31 Reasons Why You Should Not Miss Maker Faire
(29 pics + 2 videos)
Hi! My name is Rustem and I am the founder of Robo. We are developing a robot called Robo Wunderkind to teach children the basics of programming and robotics.
Today I’ll tell you about my trip to Maker Faire 2015 in San Mateo, California. In this post you will see a huge robotic giraffe, an acrobat dancing on a flaming pole, R2-D2 robots, and a lot of happy children.
Maker Faire is an annual two-day exhibition for makers from all over the world to show off their inventions. Some call it the greatest Show & Tell Show on the Earth! This year, Maker Faire Bay Area is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Over 100 thousand visitors attended the event, and more than 50% of them brought their children. Maker Faire was the perfect opportunity to show our amazing Robo Wunderkind to the world.
The exhibition is divided into 10 zones. For me, two days were not enough to explore all the pavilions:
We joined Maker Faire with HAX, the world’s #1 hardware startups accelerator where we were accelerated in 2014.
One of the HAX graduates — Voltera, a circuit board printer. These guys from Canada are starting a revolution in prototyping. In March they raised more than 500 thousand dollars on Kickstarter and got into Top 10 of Popular Science’s 2015 Invention Awards.
Another HAX graduate — Helios. The creators came up with a smart bicycle wheel. You can keep track of its location, adjust the brightness of the flashlight and do a bunch of different other cool things using your smartphone.
HAX is now accepting applications for the next batch. If you are working on a cool hardware project, apply to HAX.
A huge robotic giraffe was rolling around the exhibition grounds…
… and shooting smoke at visitors from a huge cannon. It looked amazing!
You could get into a huge submarine fish …
And make a souvenir photo…
There was the famous DeLorean DMC-12 from the movie Back to the Future.
Kids were allowed to get inside and play :-)
An Iron Snail was spewing flames from its antennas.
Pebble, the smartwatch company which holds a crowdfunding record on Kickstarter after collecting more than $ 20 million in just a few weeks, presented their new product — Pebble Time.
The organizers prepared a lot of food for the participants.
Delicious chicken, mmm…
Looks good, doesn’t it?
While people enjoyed the celebration of science and food…
…musicians entertained the audience on a pedal-powered stage.
You could opt for pedaling although many preferred to lounge on the grassy field.
At the same time, a robotics competition for school children was taking place in one of the pavilions.
Live R2-D2 robots from the Star Wars entertained children and adults alike.
Video with robots R2-D2:
Many visitors came to the Maker Faire in funny costumes :-)
NASA had a separate area in the main zone.
They showcased their latest achievements.
A robot crab?
A dancer performs on a pole spewing flames.
Iron Rhino.
Children trying to communicate with a robot.
In the meantime, my colleague Anna taught children how to build their own robots. That’s what we do every day at Robo.
The iron giraffe continued to shoot smoke from a cannon.
And this very positive video gives you a good impression of the Maker Faire spirit:
Maker Faire is an amazing event that promotes science to the younger generation. If I had visited it for the first time when I was 6, I would have probably started learning how to build robots straight away… It certainly happened, but a few years later :-).
The Maker Faire is a celebration of technology, creativity and science; it inspires our kids to become the next generation of inventors. At this event, I felt like I was in the right place: with Robo we want to teach children starting at the age of 5 to build and program their own robots.
Of course, none of my photos could show you the feeling we had while being at the Maker Faire. If you have an opportunity to attend this event, you should do that! This is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. If you are maker or inventor and you have any questions, or just want to take part in the Maker Faire, write me an email: rustem@startrobo.com — I will be happy to chat with you!
Stay tuned!
Rustem
