Maker Faire returns to NYC this weekend

The “greatest show (and tell) on Earth” returns to NYC for a 4th consecutive year. The event spans two days and is hosted at the NY Hall of Science in Queens, NY. Five different zones cover the grounds located at the northwest corner of Flushing Meadows Park. Empowered by the maker movement each zone contains everything from performances to hands-on skill learning such as soldering a circuit or building a robot. Hackers, tinkerers and thinkers come together to share and learn. Sure you have your really deep-dive nerdy DIY electronic kit section but you also have drone flying, an entire 3D printing village and a giant life-size Rube Goldberg mouse trap. You might not think watching a giant mouse trap sequence would be fun but when you add a band (they had one last year) and all the DIY craftiness of old car parts, bathtubs, etc. it’s super fun. (Think OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” video).

More the lecture type? All the DIY craft a bit too much and you’d rather hear some people tell you about making things? There’s something for you too. The speaker lineup for Saturday and Sunday includes the founder and CEO of littlebits (absolutely fabulous snap together electronics learning kits for kids of all ages); the CTO of NASA (you’ve heard of them); founder of Arduino and Raspberry PI (DIY electronics kits that rock), Bre Pettis (do I need to tell you who he is? CEO of MakerBot), and many other tech and making evangelists.

“Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these “makers” come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned.” says Maker Media

Maker Faire is brought to you by Maker Media.  Maker Media publishes MAKE magazine, produces Maker Faire, and offers DIY electronics, tools, kits, and books through its online and pop-up Maker Shed stores.

Disney is the presenting sponsor with a collection of other levels of sponsors including Microsoft, Ford and Chobani.

The website has all the details: http://makerfaire.com/
Program & Schedule: PDF download directly

Follow @nysci and @makerfaire

There is also an app for iOS and Android.

A Twitter Powered Paintball Gun? Why Not!

Creative shop iStrategyLabs is helping move the internet of things from a buzzword to a reality, launching “social machines” which allows real world objects respond to social actions like tweets. They’ve worked on a GE fridge that unlocks when a group checks in on Foursquare and recently launched a paintball gun that shoots when you Tweet. Oh, the power of Arduino…