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Maker Faire Miami 2025 Recap

By tompupo, May 30, 2025

Maker Faire Miami gathered thousands of creatives for a weekend of hands-on activities, inspiring talks, and over 100 incredible exhibits. This year, Maker Faire Miami took place at the beautiful Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Makers and attendees were immersed in a lush tropical paradise that provided a beautiful backdrop to the projects and technology on display. The event activated various areas of the garden:

The Maker Pavilion – Hands-On Activities, Cosplay, and Design & Engineering Exhibits.

The Garden House – Combat Robots, BattleBots Showcase, AI & ML with Amazon, Retro Computers Exhibit, and Laser Cutting Demonstrations.

Garden Lawn – Maker’s Market, Food Trucks, School Exhibits, Fun & Games, DJ

Maker Faire Miami also highlighted the incredible science and technology research taking place year-round at the garden with Hands-On activities at the Fairchild Growing Beyond Earth Innovation Studio in partnership with NASA and Moonlighter FabLab, tours of the Science Village, STEM Lab, the Wet Labs, DNA Lab, and the Million Orchid Project.

Maker Education Day

The weekend started early with the first ever Maker Faire Miami – Maker Education Day, the Friday before the official event began. We provided full scholarships for Title-1 students to take a field trip to Maker Faire Miami and get a chance to experience some of the hands-on STEAM enrichment activities.

265+ Children

Students from Title-1 Schools were provided with transportation, lunch, and all materials at no cost – and they were able to take home all of their projects!

12+ Activities

Students experienced a range of STEAM activities including:
Learn to Solder, Combat Robotics, Coding VEX, LED Art, Block Printing, Assembling 3D Printed Planters, Make a Shirt, Mineralogy, Laser Cutting Demos, & More!

Survey Says…

Teacher surveys revealed that over 98% of the students that participated reported an increase in interest in STEAM fields, and learned a new technical skill.

Robot Renegades

Over 44 teams competed all weekend long in the combat robotics competition facilitated by Palm Beach Bots. Student competitors were able to meet professional BattleBots teams Witch Doctor, Hypershock, and Kraken – and see the real 250lb. robots up close.

Maker Talks

We were honored to host distinguished leaders in the maker community to share their stories and inspire our local makers with their knowledge and insights.

Juan Rivera – CVP Microsoft: Generative AI and the Future of Team-Work
Kayte Sabicer – Painter, visual effects artist and stop motion fabricator, and collaborator at Savage Industries: Making With(Out) Intention and the importance of making things even without an end goal.
Sean Kim – CEO of Wooj: The Joys and Horrors of Trying to Build The Whole Thing at Once.
Dale Dougherty – Founder & CEO of Make: Magazine & Maker Faire: The Case for Maker Education
Alie Gonzalez-Guyon – Founder of Hack Night: Lighting Talks hosted by Hello.Miami Featuring Curt Larry, Founder of Hextronics, Schneur Werde, Founder of DBS Studio, and Jacob Werbin, Engineer.
Dr. Carl Lewis – Director of Fairchild Garden: Making and Tech in a Botanic Garden: Crowdsourcing a Greener Future
Leigh-Ann Buchanan – CEO of Miami-Dade Innovation Authority: Fireside Chat
Michelle Levy & Amber Zedeck – Tikkun Olam Makers Global: Open Source Assistive Devices
Rodney Trusty – Embedded Systems Engineer: Digital Fiber, Wearable Circuitry Systems

Video Highlights

Testimonials

“Knowing that I was teaching and inspiring title one school kids made my heart flutter. It was full circle for me. Putting that spark in the eyes of future generations is one of the greatest feelings I have ever had.”
-Maker Faire Miami Exhibitor
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“Maker Faire is an annual must do for my family – we love the vibe and connection with local makers. My kids have been going since they were born”
-Maker Faire Miami Attendee
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“It was super cool to be more involved with other makers than in past years. I have two collaborations coming up because of that.”
-Maker Faire Miami Exhibitor
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Photo Gallery

Special Thanks To Our Sponsors, Community Partners, and 60+ Volunteers for Making This Possible:

Community Partners

Microsoft | Studio AMLgMATD | FIU Engineers on Wheels | FIU WiCS | FIU EdgeLab | Ratcliffe Incubator | The Scouts of America | FIRST in Florida | RAMTECH at Miami Coral Park | Code/Art | PCBWay | & More!