MakerCamp: Berlin Recap
MakerCamp was a month long camp where makers, designers and mentors from different parts of the world and with varying skill sets came together to work on projects they wanted to dive deeper into. The group of participants flew in from all over the globe last month (August) to hack, make, teach, work together, and document their making process. In the end they came away with a global community of support for prototypes that can be kick-started into real life projects. As SparkFun was a partner in the camp, we wanted to showcase some of the awesome people and projects from the camp last month.
MakerCamp:Berlin was a month long camp where makers, designers and mentors from different parts of the world and with varying skill sets came together to work on projects they wanted to dive deeper into. The group of participants flew in from all over the globe last month (August) to hack, make, teach, work together, and document their making process. In the end they came away with a global community of support for prototypes that can be kick-started into real life projects. As SparkFun was a partner in the camp, we wanted to showcase some of the awesome people and projects from the camp last month.
You can check out all the projects, tracks, and a 3D render of the shipping container they built (and used as a makerspace) here: https://github.com/hackidemia.
There's also a video from the MakerCamp demo day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD2THaHnT7I
Project 1: LEDP Smart Vase by Janez
The LEDFlowerPot is an educational product that teaches children and adults about the best possible way of treating your plants. Our product solves the problem of people forgetting to water their plants by varying LED colors. It makes learning fun and interactive due to features such as the Disco Mode, Mood Mode and Yolo Mode. It has LEDs expressing the feelings of the plant, flashing red when it isn't satisfied. It also functions as a fully customizable decoration, letting you change the color and the on/off time of the LEDs. The prototype includes a humidity sensor, LEDs and an Arduino, but the future plans promise features such as light sensors, temperature sensors, wireless connectivity, and gamification all on a chip scale.
Creator bio:
JANEZ CIMERMAN (from Ljubljana, Slovenia ) Janez is an 18 year old developer of robotic systems, student of the Electrical Faculty in Ljubljana, Slovenia and a lifelong maker. He works at a laboratory for telecommunications where he is making autonomous robots similar to Roomba. He also built himself a small laboratory in his own garage where he spends most of his time after work printing on his homemade 3D printer and making dead electronics come to life. He keeps track of all of his creations on his open web blog: http://roby.splet.arnes.si/tag/cimerman/
Excerpts from Janez's application to MakerCamp:
My camp goals: To learn and understand how to develop a project from the idea to selling the product. To test my understanding of the whole process on this camp. To learn from and teach other people whatever I can. To have friends beside me who support me and for us to achieve great things together.
Goals for myself: To learn how to establish this kind of community myself at home and to see how to keep it alive. To push myself and see where my limits are. To express my feelings openly and clearly wherever and to whomever. To achieve better organizational skills as they come in useful in personal and business life.
Project 2: Energy consumption monitoring IoT application [Motlakase Meter]
The Motlakase Meter is an energy monitoring device that measures the electricity consumption in homes by focusing on managing voltage usage in particular appliances.
Problems it solves: it makes people aware of their electricity consumption at home, which in the long run will assist Botswana’s population with saving electricity in the country as whole. The solution is based on the current problems of electricity shortage in Botswana, which can lead to unpredictable power outages.
Technology it uses: Arduino Yun, Android programming environment, power adapters, CT sensors, a breadboard, capacitor and resistors.
Creator bio:
BOKAMOSO PALAI (from Jwaneng, Botswana) is a motivated, strong willed, hard working, and eager to learn student in the computing field. She is currently doing her 4th year studying a Bachelors degree in Computer Science. She finds great pleasure and interest in finding and solving new challenges in the field she is currently studying.
Excerpts from Bokamoso's application to MakerCamp:
I would like to improve my skills in project management and interaction with people so that I can be able to guarantee success in the launch of Afrimakers Botswana. This opportunity will guarantee me the exposure to fellow Afrimakers hence I can learn a lot from them to make our Afrimakers project in Botswana a success.
Her motivation and eagerness to know more in the field has lead her to encounter new innovative projects in Botswana with which she has excelled when taking part. She has been involved in a number of Hackathons, ICT competitions and outreach to fellow students interested in the field of computing. She is currently working on a system that will really impact the health sector in the whole country. In that project she works with a team of 3 students and two companies [First Step Ventures Center in association with Botswana Innovation Hub and Botswana Upenn Partnership in association with University of Pennsylvania] to help us excel in making the system a success. For the period of 2013/2014 she was the president of a Computer Science Student Society in University of Botswana and 2012/2013 she was the vice president and head of computer repairs group in the same society. For sports and recreation Bokamoso is an occasional basketball player and she enjoys mostly working and helping out fellow students with issues they may have.
Project 3: Petricity: Create-Connect-Play
Petricity is an electrical engineering toy brand for girls 8+up that connects nurturing with technology. Imagine a store that encourages girls to create their very own personalized pet by creating a unique toy and train it to do tricks by connecting it to a programming software. The programming interface of Petricity makes training (programming) easy and fun. Petricity encourages girls to program and code at an early age, and introduce them the wonderful world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Creator bio:
RUBY RIOS (from Zacatecas, Mexico) Ruby is a toy designer, product design developer, woodworker, and maker. As well as a program mentor at DIY Girls where she engages young pre-teen girls in the Greater Los Angeles Area with innovative and creative do-it-yourself projects; specifically in the realm of 3D modeling, 3D printing, model making, power tool use, and creative problem solving. Ruby believes that obtaining multiple skilled talents will manifest into confidence, empowerment, and drive. In the near future she wishes to expand the maker movement to her home town of Pastelera in Zacatecas Mexico and create a local community of makers by empowering them to harness their skilled talents effectively; thus creating a positive impact and better future for her community members.She is also passionate, eager to learn, and loves working with children.
Excerpts from Ruby's application to MakerCamp:
I am passionate, eager to learn, and love working with children and their families. At HacKIDemia, I plan on diversifying the maker movement by further increasing the global community of makers. With my experience serving underrepresented youth, the skills manifested from my product and toy design profession, as well as my friendly work with children; I believe will be able to make great contributions to the HacKIDemia program. Throughout this program I plan on documenting this experience to show the girls back home and apply new projects learned to makerspaces in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Project 4: 3D Printing for Repairs
The idea of using 3D printing for repairs has been inspired by the culture of re-using materials at HacKIDemia's MakerCamp in order to construct the makerspace inside the container. During this month Susanne spent time developing a moulding process to complement 3D scanning technologies, so that object repair using 3D printing becomes more feasible. Her process describes how to take a cast of the object that has to be repaired using clay, to 3D scan this piece, and to 3D print it in a material and colour to match the original object.
Creator bio:
SUSANNE BRUIJNZEELS (from Netherlands) I find giving an answer to the question "where are you from?" pretty difficult to answer, but I can say I am from designing, making and problem solving; I have a bachelors in Architecture from Nottingham University and a masters in Smart Design from Nottingham Trent. I currently freelance in Berlin, mainly within 3D printing and product design, but I've been involved in building a house and a nursery school, I helped govern a community café, trained student volunteers in communication skills and once co-organised a bamboo shelter building workshop.
Excerpts from Susanne's application to MakerCamp:
Motivation for joining the camp : I see there being many MakerSpaces built inside containers in the future based on the model that we are going to develop in Berlin. For this to be a reproducible project, we will need to document everything clearly and publish it in an accessible environment.
