MakePhilly May: Ignite Philly!
Ignite Philly is coming back for Round 3! "We’ve got a great crew of artists, scientists, entertainers and world changers lined up to blow your mind on Saturday May 2nd. We’re starting an hour later this time around, but the venue is the same — our faithful friends at Johnny Brenda’s will play host once again." For more info: http://www.ignitephilly.org/
Ignite Philly 3
Saturday May 2, 2009
Doors open at 7pm
Presentations start at 8pm
Johnny Brenda’s
1201 N. Frankford Ave [map]
Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-739-9684
MakePhilly April: The Entrepreneur Expo!
We are excited to promote The Entrepreneur Expo being organized by our friends at Philly Start Up Leaders.
About the Expo: "The startup community in Philadelphia is thriving: Join us at the first annual Entrepreneur Expo to see our entrepreneurs in action. The Entrepreneur Expo will be held on April 2, 2009 from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, at the Science Center, 3711 Market Street in Philadelphia. Over 40 entrepreneurs will display their dreams, ideas and hard work in a trade-show like setting, with a select number giving a brief presentation of their work...."
Read more and buy your (free) tickets here: The Entrepreneur Expo
MakePhilly's Feb 22nd Meeting
Unlike our standard meetings this meeting will devote 100% of the time to building. In particular, our goal is to FINISH the pinball maker challenge project we started last month. At this meeting we'll connect everything together....and, with a little luck & duct tape, we'll bring our pinball machine to life and play!
Ssee more pics: http://flickr.com/photos/aaronweber/sets/72157613104083446/
COME ON OUT FOR THIS MEGA MAKER CHALLENGE... Skill levels of *all* types welcomed and needed!
For this meeting we're going to again meet at The Hacktory (not the usual U. Arts Location).
Hacktory Address:
Address: 1524 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia PA 19130
Map: http://thehacktory.org/content/about
Meeting time: 2PM (Note earlier start time)
Special thanks to the surplus pinball parts generously donated by TNT Amusements: http://www.tntamusements.com. These guys are the ultimate pinball wizards. Check out their website... You can even throw your next bash there -- they host parties and allow guests to tour their pinball machine workshop. Our tremendous thanks to them for their rockin donations.
MakePhilly's January 25th Meeting
The first meeting of 2009 is going to be unlike any other. We are going to devote the entire meeting to a "BIG BUILD" maker challenge. We'll be dividing into groups that each work on a sub-part of the project then we'll assemble it all together at the February meeting. Download challenge overview here: Maker Challenge Jan 2009.pdf (358 KB)
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009
Time: 3PM
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor
MakePhilly's November 23rd Meeting
Hold the date! The next meeting of MakePhilly will feature as a guest speaker, Professor Andy Hicks of Drexel University who will talk about his work in mirror design, that originated in vision based control of robots. One application is a driver-side mirror with no distortion and no blind-spot. Andy will show several real prototypes, including
- A mirror that does not reverse.
- A panoramic mirror.
- A curved mirror in which things don't look curved.
Sunday, November 23rd @ 3PM
University of the Arts
MakePhilly's 3rd Annual Art Buggy Derby
Get Ready to Rumble!
MakePhilly's own 3rd annual Art Buggy Derby (www.ArtBuggy.com) is being held on October 19, 2008 and this year it is an official event of Design Philadelphia! So grab your foot powered buggy... race it, create art with it, and win $500 CASH!
What is the Art Buggy Derby?
Register Now!
What are the Prizes?
Runner Up: $250 CASH!
Plus: Cash & Prizes in at least these 8 other categories!
What Qualifies as a Buggy?
Anything powered by your feet - scooters, wheeled things, or make your own....
What Qualifies as Art?
Mark making that captures the journey of the race (without your assistance!)
Tell Me More!
Visit www.ArtBuggy.com
Most Recent Meeting, Sunday September 14th
"Kick it, smash it, or drop it from on high — professor Mark Yim's modular ckBot can take a licking and reassemble itself afterward. Scattered about, its modules can detect one another using infrared, smart cameras, and radio beacons, then slink across the floor and magnetically reconnect to form a bipedal bot capable of walking on flat surfaces. Break the ckBot as often as you like; this great-grandfather of Terminator 2 is designed to withstand the everyday accidents that would doom a lesser robot to the scrap heap." (Source: WiredNextFest.com)
Guest Speaker
MakePhilly is thrilled to welcome internationally renowned robotics Professor, Dr. Mark Yim, to our upcoming September 14th meeting. Currently, a professor at Penn and formerly Stanford, Dr. Yim's academic research focuses on: Modular reconfigurable robots and locomotion ("PolyBots"), MEMS and batch fabrication techniques, and brute force digital time optimal control. Dr. Yim earned his PhD & MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Yim will present on his famous 'reconfigurable robots' which can reassemble themselves after being literally kicked apart.Learn more about Dr. Yim's work here: http://modlab.seas.upenn.edu
You will not want to miss this presentation!
Meeting Specs
Date: THIS Sunday, Sept. 14th
Time: 3PM *SHARP*
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor
Cost: FREE! ($5 donation suggested)
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- an opportunity for you to share with the group a project you recently completed.... if you're interested in presenting be sure to email us: makephilly@gmail to reserve your spot!
Maker Challenge
MakePhilly Challenge - Meeting 18.pdf (90 KB)
MakePhilly's 2nd Annual BBQ (August 2008)
We're excited to announce our 2nd annual MakePhillly BBQ! Come on out for a potluck BBQ, and shoot some WATER ROCKETS!
Bring a picnic lunch, including something to share with 3-4 other people. Have a small grill too? Bring it!
Maker Challenge
For this meeting, we're going to be launching water rockets. Make yours ahead of time and bring it with you.
Make magazine Vol. 5 explains how to make one, and we want you to bring one ready to launch. Make it as fancy as you would like, but feel free to make a bunch of simple ones to try out as well. We will bring a launcher, and the water!
Here's Make Magazine's Intsructions: maker challenge17.doc (216 KB)
Here are some other links that may help you out with design questions
(there are a lot more out there this is just a sample):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_rocket
http://users.bigpond.net.au/mechtoys/waterrocket.html
* IMPORTANT *
These are WATER rockets. We will not launch anything that burns, explodes, or uses any fuel other then water and compressed air. No bottle rockets, no potato cannons (even if they are cool), etc. We will be in a public park, and we need to make sure things stay safe!
Open Make
As we will be in the park, there are no facilities for projectors, networks, etc. If you want to present an open make that is fantastic, just be prepared to stand on a picnic table and shout it out!
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, August 3rd
Time: ** 4PM **
Location: Lemon hill picnic area in Fairmount park.
Google Map: Link
Download Map Map for August 3rd Meeting.pdf (362 KB)
Parking: FREE & ON LEMON HILL
Cost: FREE
Food / Drink: Bring food for yourself and something to share with 3-4 others. Bring something to grill for yourself if you would like.
July 2008 Meeting of MakePhilly
"THE LEONARDO DA VINCI DA PHILLY!"
Guest Speaker
MakePhilly is excited to welcome the renowned Brad Litwin who we’ve taken to calling the “Leonardo da Vinci da Philly”. Brad is an extraordinarily accomplished painter, illustrator, sculptor, graphic designer, animator, photographer, woodworker, metal smith, musician, engineer...the list just goes on… and on….
At Sunday’s meeting Brad will give a talk on his mesmerizing kinetic sculptures which have been featured in museums around the world. See video of them here:
Learn more about Brad and his work on his website: www.bradlitwin.com
You will not want to miss this presentation!
Meeting Specs
Date: *THIS* Sunday, July 13th
Time: 3PM *SHARP* (like da cheddar!)
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor
Cost: FREE! ($5 donation suggested)
RSVP REQUIRED: Send email with first & last names to makephilly@gmail.com
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- an opportunity for you to share with the group a project you recently completed.... if you're interested in presenting be sure to email us: makephilly@gmail to reserve your spot ASAP!
Maker Challenge
The maker challenge will be to build a kinetic marble sculpture, as inspired by our guest speaker!
MakePhilly's April 20th Meeting
Guest Speaker
MakePhilly is excited to welcome Pete Tridish, a founder of the Prometheus Radio Project, to our upcoming MakePhilly meeting. The Prometheus Radio Project teaches community groups how to build their own radio stations so that they can independently and locally air their own broadcasts. To date the Prometheus Radio Project has not only helped to build over a dozen radio stations across the United States but they have also been part of building stations in Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, and Tanzania. Along the way they have fought to change FCC laws so that more groups can have access to the airwaves.
Pete will share how he demystifies technology for folks lacking any prior technical training so that they can build fully operational radio stations over a three day weekend – called “radio barnraisings”. Most participants in these events have never touched a soldering iron before in their lives. Yet, by the end of the end of the third day, participants are ready to flip the switch and throw their first broadcast party!
Prior to co-founding the Prometheus Radio Project, Pete was an organizer back in 1997 for Radio Mutiny's demonstrations at Benjamin Franklin's Printing Press -- the station broadcast in open defiance of the FCCs' unfair rules that prohibit low power community broadcasting. He actively participated in the rulemaking that led to the adoption of Low Power FM. He was also instrumental in the Prometheus vs. the FCC lawsuit, which was successful in holding back a major round of media ownership consolidation in the United States. Pete holds a BA in Appropriate Technology from Antioch College and he is an SBE certified Broadcast Radio Engineer. Over the years he has been a carpenter, an environmental educator, a solar energy system installer, a squatter, a homeless shelter volunteer and an activist in many social movements since the age of 16.
For more information: http://prometheusradio.org/
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, April 20th
Time: 3PM Sharp
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- an opportunity for you to share with the group a project you recently completed. As we have been growing in size, we are going to be limiting the Open Make presentations to three per meeting. So if you’re interested in presenting be sure to email us: makephilly@gmail to reserve your spot!
Maker Challenge
As always, during the second half of the meeting, we will divide into teams and hold a 1 hour competition centered around building a device, solving a problem or just making something fun. The Maker Challenge for this meeting will be announced soon....
MakePhilly's March 30th Meeting
Guest Speaker
The 14th meeting of MakePhilly was held on Sunday, March 30th. We were extremely excited to welcome one of our own to the guest speaker mic. MakePhilly charter member, Chris Vecchio, presented a fascinating overview of his work over the past few years including his Meterbox series - an investigation into the narrative potential of electronic circuitry, Evidence of Toolmaking - a series of hand-held sculptures integrating electronics and bone, and concluding with a demonstration of CUBE - an interactive sound installation and study in the design of ambiguous but suggestive user interfaces.
Chris is an electrical engineer who began creating sculptural electronic devices and interactive installations to help him better understand the relationship between man and technology. Chris holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and is the Chairman of the Board at Nexus Foundation for today’s Art, Philadelphia. He also holds several patents for his work in the field of ultrasonic measurement.
For more information: http://www.chrisvecchio.com
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, March 30th
Time: 3PM Sharp
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- an opportunity for you to share with the group a project you recently completed. As we have been growing in size, we are going to be limiting the Open Make presentations to three per meeting. So if you’re interested in presenting be sure to email us: makephilly@gmail to reserve your spot!
Maker Challenge
The Maker Challenge for this meeting was entitled "Personal Prosthetic!"
MakePhilly's February 17th Meeting
Guest Speaker
The February meeting of MakePhilly featured guest speaker Evan Malone who presented on a cutting edge branch of Rapid Prototyping he is involved with developing that holds the promise of allowing us all to fabricate anything we design right in our very own homes.
For the past twenty years, Rapid Prototyping has advanced as a technology that allows for transforming any 3D design in software, for example a CAD model of a mechanical part, into an identical physical model of it in the real world.
Now in 2008, at the Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory where he is pursuing his PhD, Evan is blazing the path to develop the next generation of Rapid Prototyping machines - highly compact ones called "fabbers". These small machines can fabricate almost any kind of object – not merely passive mechanical parts, but complete and fully functional electronic devices, ready to use right out of the machine!
To accelerate the transfer of this technology from the research world into the personal realm, he launched the Fab@Home project which he will speak about in his presentation as well. The Fab@Home project includes a user-editable "wiki" website which provides open-source, free software, parts lists, designs, and assembly & operational instructions for making a simple desktop fabber which anyone with basic hobbyist tools and skills can build for themselves. (More info: http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)
Evan Malone is a Doctoral Candidate in Mechanical Engineering in the Computational Synthesis Laboratory at Cornell University. He earned a BA degree in physics from the U. Penn and a Masters of Engineering degree from Cornell in mechanical engineering and systems engineering for work on Cornell's World Champion RoboCup autonomous robotic soccer project. His doctoral research involves developing systems, materials, and methods for all-additive fabrication (a.k.a. Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) or Rapid Prototyping (RP)) of complete electromechanical devices. Evan and colleagues Dan Periard and Professor Hod Lipson collaborated on the creation the Fab@Home Project.
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, February 17th
Time: 3PM Sharp
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- Bring projects you're working on or recently completed to share with the group. Immediately following the guest speaker presentation, the mic is yours.
Maker Challenge
The Maker Challenge for this meeting is entitled "Arcade Anarchy!"... we're going to be building classic games.... download the details here: MAKER CHALLENGE 13.pdf (89 KB)
MakePhilly's January 20th Meeting
Guest Speakers
The January meeting of MakePhilly featured guest speaker Don Miller (also known as NO CARRIER) who creates fast paced, colorful visuals for live music events and interactive art installations by hacking 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) consoles with custom programmed cartridges.
Don shareed his DIY approach to programming the PPU (Picture Processing Unit) of NES consoles. He demonstrated that you that you don't need to know much math or have prior programming experience to explore the graphics of old NES games, hack and edit NES ROM images, and even create simple graphics programs.
Don is an educator, programmer, and live visualist living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He recently performed at Blip Festival 2007, an international gathering of forty musicians and visualists from around the world. In 2007 he designed and programmed the first NES album ever to be released on cartridges, for chiptune musicians Alex Mauer and Phlogiston. In 2008 his work will be displayed at Colgate University for their Creative Solutions for Sustainable Futures exhibition that explores environmental issues and sustainability across natural, built, and digital environments.
Don was supported by Dino Lionetti (aka Cheap Dinosaurs) who is a synthesist living in Philadelphia with an affinity for portable sound gadgets. Dino performed live, composes music using a Nintendo Gameboy and while Don created the visuals.
To view Don's slide presentation and download the software he provided at the meeting: http://www.no-carrier.com/makephilly.zip
Upcoming Live Performances:
01.28.08 - Animalstyle w/ NO CARRIER (visuals) @ The Tritone, PHL
02.02.08 - PulseWave featuring Nullsleep, Animalstyle, 8BitBetty w/ NO CARRIER (visuals) @ The Tank, NYC
02.27.08 - Laromlab, Cheap Dinosaurs, Animalstyle, Seanicus w/ NO CARRIER (visuals) @ The Fire, PHL
03.21.08 - Gate featuring Nullsleep, Bit Shifter, Glomag, Bubblyfish, Animalstyle, Cheap Dinosaurs w/ noteNdo (visuals) @ The Rotunda, PHL
More info on gigs... http://www.no-carrier.com
"For more info and help with stuff, people can e-mail me: don@no-carrier.com.
For more information visit:
http://www.myspace.com/cheapdinosaurs
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, January 20th
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested
RSVP: Required for this meeting (email first & last name to makephilly@gmail)
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- Bring projects you're working on or recently completed to share with the group. Immediately following the guest speaker presentation, the mic is yours.
Maker Challenge
This meeting's challenge was to create original graphics on a PC (windows) computer using software that emulates the graphics on a real NES. Participants had the chance to use software to hack an NES ROM to view and alter graphics.
MakePhilly's December 16th Meeting
Guest Speakers
The next meeting of MakePhilly will feature guest speakers Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain of Monome who design adaptable, minimalist interfaces right here in good ol' Philadelphia. Monome is actually their current project-- various grids of backlit keypads which are used for music performance, simulations, games, and installations.
Brian and Kelli will discuss sustainable local manufacturing and the process of evolving a personal project into an international community exploration. They will also show documentation from their mechanical installation work, including an algorithmic networked egg-tapping drum machine.
More information at http://monome.org
Images here: http://monome.org/series/image
Meeting Specs
Date: THIS Sunday, December 16th
Time: ** 3PM SHARP **
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested
RSVP: Required for this meeting (email first & last name to makephilly@gmail)
Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make -- Bring projects you're working on or recently completed to share with the group. Immediately following the guest speaker presentation, the mic is yours.
Maker Challenge
As always, during the second half of the meeting, we will divide into teams and hold a 1 hour competition centered around building a device, solving a problem or just making something fun. Download this meeting's maker challenge here: MAKER CHallenge 11.pdf (110 KB)
MakePhilly's Oct. 28th Meeting
Have you wondered about how GoogleEarth works? Are you interested in all the new mapping mashups appearing on the web in the past two years? Do you want to learn more about geospatial software, but don't want to spend too much money?
Guest Presenter
MakePhilly is thrilled and honored to welcome Robert Cheetham, founder and president of Avencia Incorporated, a software design and development firm based in Philadelphia. Avencia develops geospatial analysis tools and services for government, non-profit, commercial and research organizations. Robert has more than 10 years of experience developing web-based geospatial software.
Robert will present an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a history of the field as well as overview of the major open source GIS software projects.
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, October 28th
Time: ** 3PM SHARP **
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested
Maker Challenge
Here at Make Philly we want to be sure that every kid that knocks on a door this Halloween gets some candy. That is, even if you are out of the house. Our Maker Challenge this time is to build a Candy Delivery System that can automatically deliver candy in your absence. The objective of this Make Challenge will be to build a device that automatically delivers the most candy to a cardboard cutout kid!
Read about this meeting's maker challenge here: maker challenge10.pdf (92 KB)
View past Maker Challenges in the Meetings page.
MakePhilly's September 9th Meeting
(source: Inition)
Thanks to all who came out to our 9th meeting!
Special thanks to Bre Pettis who wrote us an awesome post on his blog...
http://www.imakethings.com
More pics & vids to be posted soon!
Guest Presenter
MakePhilly was thrilled and honored to welcome Slavko Milekic, M.D., PhD as our guest speaker for our September meeting. Dr. Slavko presented on future applications of eye tracking technologies as a means of communication with digital devices (computers, cell phones, PDAs and the like). History and mechanism of eye-tracking devices were also discussed, as well as the direction that this new technology could take.
Dr. Milekic is an associate professor of Cognitive Science & Digital Design at the University of the Arts,
Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, September 9th
Time: ** 3PM SHARP **
Location: University of the Arts,
Cost: $5 donation suggested
Maker Challenge
As always, during the second half of the meeting, we divided into teams and held a 45 minute competition centered around building a device, solving a problem or just making something fun. Read about this maker challenge here:
View past Maker Challenges in the Meetings page.
Join MakePhilly!
Welcome to Make:Philly. We are artists and engineers; DIY'ers and DIY wannabe's; geeks and visionaries. We're new. We're fresh. We're excited. We're excitable. We're here to create. We are Makers.
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST! ( join )
Comments or Questions? MakePhilly@gmail
- Increase the technical, design and creative skills of our members
- Make something at every meeting!
- Provide a network for creative collaboration
We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!
Get Involved with our sister group: The Hacktory!
The Hacktory is an outgrowth of our desire to expand the use of technology in the arts through:
- classes for artists / craftspeople / makers
- shared facilities and equipment
- artist-in-residents programs and more!
Learn more and get involved today! http://www.thehacktory.org/
MakePhilly In The Press
January 2009
Scene But Not Nerd
Geeks in Philadelphia make their mark. 
by Steven Wells
"...A typical Make: Philly event: In a room at the University of the Arts on Broad Street, around 60 real–life MacGyver “deeks” (DIY geeks) listen to a lecture about research into snakelike self-reassembling robots from Penn professor Mark Yim. Then a deek takes the stage to show off his own borderline-insane invention: a body board nailed to an office chair."
September 2008
Geek Safari
"I come expecting freaks with enormous heads and pocket protectors and slide–rules and homemade Dr. Octopus–style exoskeletons. But this looks like a pretty normal bunch of people. Two hours in their company will change that perception.
If any one of these Philadelphians were stranded on a desert island like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, they’d have a fully functioning one–person 21st century civillization going full blast within hours. Never mind talking volleyballs. These people would build self–replicating armies, volleyball–headed robot servants that can climb coconut trees and build paddle steamers. No problem. That’s what they do.
These geeks are amazing. They turn junk into shit that does stuff. They are real–life MacGyvers. And they will rule the planet after the Apocalypse, keeping the giant cockroaches at bay with ray guns built out of duct tape, chewing gum and old Etch A Sketches.
This the 18th meeting of Make:Philly—”a collaboration of artists and engineers; DIYers and DIY wannabes; geeks and visionaries”. This translates into 50 or so youngish folk packed into a classroom at the University of the Arts on Broad Street while outside the rest of the city frolics in the balmy autumnal sunshine. And misses out on all the fun.
They might be geeks Or they might be nerds. Or possibly dorks. Nobody seems quite sure what the difference is anyway. But they all seem damn sure these former terms of abuse are now badges of honor...."
April 2008
Grassroots groups nurture creativity
Philadelphia Business Journal - by Peter Key Staff Writer
Like many area entrepreneurs over the years, Blake Jennelle is proud to have attorney Steve Goodman represent his company. That doesn't mean, however, that he lets Goodman attend the meetings of Philly Startup Leaders, which Jennelle founded last September. The group is for people starting companies and he doesn't allow service providers, other than potential investors, to attend its gatherings. "They've pretty much decided that they want it to be entrepreneurs only and I deeply respect that," said Goodman, who co-chairs Center City law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius' global emerging technology and life-sciences practice.
Philly Startup Leaders is one of three organizations that members of what sociologist Richard Florida calls the creative class have created to make Philadelphia a better place for people like them.
MakePhilly, which holds meetings at which people make things ranging from musical instruments to computer-controlled devices, has been around about two years. Earlier this year, it opened the Hacktory, in Philadelphia's Spring Garden section, to provide work and meeting space and classes...
