Maker Faire Milwaukee

The Call for Makers has been extended, and we're still adding plenty of Makers to the web site. Check out the list of Makers for 2016 so far. (More are being added daily!)

We're excited to see the return of some awesome Makers from last year (many with new projects) and we've been welcoming a lot of first-time Makers to the event. Keep an eye on the blog for some "Meet the Makers" posts soon.

If you haven't submitted an application yet, there's still time and space! We'll have the Call for Makers open until September 1, 2016. We're also still looking for Speakers, Workshops, and teams to compete in the Power Racing Series. (We're holding off on accepting Commercial Makers right now, but may open the application process again depending on space allocation.)

We've been seeing some great submissions come through the Call for Makers and we're closing the call for Commercial Makers today, but we've decided to extend the call for Makers (those just showing and sharing, but not selling.) If you're a Maker, either an individual, or part of a group, and you want to show off your project(s) at Maker Faire Milwaukee, you can still apply!

We'll keep the Call for Makers open until September 1, 2016, though if we fill up every space we have it may close sooner, so if you know an awesome maker, speaker, or workshop leader, tell them to submit an application as soon as they can (even if their project isn't done.)

The GE Design & Build Challenge is coming back to Maker Faire Milwaukee again in 2016 for its 3rd iteration. Sponsored by GE Healthcare, last year’s Challenge gave teams of four Makers three hours to build a machine to deliver a ‘brain’ for transplant through the Maker Faire Hospital. With no prior knowledge of what the challenge would be, and using only materials available from a well-supplied Hack Rack, teams designed, assembled, and tested their transporters in front of the Maker Faire crowd and raced through the course.

The technical centerpiece of last year’s challenge was the ‘Brain’ which was designed and built by a team of Engineers and Industrial Designers at GE Healthcare. The Brain itself was 3D printed using ABS plastic, and it was suspended in an acrylic jar. Embedded inside the Brain was a NI myRIO FPGA controller from National Instruments, which read data from a 3-axis accelerometer and transmitted it back to 3 desktop computers through WiFi. Those computers could then display the data in real time, so the crowd could see the bumps and drops as the teams moved through the course.

The Brain was also fitted with NeoPixel color-changing LEDs to give a visual indication of its life. Rainbow colors were displayed when it was healthy, the lights turned to red when it was getting damaged, and finally turned off when the health dropped to zero. It gave the judges quantifiable measures of how well each team performed, and also let the audience know how well the teams were doing.

Technology will be a factor in this year’s challenge as well. Make sure to stop by the Design & Build Challenge on Sept 24 to see what the teams will be challenged with this year, and if you think you're up to the Challenge, apply as a team!

Our Call for Makers is open until August 1st, 2016, which gives you about three weeks to apply. But what if your project isn't done yet? That's okay, and I'll explain why...

Making is a process, a journey, if you will, and along that journey you learn things. Maybe you learn a new skill, or you learn why you should have used screws instead of nails, or why hot glue wasn't the best choice. All of these little details of a project create an experience, and the experience is something you can share at Maker Faire.

Maybe you've been working on a project for years, and it's still not done. Showing it to people, and talking through it may give you new ideas, or the boost of energy you need to complete the project. (Maybe you'll complete it by next year and bring it back as a finished project!)

Above all, what we're looking for is people who will come to Maker Faire and share. Share their projects (finished or not) but also share their knowledge, what they learned along the way. Just showing what you've got so far can be inspiring to someone who hasn't even started a project yet.

Don't wait! Apply to the Call for Makers today!

You may remember Jake Bissen from last year's Maker Faire Milwaukee. He had the suit of armor he made as a member of Milwaukee Makerspace, and we ended the weekend with him in the armor battling the large Tesla coil. (You remember the post, right?)

Jake is a film student at UWM and his senior project is a film titled "Rook" that he'll be producing. Besides the suit of armor, Jake has been busy building a camera crane, camera dolly, and other equipment needed for his film. He also plans to use the Kuka industrial robot arm at Milwaukee Makerspace as a camera control system to film himself battling the large Tesla coil again, a practical effect never before seen in a film.

Jake's idea came about due to something crazy he tried at Maker Faire, and he wants to make it a reality, but he needs some help. If you want to see him succeed, consider supporting his Indiegogo campaign to help fund the film. You can also check out the Facebook page for the film.