A Dalek World Record? Yes!
WITNESS A GUINNESS WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT AT THE FAIRE! EVEN BETTER, BE PART OF THE TEAM.
Dalek Asylum Milwaukee will attempt the world’s largest gathering of Daleks at Maker Faire Milwaukee, and is drafting a Dalek Dream Team to make it happen. Classic construction, cardboard, Dalek costumes….anything goes, as long as costumes and other entries are “complete and clearly recognizable as the character or costume designated for the record set out in the specific guidelines, at the discretion of independent witnesses and the Guinness World Records organization. Any entry deemed unsuitable will be disqualified from the final total.”
Let’s do the math: Dalek Asylum Milwaukee currently has 22 entries lined up, and needs another 78 to break the record. There is a rather harsh rule about disqualifying the entire attempt(!) if 10% of the total number of entries are disqualified as incorrect or incomplete, or if costumes are removed during the attempt. So, let’s beef up the entries for good measure and the inevitable disqualifications.
For some background on the idea and Dalek Asylum Milwaukee, check out this article from Milwaukee Record: Dalek Asylum Milwaukee assembles record-exterminating army of ‘Doctor Who’ villains.
If you’re in, let us know at daleks@makerfairemilwaukee.com We’ll share the complete Guinness World Records rules and keep you posted on the Dalek Dream Team and plans for scheduling the attempt during the Faire on Saturday, September 23, 2017 in Expo Hall A.
Maker Faire Milwaukee 2017!
We’re excited to announce that Maker Faire Milwaukee will be back in 2017, and we’ve even got a date confirmed. Mark your calendars now for September 23 & 24, 2017!
We hope you’ll join us for our fourth year of Maker Faire Milwaukee, and look forward to bringing together makers of all kinds in the spirit of sharing and learning from each other.
If you want to keep up-to-date with announcements about the event, please sign up for our mailing list.
Thanks for 2016!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
A big round of applause and a huge thank you to all the makers, speakers, workshop leaders, volunteers, attendees, and robots at Maker Faire Milwaukee!
This year we had over 250 makers willing to share their projects and their passion with our enthusiastic attendees!
We hope you were inspired by what you saw, and left Maker Faire with the desire to learn new skills, and make new things.
From the staff and volunteers at Maker Faire Milwaukee, thanks again, and we’ll see you next year! (In the meantime, if you want to be alerted to any maker-related events in the near future, or just want to know about the next Maker Faire before everyone else, sign up for our email list!)
We’ve got a Schedule!
You’ve been asking for it, and now we’ve got it… The schedule for 2016 is now live!
While a few things might change here and there, we’ve got it mostly nailed down, so check out the schedule and start making note of what you want to see. There’s Workshops and Speakers, and some of the All Day activities. There’s a few other surprises in store, but we’ll also be providing you with a printed schedule at the event. (And don’t worry, we’ll keep the web site up-to-date as well!)
Educators Program
We’ve got something special planned for educators interested in the Maker Movement this year. Maker Faire Milwaukee and the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum will offer a professional development opportunity for K-12 educators on Saturday, September 24, 2016.
You’ll be able to hear from educators, researchers and maker-professionals, and participate in panel discussions and workshops on a variety of Maker topics and on a broad range of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) topics.
Participants in the professional development program will also be invited to join the Museum’s newly-established Educators Community of Practice, which will provide year-round opportunities for teachers and maker-educators to share information and resources, and gather at the Museum for networking and learning.
To find out more, and to sign up, visit www.makermke.org/education
The Power Racing Series is Back! (Again!)
We’re happy to announce that the Power Racing Series is back for 2016! If you’re not familiar with the Power Racing Series, it’s a challenge to build an electric vehicle (and race it) for under $500. You start with a kid-sized Power Wheels car that goes about 5mph per hour and you rebuild it into a lean, mean, racing machine capable of carrying one full-sized adult human at speeds up to 25mph! Along the way you’ll have to make decisions about what to spend money on… do you want really good batteries and cheap tires, or a nice motor controller but under-powered motors? It’s all a trade-off, and many times crazy solutions come into play.
While the series and the car building challenge is fun, there’s also some serious engineering involved. Teams typically end up building a new frame, mounting motors, figuring out how steering works, and adding brakes that will pass the brake test for safety. (Don’t worry, while it might sound a little dangerous, safety is taken very seriously, and all cars must pass a tech inspection and a brake test. All drivers must wear helmets, and there is no budget applied to safety items like an emergency stop mechanism that each car is required to have.)
None of the teams take things too seriously out on the track though, and you generally see people smiling and having a good time while doing laps in these tiny vehicles. Jim and Patrick from the Power Racing Series do a great job of calling the races and you pretty much feel like you’re at a big-time auto race. Oh, and the cars tend to break. A lot. New teams often spend as much time in the pits as on the track. We’ve see wheels fall off and roll away, motors break loose from their mounts, and sometimes there’s a stray chain or pool noodle on the track. It’s all good.
We’ll have a full race schedule at Maker Faire Milwaukee, with Saturday featuring qualifying laps and a Moxie skit, followed by two sprint races. (The Moxie skit forces allows teams to show off their cars and drivers in an attempt to impress the crowd for votes. Sometimes slower teams can win just by racking up Moxie points for the weekend.)
On Sunday is a grueling 75 minute Endurance Race. The sprint races are typically less than 20 minutes, but the Endurance pushes these tiny cars to their limits. Often motors overheat, wires catch on fire, and tires blow out. Since many of the teams consist of people who like fixing things, this is all part of the fun.
In the coming weeks we’ll be highlighting some of the teams traveling to Milwaukee to race. Keep an eye on the blog!
120 Makers (and counting!)
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.)
The GE Design & Build Challenge is Back!
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!
Call for Makers has been extended until August 31st!
We have an awesome and growing group of makers who have submitted applications for Maker Faire Milwaukee. Thanks to all who have applied to exhibit! We don’t want to miss out on anything, or anyone who might need a bit more time to get it together, so the Call for Makers will be extended through August 31st, 2015.
Do you know anyone that would be interested in being a part of Maker Faire Milwaukee 2015? If so, please encourage them to apply or volunteer!
If you have any questions about participating at Maker Faire Milwaukee, please email the team at makers@makerfairemilwaukee.com.
100 Days until Maker Faire!
Maker Faire Milwaukee is coming up fast! We’re just 100 days out, and there’s still much to do.
Our Call for Makers is still open, and we’d love to have you come to Maker Faire and show off the things you’ve made, lead a workshop, or speak about a maker-related topic. We’re also looking for volunteers and sponsors to help make the event awesome.
If you aren’t ready to help us run the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth, plan on attending and taking it all in. We’ve got some amazing things to share with you, so put the date on your calendar, and we’ll see you in 100 days!