Maker Faire Miami 2019
Celebrating our Community, Creativity, and Craft
The sixth annual Maker Faire Miami was especially dear to us as our long-time mentor, Mario Cruz — AKA Mario the Maker, assumed the responsibility of being the lead producer for the event. His enthusiasm for the maker movement was seen in all of the new additions to the faire, from organizing a new hands-on activities area in coordination with local maker organizations, to inviting more student, teacher and school participation, and featuring more women makers! This year’s Maker Faire Miami was the most inclusive experience yet — leveling the playing field for all curious minds and welcoming everyone who wants to join the movement! Read on to learn more about our exhibit and some of our favorite parts of the faire.
Miami Makers Pavilion
Each year, our makerspace hosts the Miami Makers Pavilion, a large exhibit of the creative work from the members at Moonlighter, and for our fourth year of this annual showcase, we collaborated with two of our members to design the main structures for the exhibit. Studio AMLgMATD created the new pavilion shade structure, and Hedgeclipper designed the Modular Display System for our student member exhibit.
The Pavilion
Philodendron Folly by AMLgMATD
Our Favorite Designer/Artist duo — Laz + Natalie have done it again! Using an aluminum structural system to hold up a canopy of inflatable philodendron foliage, this years pavilion definitely emitted the Miami vibe. About 100 GIANT philodendron shaped inflatables, each about 5 feet tall, connected to the grid structure to create a wild and overgrown canopy supported by thin aluminum “tree trunk” columns. The tropical thematic concept coupled with the aesthetic of the inflatable material made you feel like you were both in a jungle and at the beach at the same time. It was a popular gathering spot in the hands-on activities plaza — and the perfect backdrop for all the selfies.
The Modular Display System
Designed by Neil Patterson aka Hedgeclipper
Neil, one of our founding members, designs a range of sculptural objects inspired by vernacular architecture, trains, planes, and vehicles. Using 3D software to model his pieces, he meticulously organizes all of the parts onto flat sheets to be cut on the Laser Cutter or CNC mill. They slot together like a giant puzzle with no glue or screws needed to assemble them. We love the architectural approach to his work and asked him to design the modular display system for our outside shows and exhibits to be debuted at the Maker Faire. And once again, he did not dissapoint! When clustered together, they look like an abstracted city scape. There are tons of awesome details — like the clips that connect the pieces in a number of ways and allow for unlimited configurations of the modules, to the fact that they’re all on large 5" casters that allow them to be easily rolled into place. Neil also featured his own work including his 8' Tower, a new 3' plane, and a few of the smaller, more detailed pieces at the member showcase.
Member Showcase
Creative Cutout, Drip Drop Boards, Jose Peris, City of Miami + Code for Miami, Neil Patterson, Mario the Maker’s Retropi Arcade featuring Alberto Ruiz, 01, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden-Growing Beyond Earth Innovation Studio
Our member showcase was filled with lots of great exhibits and pop-up shops featuring custom artisanal work from our local members, including exotic wood skateboards from Drip Drop Boards, custom laser etched stencil art jewelry, accessories, and signs by Creative Cutout, Puzzle Sculptures by Hedgeclipper, and metal welded creations by Jose Peris.
City of Miami and Code for Miami were showcasing their collaborative open-source flood sensors using Particle.io technology.
Mario the Maker returned with his famous Retropi arcade featuring a life size playable BMO, a giant alien operation game, Tazer Tone Noise Makers, and light synth. This year he was joined by Alberto Ruiz who showcased his own Raspberry Pi powered arcades encased in authentically retro-detailed CNC-Milled arcade cabinets.
01 built a full size CNC milled racetrack for their RC car racing activity and had VR games like beatsaber and 3D drawing.
Fairchild garden exhibited their LED plant growing pods that replicate the Veggie system on the International Space Station and had more information about the Innovation Studio opening later this year in partnership with NASA and Moonlighter.
STEAM Kid’s Showcase
Students from our After School Steam Sessions, Summer STEAM Camps, and STEAM Experience Field Trips exhibited their projects. Prominently on view were the Moon Camp models submitted for the Airbus Foundation Design Challenge — where students had to 3D model and print their visions for habitations on the moon. Also on display was Life Clock — the sustainable startup company founded by 12 year old Eduardo Fernandez. He was selling clocks made with recycled wood and metal chips from the makerspace encapsulated in eco-resin to form the custom clock faces.
Allen Hesbun also showcased a number of his 3D printed, laser cut, and CNC milled designs, including the prototypes for his Mobile Reading Pod which debuted last year for the Miami International Book Fair.
Other projects displayed include DIY PVC water guns, 3D Printed Raspberry Pi Gameboys, Wearable Gemma-powered NeoPixel Light-Up Unicorn Horns, line-following programmable robots, and much more!
Giovanni, a 10 year old maker who participated in our “Master Builder” Spring Camp came to the faire with the wooden “Cherry Copter” he designed and built at Moonlighter. Its so great to see kids proudly exhibit the things that they’ve made!
Blocks Box
A room built of giant Everblocks filled with thousands of Lego and Lego Duplo blocks for unrestricted creative building play! Open throughout the fair, kids could come and join in on all the building fun, building projects of their own or collaborating with others on their projects — like the tallest tower challenge!
Hands-On Activities
Families were handed a “Maker Passport” at the entrance to be filled out at the 6 hands on activity tents — and when completed, they would receive an exclusive Maker Faire Keychain as the prize.
Moonlighter organized a photo print activity, using light sensitive paper to expose various maker themed designs onto the sheets.
Fairchild Garden allowed visitors to vacuum form their own plant growing pod and pot an edible plant seed inside to take home!
FIU WiCS organized the Learn how to Solder Activity, where people were able to make their own light up Makey or vibrating electronic jitter-bug.
REM Learning Center challenged kids to make and test their own flying devices, MDC Makers Lab had laser cut kits to assemble, and 01 had an RC car racing challenge.
Other hands-on activities not included on the passport were the “Make A Button” booth run by FIU Honors College EdgeLab and the “Screen Print your own T-Shirt” booth run by the Boy Scouts.
Maker Talks
This year, the Maker Talks were truly a highlight of the faire. Bringing extrememly relevant and cutting edge topics, presented by leading experts across the country to Miami to inform and inspire our community.
The schedule was very engaging both days — Intro to Quantum Computing with Robert Loredo, Building Freeformed Circuit Sculptures with Mohit Bhoite, Makers Gonna Break with Esteffanie Explains it All, BattleBots Panel with Team Witch Doctor, Urban Prototyping with James Brazil, Better Making Through Sharing with John Park, Robotic Couture with Anouk Wipprecht, and Making Magic Wheelchair Costumes for Kids with Ian Cole.
The meet and greet session after each talk was a real treat, allowing fairgoers the chance to take a picture with and ask one-on-one questions to the presenters. Having renowned professionals and YouTube stars impart their process and wisdom was an experience second to none.
From seeing the technology behind the creative fashions worn by Brittany Spears and Fergie for the Super Bowl designed by Anouk, to getting an intro to John Parks sharing model he developed while working with Disney and Adafruit, to seeing what local Battlebots teams do behind the scenes to prepare for each season, to getting inspired by Ian to use our maker skills to make a huge impact on a child’s life, there was no shortage of inspiration!
Power Wheels Racing
The Power Wheels Racing Series is a national circuit where electric toy vehicles, hacked and rebuilt to resemble fun themes like Scooby’s Mystery Machine, Cookie Monster, The Star Trek Enterprise, Hot Tub Time Machine, A Florida Man Airboat, A Star Wars Landspeeder, and more — race for speed, endurance, and Moxie (or Style) points!
This is the first year that PWR comes to Miami to introduce the community to the series and inspire local makers to make and race their own next year, when the race will be on the official national circuit. And although it wasn’t an official race, it was still wildly entertaining to see these awesome machines zip around the track — and parade through the faire grounds.
Favorites Around the Faire
There were lots of amazing makers exhibiting authentic passion projects, but here’s a few highlights of the ones that stood out to us:
Vex iCutie — Abbey K. is a young maker inspiring other girls to get into robotics. She got to interview the Maker Pro presenters for her Vlog and her exhibit won a Maker of Merit Award.
Perry Terri Toys — Professional toy making company that brought a balloon saber/tag toy that had kids and adults sword fight with long balloons, and when one person strikes the target strapped on their opponent’s chest, it pops their balloon and claims the victor! Needless to say it was tons of fun and extremely entertaining to see the battles all weekend, earning them a Maker of Merit Award!
STEAM/Vex/Robotics School Groups — It was awesome to see so many students and schools participating this year. Walking down the main aisle at the faire, you’d encounter RC cars, drones, and robots of all sizes zipping along with you. Miami Coral Park Robotics Club stole the show with a huge 8' robot in the center of the faire waiving a Robotics Team flag.
Awesome Sponsors and Corporate Booths — Microsoft, Particle, and Prusa supported the Faire and brought awesome hands-on activities, like a particle powered IOT space game, interactive apps on the Surface, and live 3D printing. Autodesk had an awesome booth where they were printing and firing custom PCB’s using Eagle Design. Watsco Ventures had an interactive VR experience, and IBM hosted a Quantum Computing workshop! They all brought their latest tech to make a truly memorable experience for our community of makers.
Mobile Labs on Buses — Miami Dade County Public Library’s TechnoBus and Fairchild Garden’s StemLab engaged our fairgoers with tons of hands-on activities and ways to engage in community research through citizen science!
The Best is Yet To Come…
This is just the begininning of a new approach to Maker Faire Miami. We wish we could list in detail all the amazing things and people at the faire but its something that you just have to experience for yourself! So if you didn’t make it this time, be sure to join us in 2020 for an even bigger and better showcase. It is Maker Faire Miami’s mission to create lots of opportunities for local makers to learn and engage year round so that they have the support they need to showcase amazing new things each year! So if you are a school, STEAM group or org, reach out to mario@mariothemaker.com to get involved.
Special thanks to all of the sponsors, organizers, and volunteers for helping to make the faire a reality! Especially our lead sponsor, Knight Foundation for their continued support, Co-Producer Miami Dade College for their amazing downtown campus venue and coordination, Mano Americas, and Lead Producer Mario the Maker for leveling up the event!
