Amazing schedule of Maker Talks @ MDC Live Arts!
Saturday, April 7th
12:00pm – 12:45pm “Public Space Challenge Creative Workshop” | Marta Visiedo – The Miami Foundation & Urban Impact Lab
1:00pm – 1:45pm “Building a Culinary and Artistic Experience in Havana” | Enrique Núñez – Founder, La Guarida
2:00pm – 2:45pm “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons” | Neal Gorenflo – Executive Director, Shareable
3:00pm – 3:45pm “The Future Depends on Developers and Makers” | Ian Bernstein – Founder & Head of Product, Misty Robotics
Sunday, April 8th
12:00pm – 12:45pm “How The Plastic Waste Crisis Inspires Zero-waste Communities” | Anastasia Mikhalochkina – Founder, LeanOrb; Co-founder, Miami Is Not Plastic
1:00pm – 1:45pm “The Internet of Things for Everyone” | Rodolfo Saccoman, CEO & Founder, MATRIX Labs
2:00pm – 2:45pm “Ethics of Engineering in Artificial Intelligence” | Torben Friehe – Founder, 1aim; Co-founder, Good Technology Collective
3:00pm – 3:45pm “Engaging Girls in Making” | Laine Powell, Executive Director, Tech Sassy Girlz
Save the Date! Maker Faire Miami Returns April 7 and 8, 2018
Once again, Miami Dade College and MANO Americas will host Maker Faire Miami on Saturday and Sunday, April 7 & 8, 2018, at the Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. Produced in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Maker Media, the festival will feature inventions and interactive exhibits across the spectrum of science, engineering, art and craft.
Our Call for Makers is now open and available here!
Maker Faire Miami is a festival of innovation, creativity and resourcefulness for all ages that celebrates the global Maker Movement. The original Miami “Mini” Maker Faire was held in 2013 and has grown into the premier gathering space for makers and DIY innovators in South Florida. Now Miami has joined an elite band of 35 cities around the world to host larger-scale Maker Faires, including San Mateo, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Atlanta, New York and Shenzhen.
The most recent Maker Faire featured makers from Spain and Latin America as part of its 140 exhibitors. Popular exhibits included virtual reality, drone racing, Lego cities, self-driving vehicles and a robotics competition. The two-day event also included a master class with famous DJ Kid Koala and a series of maker talks on building locally-productive cities, making sustainable chocolate and driverless cars, among others.
Maker Faire Miami is independently organized and operated under license from Maker Media, Inc.
For more information, contact Isabel Artime at 305-237-3960, iartime@mdc.edu
MANO Americas contact: Ric Herrero, 305-905-9452, ric@manoamericas.org
Last year’s Maker Talks @ MDC Live Arts featured dialogues with leading innovators
Saturday, April 8
1:00 – 1:45 pm Building the FAB City | Tomas Diez, Founder of FabLab Barcelona and FAB City Global Initiative
2:00 – 2:45 pm The Making of The Underline | Meg Daly, Founder of Friends of The Underline
3:00 – 3:45 pm Engaging Girls in Making | Laine Powell, Founder of Tech Sassy Girlz
4:00 – 4:45 pm Ignite the Future: Rethinking Public Education | FIU Ignite the Future team
Sunday, April 9
12:00 – 12:45 pm Technical and Creative Process through Craftsmanship | Damian Primo de Rivera, Independent Artist, Illustrator & Designer
1:00 – 1:45 pm Making Tree-to-Bar Chocolate | Santiago Agustin Peralta Polo, Founder of Pacari Chocolate
2:00 – 2:45 pm Your Driverless Car is Here | Sertac Karaman, MIT and Optimus Ride
3:00 – 3:45 pm Masterclass with DJ Kid Koala | DJ and Music Producer Kid Koala
Tomas Diez, Founder at Fab Lab Barcelona
Tomas Diez is an urbanist specialized in digital fabrication and its implications in the future of cities and society. He is one of the founders of Fab Lab Barcelona at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and leads the Fab City Research Laboratory and the FAB City Global Initiative. Tomas is also the European project manager for the Fab Foundation. In 2013, he was appointed by the Guardian and Nesta as one of the top 10 digital social innovators, and in 2014 was named entrepreneur of the year by the Catalan ICT Association.
Meg Daly, Founder of The Underline
Meg Daly was a sales and marketing entrepreneur who launched Friends of the Underline, a 501c3 non-profit whose mission is to create The Underline, a 10-mile linear park, urban trail and living art destination built on underutilized land. The Underline exemplifies what a determined, highly creative and resourceful resident can do to transform a community.
Laine Powell, M.Ed., MS, Founder & Executive Director of Collegiate Pathways, Inc.
Laine Powell, M.Ed., MSM is the Founder and Executive Director of Collegiate Pathways, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the lives of underrepresented girls in middle and high school to engage in STEM-related topics and inspire their career interests. Its signature program, affectionately known as Tech Sassy Girlz, develops the next generation of STEM-savvy, college-bound girls through college preparation, career readiness and mentoring. Powell created the organization to address the critical shortage of women and minorities being represented in high-tech STEM careers.
Ignite the Future
Ignite the Future is an FIU-based student group with the goal to rethink public education. Members of your team Include students from FIU Honors, FIU Teach, and FIU ECS.
Damián Primo de Rivera, Graphic Designer & Illustrator
Damián Primo de Rivera is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Madrid, Spain. With a background in art and computer design, he has extensive experience as graphic designer, having worked for several companies, many of them linked to the sports industry. Damián now runs his own studio, Brand 2. In 2013, he started modeling a collection of figures for the Spanish Soccer Federation. Since then Damián has developed several collections of unique, highly-recognizable figures.
Santiago Peralta, Founder of Pacari Chocolate
Santiago Peralta is the founder of Pacari Chocolate, an Ecuadorian chocolate company that has revolutionized the industry by creating a transparent model of tree-to-bar manufacturing based on innovation, social responsibility and direct trade with certified organic farms. Paying higher prices for quality certified organic cacao, Santiago’s efforts benefit more than 3,500 farming families. Pacari chocolates are sold in more than 38 countries and have been recognized by the Fine Chocolate Industry Association.
Sertac Karaman, Associate Professor at MIT
Sertac Karaman is the Class of ’48 Career Development Chair Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a member of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and director of the Foundations of Autonomous Systems Technology Group at MIT. His research interests lie in the broad area of embedded systems and mobile robotics. Sertac has worked on driverless cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, distributed aerial surveillance systems, air traffic control algorithms, certification and verification of control systems software, among others.
DJ Kid Koala
Kid Koala is a world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer, and award winning graphic novelist. He has released four solo albums on Ninja Tune the most recent being 12 bit Blues. He has also released two graphic novels: Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet. He has also been involved in collaborations such as Gorillaz, Deltron 3030, and The Slew. Kid Koala has toured with the likes of Radiohead, the Beastie Boys, Arcade Fire, Money Mark, A Tribe Called Quest, Mike Patton, DJ Shadow, and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Save the Date! Miami Dade College to Host Maker Faire Miami April 8 – 9, 2017
Miami, Friday, December 5, 2016 – For the first time, Miami Dade College (MDC), in partnership with MANO Americas, and in association with Maker Media, will host Maker Faire Miami on Saturday and Sunday, April 8 – 9, 2017, at its Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. The event will feature inventions and interactive exhibits across the maker movement spectrum, from technology to industrial arts, science, arts, music, crafts, and more!
Maker Faire Miami is an all-ages festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness that celebrates the maker movement. The original Miami “Mini” Maker Faire was launched in 2013 and has grown into the premier gathering space for makers and DIY innovators in South Florida. Now with Maker Faire Miami, our city is joining an elite band of 30 cities around the world to host larger-scale Maker Faires in 2017, including Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Atlanta, New York and Shenzhen.
The most recent Faire also featured makers from Cuba and Argentina as part of its 120 exhibitors, and attracted approximately 5,000 guests, as well as international corporations, such as Microsoft. The two-day event also included a series of maker talks and a concert for internationally renowned music makers. Next year, Maker Faire Miami is projected to be even bigger, as it will convene makers from Latin America, Spain and Portugal to fulfill its vision as a true “Maker Faire of the Americas.” The Call for Makers is now open and available at miami.makerfaire.com/call-for-makers/application.
MDC Media-only contacts: Juan Mendieta, MDC director of communications, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu; Hessy Fernandez, MDC Media Relations director, 305-237-3949, hfernan5@mdc.edu; Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, or Allison Horton, 305-237-3359, ahorton2@mdc.edu. MANO Americas contact: Ric Herrero, 305-905-9452, ric@manoamericas.org
Maker Faire Miami is independently organized and operated under license from Maker Media, Inc.
We’re not so “Mini” anymore…
As we gather our bearings from last weekend’s successful event, the production team reflects in humbled awe at the quality and enthusiasm of our exhibiting makers. Our faire grew to 120 exhibitors and welcomed approximately 5,000 guests this year as we expanded our program to a two-day event, featured a panel of speakers who practice DIY innovation in different settings, added a concert for internationally-renowned music makers, and brought a taste of local creativity like no other event in Miami has ever done before.
Our Maker community grew larger last weekend as we were fortunate to host our friends from the Havana-based Fabrica de Arte Cubano mixed-use creative space. Eleven cuban makers created a pop-up workshop which showed faire guests the processes they have refined over a lifetime of scarcity due to the US trade embargo and Cuba’s own economic policies. Their exhibit embodied a culture truly based on important principles behind the maker movement; and their will to recreate, repurpose and reinvent the resources they have to create the things they need.
Led by the call of Moonlighter Fablab, our local Miami makers also activated the Miami Makers Pavilion. The center of the pavilion featured an interactive PVC structure that served as a unique entrance to the event which invited guests to rearrange and redesign the space to their aesthetic preferences. Watching the space change over the course of the weekend as activities occurred around it was a fascinating observation of how the public impacted the area. Interpretive dancing, impromptu brass band covers of popular pop songs, screams of delight from kids as they run from booth to booth sharing their creations, and moments of relaxation and quietly embracing the chaos; over 11,000 feet of PVC structure were assembled simultaneously provided sanctuary from and focus to the creativity of the faire. The centerpiece as well as many of the surrounding exhibitor’s crafts and wares were produced at Moonlighter, in collaboration with Home Eleven.
The Frost Science Pavillon showed a wonderful exhibit featuring aquaponic farming, discovery of basic animation technique by creating flipbooks, and understanding how important art and science are in our community. Partnering with the Frost Science Museum on this exhibit were DesignLab, REM Learning Center, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Stuffmaker, CAPPSCI Barge Project, and the ArtSail project from Art Center South Florida.
Rex the Nine-Foot Robot
Passionate gratitude goes out to our numerous volunteers who were the hands and the ears of the team. Of particular note is our support from over 60 Florida International University Engineering and Computing students who cumulatively contributed over 500 hours of their time. Also, the Women in Computing and Society of Women Engineers was integral to teaching 300 attendees how to solder their very own Makey robot badge. Thank you so very much!
Showcasing the passion that many of these makers bring to our community is a profoundly rewarding experience for those who don’t often have the opportunity to flex their creative muscles, particularly for our youth. The Miami Mini Maker Faire exposes our guests to homegrown ingenuity, resourcefulness, and passion through our exhibits and demonstrations. Your participation and experiences help us tell a story of craftsmanship that is infectious and growing in our community and we’re honored to be the curators.
And beyond the support of our volunteers, exhibitors, and creators; we would be nowhere without the support of our sponsors.
I’ll leave you with the thoughts of others who experienced the event themselves and hope that we’ll see you next year. Can’t wait until then!
Sincerely,
Mike Greenberg, on behalf of
The Miami Mini Maker Faire Team
Ric Herrero, MIA Made
Danny Lafuente, The LAB Miami
Steve Luis, FIU Computing and Information Sciences
Mike Greenberg, Hacklab North Boynton
James Herring, Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science
Daisy Nodal, Moonlighter Makerspace
Tom Pupo, Moonlighter Makerspace
Nola Garcia, StarBot
Ana Olman, MIA Made
Melissa Nobles, MIA Made
Mike Greenberg is a co-founder of Hacklab North Boynton, Palm Beach county’s makerspace, and has been co-producing the Miami Mini Maker Faire since it started in 2013.
Our good friend, Ian Cole from Orlando Maker Faire, was also visiting our faire and shared this wonderful collection of sights from the first day.
Cuba, as a result of the U.S. embargo, has diminished resources, but that situation has only empowered these makers’ creativity. Celia Ledón Acosta, a wardrobe designer for Cuba’s Public Theatre, created a sculpted dress made of soda can tabs and made a draped blouse from wide leaf plants.
Alexandra Martinez, Miami New Times
Read more here: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/cuban-artists-shine-at-the-miami-mini-maker-faire-hosted-by-youngarts-8267062
Having visited Cuba many times, I know that few people in the world exhibit the advanced level of ingenuity of the Cuban people. It goes beyond cars to how they’ve had to repurpose everything from furniture to electrical equipment.
Ric Herrero, Producer of the Miami Mini Maker Faire
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jordan-levin/article61347837.html
If it seems like making and makers-related projects have been taking off in South Florida, it is through the concerted efforts of a few visionary individuals.
Abel Folgar, Tuffgnarl
Read more here: http://www.tuffgnarl.com/11825-2/
After a fashion show by DesignLab Miami students, instructor Jazmyn Leininger with Rowan Windham Burke, Zoe Goldemberg, Maria Mercenari, Isa Burguera and Naomi Gomez. Credit: Steve Viti
Saturday afternoon about 40 students, ages 6 to 15, of DesignLab Miami turned a stage into a fashion runway. But the fashions they were wearing were their own creations, from concept to the final stitches.
Nancy Dahlberg, Sun-Sentinel
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article61534607.html
Beautiful to see young makers interacting MATRIX @AdMobilize @Raspberry_Pi @TechCrunch @makerfaire @makerfairemiami pic.twitter.com/9fgrvV88pI
— Rodolfo Saccoman (@RodolfoSaccoman) February 20, 2016
Havana-based Makers Engage with their Miami Counterparts at Miami Mini Maker Faire
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 17th, 2016
Miami, FL – A group of 11 independent Cuban makers and entrepreneurs are in Miami to introduce their businesses and creations at the third Miami Mini Maker Faire this weekend.
All 11 entrepreneurs are members of the arts collective that operates the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, an acclaimed mixed-use creative space in Havana, Cuba, and represent a diverse range of craftsmanship, from industrial design and architecture to graphic design, fashion design and bronze sculpting. As first-time exhibitors at Miami Mini Maker Faire, these visiting innovators will join a hundred other regional makers and entrepreneurs to showcase their creations and share their skill-sets with attendees. Fabrica de Arte Cubano co-founder X Alfonso -a classically trained musician and one of the pioneers of Cuba’s hip-hop and afro-rock scenes- will also play an evening concert at the Faire.
Founded in 2013 by local non-profit MIAMade in association with Maker Media and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami Mini Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, artisans, tinkerers, entrepreneurs and educators who get together to show what they make and share what they have learned with local audiences. It’s a festival of do-it-yourself invention, creativity and resourcefulness in celebration of the Maker Movement.
Along with exhibiting their products, the Cuban entrepreneurs are also building two installations for Miami Mini Maker Faire at Miami Industrial Arts and Moonlighter, two local membership-based makerspaces that offer a range of industrial and prototyping tools – from ceramic kilns and CNC routers to 3D printers – for local entrepreneurs and aspiring artisans to bring their ideas to life.
Miami Mini Maker Faire takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 20th and Sunday, February 21st at the National YoungArts Foundation campus. Tickets are on sale now at makerfairemiami.com. The Music Makers Showcase featuring X Alfonso and Afrobeta takes place from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on February 20th. Tickets to the Music Makers Showcase are free and can be downloaded at makerfairemiami.com.
Meet Our Makers, Part Deux
We highlight another handful of the more than a hundred makers scheduled to exhibit at this weekend’s Miami Mini Maker Faire:
Microsoft
Miami Mini Maker Faire sponsor Microsoft will host a booth where attendees can build cool Raspberry Pi projects, experience Cloud resources for IoT and even see an initial prototype for water flow analytics.
Pilot VR
Pilot VR is a low cost integrated Virtual Reality system with the goal to make Virtual Reality a human experience. The system is composed of the Pilot HMD, the Pilot hand controller, and webcam based motion capture technology.
Blue Pill, Red Pill
Inspired by discarded materials, optical lenses & LED’s, Katerina creates surreal situations transporting you into a parallel world. The viewer is invited to find interconnectedness and wake up from the permanent robotic state of the fast paced world.
Discovering bioluminescent plankton during a night dive in Colombia & fascinated with light,Katerina Friderici designed street lamps, kinetic flashlights and LED bulbs. After degrees in Industrial Design and Communication, she is now interested in studying Biomimicry.
The Mobile Robot Revolution
This presentation will cover some of the background and current commercial and industrial mobile robot systems which are revolutionizing our industries. Some of the tools roboticist used for developing robotic systems will be introduced via a hands on simulation.
Camilo F. Buscaron grew up in Miami. He attended the University of Florida where he built robots at the Machine Intelligence Laboratory. He then worked on a novel electro-mechanical surgical device. Since then he has relocated to Silicon Valley, California and works at a robotics start-up.
01 & MIAMade Presents Wynwood Maker Camp 2016
Wynwood Maker Camp, back again for a third consecutive summer, this summer 2016 at 01! Our camp is designed for kids to explore their interests while building projects centered around exploring electronics, virtual reality, 3D printing, and more.
01 is a prototyping lab for new forms of education, advocating personalized learning through game play. The appropriate new home of the Wynwood Maker Camp for the summer of 2016, five two-week sessions exploring sustainability and wearable technology.
3D Print Yourself
A picture can capture a moment and freeze it in time. Zero Point 3D can immortalize you with a custom 3d printed statue that is a miniature you. Kids growing up too fast, have them scanned and preserve them on your desk. Take more than a picture, take a 3D picture.
Justin Lydle is the owner of Zero Point 3D, with a background in fabrication and a maker from childhood, it all started with Legos. All the equipment for his 3d scanning company was designed, engineered, and built by himself using everything from 3d printing to welding.
Little River Cooperative
Little River Cooperative is a diversified plant business which includes an urban farm, nursery, CSA, farmers market booth and seasonal plant sales and workshops.
Muriel Olivares and Tiffany Noe run Little River Cooperative together. They manage their farm and nursery using organic guidelines and aim to teach through plant sales, workshops and garden maintenance services.
Meet Our Makers
We’ll be highlighting several of our awesome exhibitors in the week leading up to the Faire. Here are the first five:
MATRIX by AdMobilize
MATRIX, is a platform where people around the world can develop and download IoT (“Internet of Things”) applications. Developers can build IoT apps in minutes. Miami-based start up, Ad Mobilize successfully funded MATRIX on Kickstarter in December.
Recycled Robots
Recycled Robots by Roldan Robot Sculptures are made completely from 100% antiques. A graphic designer by day, maker and Miami local Jorge Roldan takes pride in the ultra cool, always unique robot inventions he designs that somehow also defy gravity.
His personal “making” rule of thumb? Spending no more than $10.00 for any parts and often sourcing donated or found junk. Pieces that have washed up on the beach are always a favorite too!
For more info on Recycled Robots by Roldan Robot Sculptures, visit his site here.
Maker|Bright
Established in 2012, Maker|Bright supports the global maker community with Raspberry Pi and related development boards and accessories. Located in Boynton Beach, Maker|Bright is a startup committed to fulfilling your tinkering needs by providing Raspberry Pi and other development board products.
In fact, Maker|Bright also builds custom kits for organizations looking for educational tools to develop maker skills.
For more info on Maker|Bright, visit their site here.
IS Projects
IS Projects is a collaborative printmaking and book arts studio located in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Its studio houses letterpress, fine art printmaking and book arts equipment. This Broward-based makerspace offers workshops, hourly studio rental, memberships, book binding services, edition printing and commercial printing.
IS Projects also houses Nocturnal Press, a boutique letterpress print-shop and bindery. The name was declared by a mentor, as a joke that stuck, after several all night book sewing marathons and letterpress sessions. Now, housed within IS Projects, Nocturnal Press boasts a collection of over 150 different wood and leadtypefaces as well as several hundred pounds of borders and ornaments.
For more info on IS Projects, visit their site here.
Frost Science Pavilion
The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science will present a very special space with multiple community partners located within the Frost Science Pavilion.
The Frost Science team will host the activity “Persistence of Vision,” where guests will be able to draw their own 12 panel animation strip, insert them into the drum of a zoetrope and watch their creations come to life. Partner Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) will have its Teaching Artists on hand to guide attendees in making their very own animation flip books.
- CappSci will showcase the Miami Science Barge floating marine laboratory, and discuss solar energy, sustainable agriculture, and marine conservation.
- The young makers at DesignLab Miami will host a cartoon-inspired fashionshow, which celebrates creativity and recycling.
- ARTSail, an artist residency program aboard a vessel where works inspired by Miami’s relationship to water are created, will host interactive presentations in hydroponics, aquaponic and coral restoration systems.
- REM Learning will showcase their Play Make Share program and have hands-on activities for children on design thinking, systems thinking, computational thinking, playing and making.
- And Stuffmaker will showcase how 3D printing can be used to create figures for stop-motion animation films.
Miami Mini Maker Faire Proudly Presents “Music Makers Showcase”
Miami Mini Maker Faire, an all-ages festival of creativity and innovation that celebrates the Maker Movement, will expand in its third year to feature a “Music Makers Showcase,” highlighting unique, inventive, regional musicians.
Havana-based singer and instrumentalist X Alfonso and Miami’s favorite electro-funk/dance duo Afrobeta will perform along with local beatmaker Guti Talavera as part of the Music Makers Showcase, a free concert being held on Feb. 20 at the National YoungArts Foundation (tickets available here).
“From the first year of Miami Maker Faire, we wanted to host a concert featuring regional artists who embodied the maker spirit – those who excel not just at creating fun and amazing music but also who take a distinctive do-it-yourself approach to things like wardrobe, set design and multimedia production. When the opportunity finally presented itself this year, two names were at the top of our list: X Alfonso and Afrobeta,” said Ric Herrero, founder of MIAMade and lead producer of Miami Mini Maker Faire, which is organized in association with Maker Media and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
X Alfonso is a classically trained musician and one of the pioneers of Cuba’s hip-hop and afro-rock scenes; he has been nominated for a Grammy award and has won a Goya, Spain’s main national film award. His musical mix of hip-hop, Cuban son, reggae, jazz and rock has been featured in Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura series and in the film “Havana Blues,” for which he won the Goya award for best original music in 2006. Alfonso is also the founding director of Fabrica de Arte Cubano, a mixed arts and performance space and world-class model of collective ingenuity in Havana, Cuba.
Since 2006, native Miami dance duo and band Afrobeta has been bringing their distinct blend of electro-funk and colorful pop culture-inspired costumes, props and theatrics to stages across the globe. Lead singer Cuci Amador co-wrote and performed in the video for “Electro Movimiento,” by Puerto Rican hip-hop duo Calle 13. Guitarist Tony Smurfio has toured with Pitbull and Bacilos. Afrobeta has played at large music festivals around the globe, including Glastonbury, Burning Man and New York Fashion Week.
The Music Makers Showcase takes place from 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. on Feb. 20. Concert admission is FREE and open to the public. Download your free tickets through Eventbrite (click here for tickets).
Follow Miami Mini Maker Faire on Facebook and Twitter. For inquiries, please email us at miamimakers@gmail.com.
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