Exactly last week, I attended the Maker Faire in the New York Hall of Science in Queens. The Maker Faire is essentially a large gathering of hobbyists, technologists, developers, creators, inventors, and some big name companies and organizations. It is a fair, so there were exhibits and pavilions set up for the different groups that were being represented. Some of those who were there included Radio Shack, Arduino, MIT Research Labs, City College CUNY, NYU Poly, Engineering World Health, and so many more.
It was a terrific event. Highly recommended especially for youth. There were lots of demos and free activities for kids and adults to really work with their hands. I spent most of my time doing soldering work. Soldering is taking a particular type of metal and melting it onto electronics circuits to both attach components as well as provide a electrically conductive channel between the chip and the component.
Have you ever seen electrical engineers carrying a pen-like object when working with circuits? That’s a very hot device called a soldering iron. Its tip is heated to roughly 750 degrees Celsius and has the capacity to melt a particular type of metal called solder upon contact. Solder is made of Tin and Lead. It melts quickly and conducts well.
I visited a few exhibits that allowed me to solder. I built a small LED clip, a small flashlight, and an Electrical Surgical Unit (ESU) Tester. The ESU project was with the non-profit organization Engineering World Health. What they had was a small kit that consisted of parts. When these were soldered together, they would form a testing unit for electrical surgical pens, which use current to cut open patients rather than a blade. The ESU tested the power of the current. I spent about an hour soldering it all together, and it was major fun. I got a free t-shirt from them for helping them out, because they send these units to third world countries to use. Here is my final product:
Some other highlights there included: A wand controlled robot powered by Arduino 
KeyGlove, a keyboard-free alternative to typing, also powered by Arduino 
A 3-D Printer, prints real objects!
And Sifted, a new way of thinking about gaming
Perhaps the biggest highlight of my Maker Faire trip was listening to and meeting David Pogue, popular tech columnist for the New York Times and host of the NOVA series “Making Stuff” (See ‘links’ page to get to NOVA’s homepage). His talk was titled the “iPhone Brain Dump,” which he basically talked about some wonderful features of the iPhone. Some of the apps he highlighted included Ocarino, which is a flute-like instrument that can be played by blowing into the microphone of the iPhone. What’s great is that you can listen to anyone else in the world playing with the App. All in all, David Pogue’s talk was wonderful and speaking to him afterwards was incredible too.
The Maker Faire was an incredible event filled with creativity, inspiration, ingenuity, and innovation. Brilliant people with incredible projects gather together to celebrate the act of building something awesome. How great is that?
