdy Derby Denver will take place at the Emmanuel Gallery on Tuesday April 30on the Auraria Campus as part of Performance Art Week. Visitors can bring their own cars to race and stick around to watch.
Presenting a diverse group of designers and scientists working in cutting edge textile research and production. From nanoparticles to circuit boards, technology is becoming embedded in the very fabric of the things we wear, creating clothing that’s more responsive to changing needs and conditions. Spurred in part by collaborations between academic and industry partners, “smart textiles” are beginning to enter the consumer market to enhance the properties of a garment whether it is heating, vitamin dissemination through the fabric, or weather proofing. These emerging developments are reshaping both materials and electronics for the human body. Join us as we explore possibilities within this growing area of creative and scientific innovation.
Presenters Juan Hinestroza, Associate Professor of Fiber Science and Director of Textiles Nanotechnology Lab, Cornell University Genevieve Dion, Assistant Professor and Director of Shima Seiki Haute Technology Lab, Drexel University Becky Stern, Director of Wearable Electronics, Adafruit Industries Moderated by Dr. Sabine Seymour, Computational Fashion lead advisor and founder of Moondial
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
If you are in the Philadelphia area this Saturday, check out HACK Philly 2.0!
HACK 2.0 is a technology based design and art exhibition featuring hackers, artists, and designers from Philadelphia and beyond. After last years premiere event, HACK Philly returns again for Philly Tech Week 2013 with HACK 2.0. This year features a wider range of work. From installation, performance, and wearable technology to experimental and cutting edge art and design.
For more information, visit: HACKPHILLY.com or email info@hackphilly.com
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