Nation of Makers

"I am proud to host the first-ever White House Maker Faire. This event celebrates every maker — from students learning STEM skills to entrepreneurs launching new businesses to innovators powering the renaissance in American manufacturing. I am calling on people across the country to join us in sparking creativity and encouraging invention in their communities." President Obama on June 17, 2014

The Maker Movement has gained its most prominent supporter, President Barack Obama. On June 17th, 2014, the White House hosted the first (and I am hoping annual) Maker Faire. From this day forward, June 18th will be known nationally as the "National Day of Making." You can read his proclamation here.

Hundreds of people participated in the White House Maker Faire. David Perry played his 3D printed violin at the White House, Russell the Electric Giraffe made his debut, and 17-year old Darius demonstrated his hand-built 3D printer. Check out the White House Maker Faire website for more details, videos, and a cameo by Bill Nye!

ESRI, the world's leading provider of geographic information systems software, provided a storymap helping illustrate the distribution of participants and provide some background information.

The White House has assumed an important role to help promote innovation and entrepreneurship through the Maker community. Users of Facebook can stay informed by following both Make and Maker Faire Facebook pages. User of Twitter can follow the #NationofMakers hashtag.

In a future post, I'll cover some methods of funding a Maker community, organizing a local Maker Faire, and share some anecdotes of my own experiences.

Kickstart a Makerspace

Adapted from "Kickstart A Kid's Makerspace," by James Floyd Kelly; Make Magazine; Vol. 38; April/May 2014.

When I run across a good idea I occasionally take exception to parts of the idea's premise. Take this article by Mr. Kelly. He has an awesome idea. He states, "Young makers grow up to become world-changing engineers and leaders." I agree wholeheartedly. So, why would I take exception to his idea?

Because I don't think it should be limited exclusively to kids.

Many people have great ideas. Some people are late bloomers, and don't get an original idea until later in life, in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. Why should brilliant technology be provided exclusively to the young? Aren't we really interested in fostering ideas, regardless of age, gender, or race, or religion?

Blacktooth laser cutter

 The notion of placing technology in the hands of our youth makes complete sense. After all, we adults want to raise thoughtful adults to take care of us in our old age, after our days of making and creating have been replaced by sipping cool drinks on the beach reading our favorite yarn. But, like I said, placing tech and ideas in the hands of more than our youth seems like a good idea, especially those college-aged youth who never had an opportunity to be creative, and adults back-in-college who may want to be entrepreneurs and create jobs.

Kelly outlines a couple of paths to follow, a low-cost Makerspace valued at about $11,000; and a higher-cost Makerspace, valued at about $24,000.

CNC router

I don't want to re-create Kelly's great article here; we can all read and evaluate. We should all consider the long-term value in investing in such technologies from a variety of perspectives. Nothing bad, and much good can from these experiences.

If you don't read Make magazine, you should.

Also, check out makezine.com for thousands of ideas for making, creating, building, wiring, and programming.





 

Murray State to Host Local "SharkTank"

Murray State University is hosting a SharkTank-type entrepreneurial pitch contest this month. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 17, 11:00 a.m., inside Heritage Hall. The competition is sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurship within the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, along with the Kentucky Angels Network and the Kentucky Innovation Network.

Loretta Daniel, Director of the Innovation and Commercialization Center (ICC) at Heritage Hall, said the competition is open to teams of three-to-four people with the winner in Murray taking home $1,000. The winning team will also advance to a competition this fall in Frankfort, where team members will pitch their idea directly to the entire Kentucky Angel Investors Network (Kentucky Angels).

The competition is open to the public, and will be a good way for local inventors to mingled, meet, and network.

Anyone wishing to enter the pitch competition should visit www.kyinnovation.com or contact Daniel at 270-809-6071.

Capturing Bugs and Measuring Nitrogen with Arduino and RaspberryPi

Professor James Hardin's (JCSET) research interests lie at the "intersection of sensors and engineering design." (Personal website) In pursuit of those interests, James is working on a couple projects integrating his research interests with biology and the natural environment.

One project (left) is a simple nitrogen sensor. Using an optical contact sensor and some Arduino hardware, James and an undergraduate student created a nitrogen sensor for measuring nitrogen within a leaf. Merely lay the leaf atop the sensor (the small, white cylinder), and the microcomputer will measure and report the nitrogen bound within the leaf.

The second project is far more complicated. A field biologist needs to conduct an insect inventory of a test site. Perhaps the field biologist is looking for a collection of diagnostic insects, or perhaps, is looking for a certain insect.

Today, a field biologist would have to spend days upon days in the field, setting traps, shaking bushes, etc., and hope to collect some good samples.

What if ... what if the biologist could set a number of automated traps? These traps would collect an insect, trap the insect long enough to snap a pic, and release the insect back into the wild. The insect snapshot would be processed digitally, a form of facial recognition image processing technique applied, and the insect species would be identified and the pic classified. The pic and info would be transmitted via MMS/SMS to the biologist comfortably sitting in a field office or lab.

Dr. Hardin is working on a prototype of this insect trap. As shown (left), the white PVC Y-joint serves as the basis for mounting trap components. A RaspberryPi controller operates the mechanism for trapping the insect long enough to capture an image. Attached to the trap is an Android phone (right), the brains of the device.

The phone captures the image, processes and classifies the image, and provides a means to geolocate the insect. Once processed, the data is sent via MMS/SMS to the biologist, wherever that person might be stationed.

Dr. Hardin research demonstrates the utility in drawing the disciplines of engineering, biology, and geography together in the analysis of the a biological problem. His device captures an insect, performs non-invasive testing and initial interpretation, the results of which are transmitted back to a researcher who can integrate the data into a geographic database for spatial analysis.

Dr. James Hardin can be reached at jhardin@murraystate.edu (MSU/JCSET).

reddit's Alexis Ohanian Speak at 2014 Next Big Thing Conference

On Monday, April 28th, Alexis Ohanian was the keynote speaker at the 2014 Next Big Thing Conference at Murray State University. Alexis Ohanian, graduate of UVA, is the co-founder of the social media website, reddit. Alexis was invited to address young people participating in the Next Big Thing Conference, an event inviting young entrepreneurs from western Kentucky to Murray State and allowing them the opportunity to present new and unique ideas and inventions. The event is sponsored by the Innovation and Commercialization Center (ICC) at Murray State University.

Alexis also has a new book out, detailing the efforts he and his co-founder, Steve Huffman, encountered while developing reddit. "Without Their Permission: The 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed" provides commentary and insights to people looking for advice and knowledge in working through their own start-up woes.

(Pictured is Alexis Ohanian and Murray State's Rudy Ottway, IET professor (JCSET))