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Writing about an escape room defeats the whole purpose of designing an escape room. There is no mystery if you release the secrets into the dark of the wild web. Instead, in celebration of the fact the modern periodic table is 150 years old this year, we have created a mini-puzzle especially for you dedicated Dublin Maker Fans who have read this.
There is a secret phrase hidden in the paragraph below, so if you can crack it, whisper it to one of the team on the Periodic Maze stand at Dublin Maker and you’ll get a bonus prize! The periodic table is the chemist’s alphabEt and one of the most recognised forms in the world. The rows and columns contaiN an incredible amount of information, Both in terms of the elements present and the order in which they are arranged.
It is amazing to think that it is only 150 years Old but it now defines so much of chemistry and other sciences. The curious thing is that it might seem like it is finishEd at this point, but in fact it continues to be hotly debated as scientists debate the form and shape and element hunters around the world seek to add the next element throuGh elaborate eXperiments involving particle accelerators and international collaborations.
Seems like as good a Reason as any to have a party for it at Dublin Maker, no?
On Saturday July 20th, Richard Millwood is hosting a TurtleStitch booth at Dublin Maker. He will be ably assisted by John Hegarty and Mags Amond. All three are active members of CESI. TurtleStitch, the brainchild of Austrian Andrea Stalder-Mayer, allows users to direct a modern embroidery machine to output designs which have been coded on a computer. Programmed designs can be shared and remixed among the worldwide TurtleStitch community. John is network manager and Computer Science teacher at Clongowes Wood College, Richard is a CS researcher at Trinity College Dublin, and Mags is a retired teacher currently doing PhD research on TeachMeet. Here’s what each says about their involvement with TurtleStitch …
Richard :: I first started learning about the Turtle Graphics microworld and the Logo language in the eighties. I found it a powerful way to introduce the key elements of programming in a way that could lean on the imagination and experience of student’s own bodily movement to debug their attempts to program. Bugs (errors) in the program you made were opportunities for review, improvement and above all learning. Turtlestitch has been a revelation in refreshing interest in this approach. Providing such delightful outcomes has been an enormous asset, but also reviving an interest in art, embroidery and mathematics. Much of the work I have made is a re-implementation of artists such as Vera Molnár and computer scientists / mathematicians such as Harold Abelson, Andrea A. DiSessa, but some is the fulfilment of youthful artistic tendencies revisited in later life! Learning about the crafts of embroidery and programming, whilst engaging with these powerful creative drivers is hard to beat! Examples shown here are from the TurtleStitch screen, showing thread in black, stitch points in blue and jump stitches in red.
John :: I can’t remember my
first encounter with Logo, a programming language designed in 1967 by Wally
Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Solomon but safe to say it was a long
long time ago. I suspect it was at a session with Dr. Elizabeth Oldham of TCD
back in the 80’s. Over the decades, yes unfortunately I can measure in decades,
my encounters with teaching/learning programming regularly tap that original wellspring.
Logo begat Scratch which begat Snap! which in turn, among other gems like
Snap4Arduino, BeetleBlocks and NetsBlox, begat TurtleStitch.
I’m always on the lookout
for ways to engage my students with programming and in recent years the area of
physical computing has become so much more accessible with the development of
low-cost sensors, the availability of cheaper more powerful microprocessors
like the Arduino range and more recently the very low-floor / high-ceiling
opportunities facilitated by the BBC micro:bit.
TurtleStitch, the result of
an ongoing collaboration between Andrea Mayr-Stalder and Michael Aschauer,
offers a very different entry point to the world of programming and physical
computing, one that appeals to the artist/maker in us. With a few blocks of
Logo Turtle Graphics style code outputted to an embroidery machine, it enables
the production of something beautiful and meaningful to the creator. Smiling
students leaving the class holding the piece of embroidery created by them using
their code is something that might be hard to put an objective measure on but
any teacher will tell you it is priceless in their world.
In my school we are at the
early stages of developing a maker space and the investment in an embroidery
machine at the tail end of last term will I hope be the first of a number of
tools we will make available to students. A maker space will be an inspiring
resource for the Junior Certificate coding and Leaving Certificate Computer
Science classes without a doubt but it should also facilitate crossover
curriculum activities with other subjects, particularly in the areas of Art and
Science and hopefully others as well – time will tell.
Mags :: My delight in being part of the TurtleStitch world is that it marries two things I like – textiles and computers. The extra variables – fabric, threads, stitch types – allow one design to have more than one output. Watching the reactions of families who see it for the first time is an extra treat. The opportunities offered for cross-curricular work are exciting – there is mathematics, art, graphic design, textiles and more in this. On top of that, this new generation of sewing machines are beautifully engineered and a treat to use. And on top of that, the worldwide TurtleStitch community is filled with generous supportive creative folk who are a joy to be with. And on top of that again, it makes me smile, after decades spent among women (my mother, my aunties, my friends – fiendish seamstresses all) with sewing machines, to see the ‘bro’s buying and deploying sewing machines 🙂
Richard, John, and Mags look forward to meeting with all and sundry at Dublin Maker.
Various samplers of TurtleStitch designs from members of the community (apart from the butterfly and the text which are from the machines own patterns)
Around 2015, after several failed attempts to get a Linux User Group going in Dublin – coffee in the Science Gallery only goes so far – I stumbled upon a pre-built LUG that had been started right under my nose. I quickly sent a message pestering Rigel, the then organiser, to please let me help out. I’d stack chairs. I’d pour coffee. Whatever you need. Without a word of warning he made me a full admin of the Meetup page and launched into telling me about the upcoming event he had planned in Dogpatch Labs. I ate pizza. I looked confused during a Rust talk. It was amazing.
A few weeks go by and another willing victim, Mr Conor Murphy steps into the fray. He gets the same rapid-fire promotion and we get to work churning out events. The idea was to go for volume over substance. Reserve a table in Costa or a nook in the Long Stone. Nothing too fancy. Just make it regular. The formula seemed to work. We got regulars coming back week after week. One of those regulars was Suspect No. 3 – Mike. A true diehard of the meetups it was a no-brainer making him another organiser. We have since added a 4th, Camila, whose positivity is infectious.
We focus on creating accessible and inclusive events that encourage people with any skill level in Linux or computing to come along and learn more. The worst that will happen is too many people will try to teach you things.
I am exhibiting my two scratch built 3D printers built with the tiniest of budgets, all the frame components were cut by hand and the various electronics used were ordered from China. Both capable of print qualities that rival many kit 3D printers and a print volume larger than printers that cost several hundreds. I will also be exhibiting a robotic arm made from printer parts that may or may not be finished, as well as my Prize winning hand made Samurai Armour and other props.
Anyone 4 Science is an educational organisation providing fun hands-on science engineering and maths activities. We believe that it is important for progress into the future that everyone understands how things work. We promote “simple science” where we use regularly available household items to make sophisticated things. For example elastic bands make accurate weighing scales, wooden planks great lifting devices.
At Dublin Maker we are going to use 3 readily available items – a beaker, some table salt and some ice, to make a freezer. You can test it to see if it works by using it to turn your own ice cream mix into ice cream. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating!
At Wia, we’re all about helping people and businesses build smart, connected electronics. We understand the importance of being a maker and the value of learning, building, and exploring with technology. That’s why we want to let anyone and everyone start building their own IoT projects, even if they’ve never had any experience in this area before.
We designed the Dot One to be the starting point for anyone who wants to learn electronics, explore the world of engineering, and become a maker.
The Dot One with a Button Module
The Dot One is an Internet of Things Development Board that
pairs with different plug and play modules like a temperature sensor, a button,
or an infrared sensor to hear, feel, and sense the world around you and collect
data.
The Dot One is preconfigured to the Wia platform so you can easily start building something fun and useful – no experience required! You can use our drag-and-drop blocks to simply put the instructions in place and the code is automatically generated for you.
To show off what you can build with the Dot One, we’ve put together a few cool projects that we’ll be letting makers create the code for and try-out. Here’s a sneak peek at some of them:
We’ve been working on the Official Dot One Car which is triggered by the press of an Internet-Connected button. The Dot One is encased in the body of the lego which is sitting on top of a modified toy car. In there we also have a 9V battery for power and a relay to turn the car’s motor on & off.
We’ve also been making an IoT Door. Powered by the Dot One and a servo module, the door opens and closes based on a custom trigger.
Can you guess what these other projects do?
Drop by the Wia Stand at Dublin Maker to find out if you’re
right!
Visit our website you want to know more about the Dot One IoT Maker Board Or you can order your own board & modules on the Wia Store We can’t wait to see you all this Saturday!
This team is a combined from people at Dublin City University and Maynooth University along with guest makers (Andrew!). We are showcasing and experimenting with computers, sound and music including highlighting earliest speech synthesis technologies versus current deep learning, artificial intelligence approaches to complex sound generation. We examine the mathematical underpinnings of rhythm and sound, demonstrate low level sound synthesis and describe how modern AI can auto-compose and provide assistance in the creative process. We might also do some live hacking with our maker neighbours if they are up for it!
Further exploring the links between movement, sound and action, Andrew will be getting into the swing of things with some real time feedback applications. The team comprises Joe Timoney, Thomas Lépine, Senem Aktas, Ceren Kahraman, Tomas Ward, Andrew Fleury, Alexandre Juppet and Nicolas Knell.
Precious Plastic is an initiative that was started in the Netherlands in 2013 by Dave Hakkens, with the goal of empowering people to turn everyday plastic waste into valuable products. This has been achieved by making designs for various recycling machines available on an “open source” basis, alongside a supportive online community of makers. Today, Precious Plastic groups have become established all over the world.
We all know about the
scourge of waste plastic and the environmental damage caused, yet many people
don’t know the full story of plastic recycling in Ireland, or what they can
practically do about it. For example, which plastics can be (economically)
recycled, which get dumped or incinerated and what resources are used to ship
plastic waste to the point of recycling?
Precious Plastic Dublin is a volunteer collective working on practical solutions to plastic waste and pollution in Dublin. As part of the ‘Precious Plastic’ global movement, we aim to bring plastic recycling closer to the local community, enabling the public to transform their own plastic waste, while demonstrating the potential value of plastic waste.
Our aim is to establish
a Precious Plastic workshop in Dublin and to make it accessible to the local
community, to educate people regarding how plastics can be recycled and to
facilitate and inspire them to make their own valuable products from recycled
plastics.
Come and meet us as theDublin Maker event on Saturday 20th July 2019 in Merrion Square, from 10am to 6pm, to learn more about what
we’re doing and the exciting possibilities for plastic recycling in Dublin.
The Rapid Foundation aims to empower people around the world by supplying education, training, support and access to disruptive technologies – particularly 3D printing systems – supporting them to innovate, design and create solutions to solve their problems and improve their quality of life.
The Rapid Foundation is a charitable project led by Dr Shane Keaveney and Colin Keogh. Founded in 2014, they utilise recent developments in engineering technologies such as low-cost electronics and 3D printing (which allows people to print out or build 3-dimensional objects) to bring about new opportunities for people to innovate cheaply and locally.
In their opinion, real impact is giving those in need the informal education and tools to continuously grow and fix their problems, rather than trying to create solutions for them from afar. Their goal is to shift the status quo in global aid. The Rapid Foundation supplies technology and training directly to local people, facilitated by a volunteer, the projects are then led by local people, encouraging them to spread their knowledge, train other locals and use technologies to create, innovate and develop solutions to their own problems. They also help produce low cost 3d printed prosthetics, and other assistive devices, for people who need them.
To date, the Rapid Foundation has run number of successful trials around the world, including India, Rwanda, Uganda, as well as in Ireland to demonstrate the power and cost-effectiveness of their approach. The overall goal is to empower people to improve their educational and training levels, to engage in a global world and hopefully to create employment for themselves and others in developing regions.
The work of the Rapid
Foundation has had significant impact, which has been widely recognised. They
won the IMechE Fritz Schumacher Award for 2016. Then in 2017, cofounder Colin
Keogh was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Europe, both co-founders
were listed as Junior Chamber International (JCI) Dublin Ten Outstanding Young
Persons (TOYP) 2017 and both were award as national winners for JCI TOYP
Ireland 2017. Shane Keaveney was nominated for the global JCI TOYP award and
reached the final 20.
At this years Dublin Maker, come meet some of their team, volunteers and supporters of this work, chat about 3d printing & innovation, see some 3d printed prosthetics, parts and educational tools, and see how big of an impact you can have with a 3D Printer.
They are always looking for new
location, challenges, funders and collaborators. If you know of a location that
could work with them, someone who needs a 3d printed prosthetic or if you think
you can help, please get in touch at rapidfoundation@gmail.com.
