Olin College of Engineering - Fall Student Expo - Needham, MA - December 21, 2015

2 years ago...

I met 4 female engineering students at the 2013 NYC Maker Faire.  I was struck by their ability to explain the complexities of laser engraving/cutting in a non-technical matter.  Via the infinite memory of google I was able to find this link on that project:  http://www.ingridhagenkeith.com/advanced-prototyping-with-a-laser-cutter-research.html

I have recruited many people for Olin since then, and even read the book "A Whole New Engineer" by Mark Somerville.

I hope to attend their workshop in June, "Designing for Student Engagement".  So I jumped at the chance to visit their end of semester Expo. Olin describes the event:

Olin’s Fall Expo is an end-of-semester event in which all Olin students participate. It is casual and open to the public. The event is a celebration of student learning and achievement, and the presence of guests is an important component of this event.

...would I be disappointed?  I hoped for a maker faire type experience.

I trekked to Needham and even found an AirBnB within walking distance.  I arrived early and watched as the first round of expo participants set up their displays.  I explored the Academic Center, finding this interesting organization description on the wall:

Before the event started I found this really cool display involving my favorite animal, PENGUINS!

I knew from this display (not part of the expo) that I would not be disappointed!

 A low cost DIY color sensor that I believe my students might use for their capstone.

 Team Dragon Cat was pretty popular.  You had to use wings to blow balls around a 3d course.

 This students project reminded me of work that Peter F. has done with photo luminescence...

 This picture is a poorly framed one of Peter Antognoni, Instructor of Machining (I had a great conversation with him and his co-instructor, I think Bruce was his first name).  The housing shown is from a really cool sounding project called a Tesla engine (I think?).  Hopefully Phil knows how to make one at make717!

This was a real attention grabber as well.  I love seeing different CNC solutions to putting ink on paper.

One of my favorite interactions of the day was with this student showing how he and his team (class?) were helping a struggling city establish a space to help people.  They found refraining from using "makerspace" very helpful...

 This servo driven marionette was very refined and well done.  I enjoyed discussing the technical attributes with the team of women engineers from a variety of backgrounds.  They also offered helpful advice for me as I embark on instructing my students capstone class.  Evidence of empathy that would be rare at most exhibit type events (including Maker Faires).

Kim Dagen Ed.D., my sister in law would have appreciated this analysis.  Showing how those with disabilities are much more likely to go from our education system into jail...what are we doing wrong?

He is holding a pufferfish!

The previous 2 pictures are of my FAVORITE!  Here is a writeup on the project (another visitor was commenting on how great the backstory was):

When Pufferfish Fly! It's the year 2015. Pufferfish everywhere are losing their lives and homes to fishermen and pollution. The only way to save them is by launching them to the other side of the world with a massive cannon (because plane tickets are expensive, yo). Enter you, who is destined to save these poor adorable aquatic spiky balls from extinction. Step on the launch pad and embrace your purpose in life.  

These guys were showing off an awesome concept, 3d printed QR codes that link to pictures you have taken.  On the reverse side of QR code is a topo 3d print of the location of your photo.  Developed in a hackathon weekend!  Kudos.

I somehow missed this termite tunnel project, looks like a great interactive exhibit.

I saw this book outside of the library, evidence that they have similar influences to Enrica, one of my college's academic counselors.

For more info on each of these and the many more exhibits see this PDF link.

As I filled out the survey after spending 5 hours with the roughly 300 Olin students I thought about what I had just experienced, a student body that is different than most from the millennial generation.

How so?

• more empathetic
• more articulate than typical technical people
• more innovative
• more engaged
• more passionate

Educators take note, something truly different and way better than accepted best practices is happening at Olin!

National Makers Faire 2015 - Washington DC

I attended this event with Phil Oles, a fellow member of make717 ( www.make717.org ).

It was crazy steamy hot and humid!  But we had some great conversations with makers and got some face time with Matt of www.PrintedSolid.com and Sophia of www.Morphiapp.com

Pictures from the event:

This lady has some really amazing "folding" works of art.

Phil and I met a scouting troop that specializes in EN-able 3d printed hand workshops.  Seems like a no brainer for them to visit make717! (from the DC area).  www.crew2013BSA.weebly.com 

 I was impressed with these 3d printing demo's of material properties.  www.kt421.wordpress.com

NIST was showing the Watt balance made of legos, which uses magnets made by a local company, Electron Energy.

 I love this design project, kids create positive/negative or neutral aerodynamic objects in the air up-flow tubes.

Phil and I ran into Dickinson multimedia specialists, Brenda Landis and another person that I didn't get contact info for.  They are responsible for makerspaces on campus, they have also realized that they already had maker areas throughout their campus.  This is probably also true of Stevens College!

We spoke about laser cutters/engravers from Epilog with John Ketchem.

Riverpoint Academy has a makerspace in a public school in Pacific NW, operated by TREP STUDIO.  They told me they are big fans of Bright Star lasers .

I met a director of LVL1.org the home makerspace of a valuable source of info, Caleb Sheehan who studied 25 makerspaces last year and is visiting more this summer.  We hope he stops by our space!  We are supposed to email directors@LVL1.org and they will help spread the word for our social venture pitch.

In the vein of Caine's arcade we saw a kickstarter cardboard pinball game from Pinbox 3000 .  Their prices seem high...

I got some great e-textile help for my next TechGyrls summer camp project from www.alevasi.com and www.threadwitch.com .

A great day, too bad it was such a sauna.

3d Printshow 2015 NYC

http://3dprintshow.com/

I attended this event on Saturday, April 18th with Matt Gorton of PrintedSolid .  It was a very relaxed event covering 4 floors of the venue.  Lots of good vendors of printers, filament, services, etc.  Another event was going on during the NYC 3d printing week at the Javits Center.  Those that had been in both venues said that event was slammed with people, but you could barely get to the booths...and the people walking the aisles were more curiosity seekers than active 3d printer people (that venue was probably also more focused on certain brands of 3d printers).

One point of buzzworthy news was the announcement that Makerbot was closing all its retail stores and laying off 100 employees...I think a vindication of the open source hardware market.

Ultimaker had an impressive booth, including a motorcycle 3d printed on an Ultimaker:

I was very impressed with Tinkerine (Canada), a very nice printer with nicely developed 8th grade to post HS curriculum:

 An example of their curriculum (hovercraft using recycled cans and 3d printed parts:

Bigrep, a $40k machine with an envelope that goes with that price tag (and a CE mark!):

 This Bigrep printed vase had an amazing texture, just like it was woven:

 Somehow I only got the current Dynamo3D (Spain) current model, they have a EVO version that is amazingly fast (Claiming 450 mm/sec!), Matt is currently testing this fast printer.  It needs more development and they appear committed to proprietary software and hardware from Denmark.  Which is probably justified to accomplish that type of acceleration and speed performance.  Print times will be amazingly faster on this machine!

Printrbot is not resting...they had the Metal Simple, a new Play version, and Metal Plus...the Play version is apparently brand new...not even on the website, so I may have the name incorrect on this one.  Brooke was talking to users of all ages, an example of the relaxed event dynamics.

 These guys have software eco system, seemed like a good solution for make717 when we have multiple printers, or a classroom with various printer models from different manufacturers:

This was in BE3D (German I think) booth, 3d printed, then coated in graphite then chrome plated:

One floor wall 3d printed art, I was hoping to win something from #52shapes, but didn't...I at least should have selfied with the make717 t-shirt :-(

This is a company from Portugal trying for the classroom model (Beeverycreative):

I met the US represtentative for 3d Hubs and she was excited to hear about make717, I hope we can get her to some events at make717.

Another great connection was with Sophia Georgiou of the "morphi" iPad app.  I am hoping to use it in upcoming summer camps with middle school girls.  They will be able to create their own 3d print models!

A related app is a mincraft style 3d model creation software called 3dSlash, you have to try it!

Highlights of 2015 NoVA Mini Maker Faire

WOW, what a Mini Maker Faire...of course it helps to be in a tech centric area like Reston, VA...but I was impressed with the quality of makers I saw while "helping" +PrintedSolid .

My mentions in no particular order:

Josh (I think) of MakeDesignTeach and #3dprintgumball Hall of Fame had this cool color process for 3d Printing:

 I don't think I helped PrintedSolid much, but at least Matt got some food and walk around time.

This iTapArcade project was one of the coolest I have seen...would be a great bike build module:

This was a mosaic at the beginning of the day...hopefully I returned to get the end of day pic!

Sponsors...

rubberbands and dowels...nice build system!

small dowels and color bands like kids make bracelets out of...really cool build system.

Nova Labs I believe:

A really cool thing that The Lancaster Science Factory should add:

more building inspiration:

Wylolum had some amazing and cool clocks, game systems, etc.

 more building, newspaper and tape is all it takes!

I did return to the mosaic done by visitors!

Great conversation with the Synthetos ( TinyG motion control board)...a force to be reckoned with, I want the Inventables CNC mill!

Wyolum again, these LED grids can be bought from SEEED studio.