Columbus Maker X Fair

Yesterday my husband and I attended a computer technology fair at the state fairgrounds called Maker X. I’m not sure if they hold this event every year or whether it was a new thing, but it was certainly new to us. Three guesses whose idea it was to attend. Even though most of the technology went over my head, I was still able to appreciate the creativity and ingenuity that went into some of the inventions.

Our first stop was the table representing Columbus State Community College where my husband is an adjunct professor. He had a chat with one of the reps there and took a brochure on Cyber Security education.

There were quite a few tables from local high schools and a few of the universities advertising its many programs that relate in some way to IT (Information Technology) education. These tables also displayed some of the projects designed by the students.

We were especially impressed by all the fancy woodworking projects. Kind of made our cheap and crappy bread boards look pretty shabby in comparison. Is it too late to go back to high school and demand a do-over?

I agree with Andrew’s comment that there was a pretty good assortment of projects. They ranged from pretty low-tech craft projects involving battery-powered lights and copper strips (where by touching the copper strip you act as a conductor and make the lights light up) up to really high end design utilizing 3-D printers and its many industrial applications (like making artificial limbs for amputees).

There was also quite a cross-section of attendees from families with children to teens and young adult gamers and even a few older folks like ourselves who were just curious.

My favorite booth was the one presenting a video game that incorporated drawings by the creator’s son who is on the autism spectrum. Although I’m not big on video games, I love the idea of incorporating the child-like art into a video game, or even a short film either. I just read on his website that he has an interview with BBC radio next week and is working on marketing the game, so I wish him much success with this creative endeavour.

He was by no means the only one presenting a video game they had created as there were quite a few there, and lots of kids and young adults happily trying out the demos (including my big kid!)

I was also quite impressed by a couple items powered by a raspberry pi. According to raspberrypi.org, “The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. It’s capable of doing everything you’d expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games.”

This is technology my husband is definitely familiar with and owns several raspberry pi(s) himself. His latest creation (constructed during a workshop at the January Code Mash convention) is a name tag with little lights that light up and scroll when connected to the battery. Probably above my capabilities, but I was pretty impressed.

Infinity Mirror

Juke Box

One of the more impressive items created using a raspberry pi was an infinity mirror and the other was a juke box. Of course the wood casing and other non-computer components were the most artistic bits, so that’s a whole other skillset.

Though I’m not a big “Star Wars” fan, I did find the two R2 D2s pretty impressive especially as they were somewhat interactive and not just pretty props that sat there and did nothing. We heard many fans scream with surprise and delight when R2 popped out his little ray gun attachment.

This one was just a juke box

Andrew and I also enjoyed watching a couple rounds of “Robot Wars” with slightly smaller versions of robots competing using a similar layout (minus the sporadic flames) with a pit that opens near the end – you get knocked into it you lose. Due to the size of the robots (perhaps 1/10^th the size of the ones on television) we had to watch the action on the TV monitors.

I left there feeling a bit more motivated to start some of the many projects I have set aside and to spend more time on my hobbies. The dedication of many of these people certainly puts us to shame for how little we do (and how much time we spend sat in front of the TV).