Elijah Horland is a self-taught maker, programmer, and circuit wiz who has been building electronic things since a young age. As a co-host on Discovery Channel’s MythBusters Jr., he helps test and bust myths using the scientific method alongside Adam Savage and other young makers and scientists.

Elijah’s maker journey started at age five when he won engineering kits at the arcades. He moved on to building computers for himself and others when he was eight. After attending a tech summer program in 2015 at age 10, he started building soldering kits and soon moved on to 3D printing and self-designed electronic builds.

In 2016, Elijah attended the World Maker Faire, his first time attending a Maker Faire event. There, he met with makers and received encouragement and sound advice, which made him feel like he’d finally found his tribe in the maker community. Since then, he has continued to innovate and create, developing game systems and controllers. His Altoids-box game system is a prime example of his technical skill and witty creativity.

Elijah’s projects often revolve around microcontrollers. He started as a dedicated Raspberry Pi user but has since branched out to Arduino. When he realized that there were limited STEM classes and experiences at his middle school, he sought out those opportunities by attending Maker Faires, which he describes as the best programs he’s seen. In fact, when the NYC Maker Faire closed down, he started a new one: https://www.coneyislandmakerfaire.org/ to continue pursuing his passion for making.

For aspiring makers just getting started, Elijah’s words of advice are: “Stubbornness is a virtue!” Persistence and perseverance are essential traits for any maker, as finishing a project can often be challenging but ultimately rewarding.

At the Miami Maker Faire, Elijah will be a featured speaker, sharing his insights and experiences with the audience. As a talented and inspiring young maker, he has a lot of valuable knowledge to offer, and his passion for making and innovation will inspire others to pursue their interests in STEM and creativity.

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet Mythbuster Elijah Horland at the Miami Maker Faire on April 15-16.

We are excited to announce that Charlyn Gonda will join us as a featured maker at the upcoming Miami Maker Faire. Charlyn is a coder by daylight and a maker by moonlight who enjoys creating unique, glowy art using various tools and technologies, including 3D printers, laser cutters, and microcontrollers.

Charlyn’s passion for creativity and innovation has led her to a successful career as a software engineer at Google and a former software engineer at Uber Eats. She has also served as a developer advocate for the Uber API, providing valuable insights into the tech industry and software’s potential impact on people’s lives. In addition to her software engineering work, Charlyn is an accomplished maker who combines her technical skills with her artistic talents to create visually stunning projects. Her focus on the intersection of technology and design has allowed her to build software and hardware that functions well and looks beautiful.

At the Miami Maker Faire, Charlyn will be showcasing some of her favorite wearable interactive jewelry, all of which will be glowy and most of them made with CircuitPython. Her projects are the product of her motivation to study the intersection between form and function, aesthetics, and user interaction. Gonda advises aspiring makers to pick a dream project and start working towards it, breaking it down into smaller pieces and using online resources for inspiration and guidance. In addition, she encourages makers to embrace imperfection, learn from mistakes, and share their projects with others.

Charlyn Gonda is an inspiring maker – making a positive impact through her work and creativity. Her dedication to building software that helps people, her passion for making and creating unique projects, and her commitment to sharing ideas and inspiring the community make her a prime example of the spirit of the maker movement.

We can’t wait to see Charlyn’s work at Miami Maker Faire, and we encourage everyone to come check out her unique, glowy art and hear more about her journey as a maker.

See her Maker Page

The maker movement has transformed the landscape of innovation and creativity by democratizing access to manufacturing and engineering knowledge to a broader audience. Mel, a maker and engineer, has been an active community member, contributing their expertise and creativity to many projects.

In a recent interview, Mel shared some insights into their journey as a maker, the challenges they faced, and the exciting trends they see in the maker community. When asked about the technologies and tools they use in their work, Mel said they like to play with cutting-edge tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and electronics. They also highlighted the importance of precision in their work, which allows them to ideate and bring their designs to life. Mel’s approach to using technology showcases the potential of digital fabrication and electronics for all makers.

Mel has faced several challenges on their maker journey, including difficulty accessing funding and resources for their projects and dealing with sexism and racism in engineering school. However, they have become resilient to these issues, using every opportunity to circumvent barriers to their goals. Mel’s determination and perseverance have allowed them to overcome obstacles and become a successful maker and engineer.

One of the most exciting trends that Mel sees in the maker community is the intersection of AI and making. They look forward to seeing more AI collaborations in conjunction with physical making and witnessing the “alien” designs that will come from it. Aside from working with AI, Mel also loves to collaborate with other makers from different disciplines. They like to start their collaborations with a casual conversation where they and their collaborator can spitball ideas together. Then they agree on tasks to split the work and check in frequently to ensure they are both supported in the build. Mel’s approach to collaboration highlights the importance of communication and working towards shared goals to create new amazing things!

For aspiring makers just starting in the field, Mel has the following advice: “Remember to be kind to yourself where you currently are and to continue pushing for what you want to build. For people who relate deeply to me and my experiences, I just want to say that you belong here and the maker community is more enriched with you around.”

Visitors to the Miami Maker Faire can expect to see Mel’s previous builds for Adam Savage, LookMumNoComputer, their fabrication design house, MKULTRA Industries, and some of their personal projects. They will also host a live coding jam at their booth, inviting visitors to code with them and learn more about their work. Mel’s participation in the Maker Faire highlights their commitment to sharing their knowledge and expertise with the maker community!

Check out her Maker Bio on the Maker Faire Miami exhibitors page

Volunteering as a judge at the South Florida Regional 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition was an unforgettable experience. From meeting teams from all over the world, including Panama, Colombia, Pittsburgh, Ohio, and all over Florida, to witness the impressive engineering designs and hard work that each team put into their robots, it was indeed a weekend to remember.

Throughout the competition, I had the opportunity to interact with students who demonstrated their creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in building their robots. It was inspiring to see young people so passionate about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (S.T.E.M.) and working together to develop innovative solutions.

As a judge, I evaluated the teams and recognized their achievements. I was amazed at each team’s hard work and dedication to building their robots. They had spent countless hours designing, building, and programming their robots to perform specific tasks, and their hard work paid off.

The winning teams, including Team 695 – Bison Robotics from Beachwood, Ohio, Team 179 – Children of the Swamp from Riviera Beach, Florida, and Team 3653 – Botcats from Hollywood, Florida, all did an outstanding job in the competition. However, the runner-up teams, including Team 5472 – The Wyld Stallyns from Delray Beach, Florida, Team 180 – S.P.A.M. from Stuart, Florida, and Team 7652 – MiamiBeachBots from Miami Beach, Florida, also demonstrated impressive skills in engineering, design, and teamwork.

The MacGyver Award, which recognizes a team’s ingenuity and resourcefulness, went to Team 8581 – PizzaByte Robotics from Panama demonstrated these qualities by adapting their robot to a new challenge during the competition and completing the task.

Being a judge at the South Florida Regional 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition was a fantastic experience. Seeing the level of dedication and passion that the teams put into their robots was genuinely inspiring. I left the competition feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future of S.T.E.M. and the young people working hard to make a difference in this field.

Other notable awards include the Gracious Professionalism Award, which went to Team 59 – RamTech from Miami, Florida, for their exceptional sportsmanship and respect towards other teams and volunteers. In addition, the Volunteer of the Year award went to Stacey Jones; both are dedicated and passionate supporters of Maker Faire Miami for many years, who has volunteered countless hours to help organize and run the event and promote S.T.E.M. education.

If you can volunteer at a FIRST Robotics Competition, I highly recommend it. Not only will you witness the fantastic work that young people are doing in S.T.E.M., but you will also be a part of a community that positively impacts the world.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Maker Faire Miami Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Two-Day Event on April 15-16, 2023 at the Watsco Center

Miami, FL – Maker Faire Miami, the premier event for DIY enthusiasts and makers, is excited to announce its 10th-anniversary celebration on April 15-16, 2023. The two-day event will take place at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables. It will feature various exhibits, workshops, and presentations showcasing the latest technology, art, and DIY projects. Maker Faire Miami is a family-friendly event that brings together makers, inventors, artists, and tech enthusiasts worldwide to share their creations and learn from one another. From BattleBots, robotics, power wheel racers, and 3D printing to woodworking and textiles, there is something for everyone at the Faire!

This year’s event will feature over 125 exhibits and presentations from local, national, and international makers. Among the speakers, we’re excited to highlight Elijah, Mel, Michael, Charlie and Taylor of CW&T, Charlyn, and Madeline:

Elijah Horland is a young maker, inventor, and co-host of MythBusters Jr. on Discovery and The Science Channel. He will be sharing his insights on innovation, creativity, and how to turn your ideas into reality.
Mel Ho is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and maker who has been featured in Forbes, CNBC, and other major publications. Mel will be sharing insights and experiences on entrepreneurship, innovation, and how to turn your ideas into successful businesses.
Michael Sayman is a tech prodigy, former Facebook engineer, and author of “App Kid”, a memoir about his journey from young app developer to Silicon Valley success. He will be sharing his insights, experiences, and ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation, and how to succeed in the tech industry.
CW&T is the art and design practice of Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy. CW&T is the recipient of the 2022 National Design Award for Product Design from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Their work has spanned from interactive software to human-scaled tools that enhance our relationships to work, life and time.
Charyln is a Senior Software Engineer at Pave, former Software Engineer at Google and Uber Eats and was a Developer Advocate for the Uber API. Charlyn will feature different forms of unique glowy art, often made with 3D printers, laser cutters, microcontrollers, brass wire and LEDs.
Dr. Madeline Gannon showcases her work forging new futures for human-robot relations. Through her research studio, ATONATON, she brings bleeding edge tech to wider audiences. She is a World Economic Forum Cultural Leader, one of the ‘Top 10 Women in Robotics Industry’ and ‘World’s 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics’ according to Analytics Insight.

In addition to these amazing speakers, we are excited to offer a Maker Education track for local teachers. This series of talks and workshops is designed to provide educators with the tools and resources they need to bring maker education to their classrooms and inspire the next generation of innovators! These are being offered for FREE to all Miami Beach public school teachers, and all MDCPS Title-1 and STEAM designated educators. They can apply online to take advantage of this incredible opportunity using the following forms: Miami Beach Teachers | MDCPS Title 1 or STEAM Designated Teachers.

Maker Faire Miami is more than just a showcase of the latest and greatest in DIY and technology; it is also an opportunity for the community to come together and share ideas, learn new skills, and be inspired to create their projects. It is a celebration of the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and creativity of the diverse talents in the region. There will be hands-on experiences for all ages including Learn to Solder your own light-up badge, Screen Printing your own Maker Faire Miami T-Shirt, Build your own Nerdy Derby car and test it on the track, learn to fly an FPV drone through an obstacle course in the Drone Zone, watch dozens of Combat Robots battle live – and so much more!

“We are thrilled to be celebrating our 10th anniversary and can’t wait to see all the amazing things that our makers will be showcasing this year. If you’re here for #miamitechmonth you won’t want to miss this event!” said Mario Cruz, the lead organizer of Maker Faire Miami.

“Maker Faire Miami is our flagship event, and is designed to celebrate, educate, and inspire our local maker community. We are so grateful to all of the sponsors who supported – and to all of the volunteers that help ensure a smooth and successful event for everyone to enjoy. We can’t wait to see all the fascinating projects and people again.” Said Tom Pupo, Executive Director of Moonlighter FabLab and Co-Producer of Maker Faire Miami.

Maker Faire Miami is open to the public, and tickets can be purchased in advance at TicketMaster. For more information and updates on the event, please visit the Maker Faire Miami website at https://miami.makerfaire.com/

Contact: Mario Cruz
mario@mariothemaker.com

Event Details:

Maker Faire Miami

April 15-16,2023

Watsco Center 1245 Dauer Dr, Coral Gables, FL 33146

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Maker Faire Miami is produced by Mario The Maker and Moonlighter FabLab, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization dedicated to empowering makers with access to the skills, tools, and opportunities to shape a better future.

Marlins Maker Day is Back on Sept 10th!

The Miami Marlins, Maker Faire Miami, and Miami Dade County Public Schools are partnering once again to offer a fun and engaging day for the whole family at LoanDepot Park. Maker Day celebrates the creativity, ingenuity, and innovation of South Florida – featuring showcases from local makers, schools, and companies building new and exciting projects. Visitors will be able to Meet Team Witch Doctor and Team Hypershock from the Discovery Channel show, Battlebots! See the 250lb combat robots up close and learn about what it takes to compete at the professional level. For young robotics enthusiasts, FIRST and VEX will be hosting a series of competitions and activities to inspire students interested in the field. AWS will be showcasing innovations in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence with their Deep Racer, Alexa, and Boston Dynamics Spot Robot exhibits. For local startups and established creative companies, The Miami-Dade Beacon council will be unveiling its Created in Miami initiative at the event. There will also be a variety of hands-on make & take STEAM activities for all ages, a drone obstacle course, and so much more! The Maker Day event opens at 10am and ends at 4pm. Tickets are available at marlins.com/makerday and include admission to the Marlins Vs. Mets Baseball game at 6:10pm where you’ll get to see Miami Coral Park High School RAMTECH students throw the first pitch with a mechanical device they engineered themselves. You won’t want to miss this full day of family fun with food, music, maker activities, robots, and baseball!

Event Info:

Marlins Maker Day | Sat. Sept. 10th 2022 10am-4pm

Marlins Vs. Mets Game | 6:10pm

501 Marlins Way, Miami, FL 33125

Tickets at: Marlins.com/makerday

2020 has been a difficult year for many. While folks are struggling to survive through all of the challenges wrought by a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, and social unrest – we asked ourselves if an event would even be appropriate right now. So we asked the community and got a resounding “YES, PLEASE!” After postponing our event twice, we had numerous meetings about the role of Maker Faire Miami in the community and its responsibility to respond and adapt to the conditions of the time and to continue to fulfill our mission. It was clear that the pandemic was not a temporary disruption, and that it required us to work on re-imagining the experiences at Maker Faire Miami to be virtual.

It was incredibly important to us that we still have a chance to celebrate, connect, and inspire our community, especially in a time where social interaction and idea sharing are in dire need. So aside from making it completely virtual, we also decided to make it completely free so that anyone and everyone can join us this year. This resulted in makers joining in from across the country and across the world for the very first time. We were extremely excited to welcome a broader audience that brought with it new ideas and new perspectives to our local community. And although many people echoed the sentiments that a virtual event would never live up to the experience of doing things live and hands-on, we set out on a mission to get it as close as it could be to the level of interactivity we know and love from our coveted Maker Faire events.

Building on the lessons and successes of Virtually Maker Faire and NOMCON, we were on the hunt for a very long list of app features and capabilities to handle the various activities at the event. After careful consideration, we decided to transfer our entire platform to the Whova event app. The format of the online platform closely resembled the in-person structure in a few ways. Exhibitors were able to post their information on a profile page, announce exclusive offers and deals to attendees, have a recorded promo video on their page, and even host livestream sessions to do demonstrations. The Speakers and Workshop instructors also had their own pages where they could upload pre-recorded content that attendees could watch before the event and submit their questions on a Q&A window where upvoted questions would get asked by a moderator during the scheduled livestream interviews. Attendees and speakers also started logging in to the app before the event started and created discussion pages, uploaded articles, submitted project photos, created virtual meetups, and more! This allowed for many opportunities to connect, discuss, and share much like would be done in an in-person faire. Looking beyond the event, we were able to record all of the live Zoom webinars and make all 20+ hours of content available on The Maker Faire Miami YouTube Channel for the folks who were not able to attend on the scheduled times. We received many messages from makers with limited access to the internet thanking us for making this available for on-demand viewing as it is the only way they’d be able to see the talks.

Those are not the only activities that were completely redesigned to be virtual experiences. We were blown away by the local Power Racing Series organizers led by Andrew Rudolph as they created a Miami-themed track in a video game engine and re-created their custom carts to race in the game.

Attendees were able to log in and watch a Twitch stream of the races and even vote for their favorite teams using a virtual “Moxy Board”. 7 teams competed: 4 from Florida, 2 from Michigan, and 1 from California. What an amazing reimagining of the Power Racing experience! There was also a completely virtual weekend long Make-A-Thon to kick off year two of the Growing Beyond Earth Maker Contest by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Moonlighter FabLab. Over 120 participants joined in over the 9 scheduled sessions including a Botany Q&A with Dr.Gioia Massa, Project Scientist at NASA, and a collaborative whiteboard session using Miro to share ideas, resources, and links to components for the project. At the end 5 teams presented prototypes yielding 3 winners. One of the winning teams was RCS, a group of remote college students from different schools (Georgia Tech, University of Maryland, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Merrimack College) that met virtually and decided to collaborate on the project. It was a great example of how challenges are overcome when groups of people think creatively and adapt to spawn new forms of collaboration!

We were so thankful to feature some great speakers from across the country to present at the event. Aside from being incredibly talented makers, each and every one of them were incredibly kind and flexible during the whole process of converting their presentations into this new format.

Sophy Wong, Jen Schachter, John Park, Allie Weber, Elijah Horland, Jenny Lorenzo, Liz Clark and Andrea Gellatly educated and inspired the community with their panel discussions, project showcases, and Q&A sessions.

Sophy wowed us all with her 3D printed fashion, Flappy Bird controller-hoodie, and cosplay designs.
Jen led us through the experiences of her large collaborative build projects including Project Egress for the Smithsonian with Adam Savage.

John walked us through the process, equipment, techniques, and controlled chaos of producing his weekly live shows.

Allie debuted her latest project, the Rubik’s Arcade Bot, that allows you to manipulate (and attempt to solve) a Rubik’s cube using only 3 buttons.

Elijah led a workshop on how to make a Birchbox Game Controller using mostly recycled materials, and spoke about his experiences on MythBusters Jr.

Jenny Lorenzo hosted an AMA about the world of Content Creation and social media video production.

Liz Clark showed us how she built her incredible robot xylophone powered by CircuitPython and the BLE MIDI library.

Eric Elg appeared with members of the 501st Legion and spoke about what it takes to join the 501st.

Andrea was gracious enough to host a number of BattleBots Panels with the help of Luke Stangel from Behind The Bots. Together they welcomed many of the amazing team leaders over 5 scheduled Bot Builder Sessions including Bite Force captain Paul Ventimiglia, Tombstone captain Ray Billings, DeathRoll captain Steven Martin, Nelly the Ellybot captain Sarah Malyan, HiJinx captain Jen Herchenroeder, Ferocity captain Julia Chernushevich, Sporkinok captain Lilith Specht, and of course, Andrea Gellatly herself, from Team Witch Doctor. Although it was sad to postpone Witch Doctor’s original plan for a Robot Riot event that already had 46 robots registered to compete, it was a fun weekend full of lots of Bot Talk – and even ending our Friday sessions with a bedtime reading of B is for BattleBots, written by Andrea Gellatly, Illustrated by Caleb Kempson, and in this video – read by a bunch of these wonderful featured team captains!

It was a weekend full of all of our favorite things – creative people, interesting projects, and an invigorated community. It all wrapped up with a short video by Dale Dougherty, Founder of Make: Community discussing how Makers play a huge civic role in our society. We may celebrate with wacky games, crazy designs, and experimental concepts – but collectively we have the power to make real changes in our world, as made apparent by the distributed Open Source Medical Supplies efforts creating PPE for front line medical workers during this pandemic. It’s a great call to action to use our talents to build the world we want to see! We hope that the situations improve and we can once again resume safe in-person events. But until then, we’re happy we’ve found a solution to connect virtually. We call on all of you to keep on making, keep on learning, and keep on sharing! Thank you for being a part of Maker Faire Miami 2020 and making it a meaningful and memorable experience.

While social distancing measures are disrupting daily life for most, many creatives have taken to their craft as a way to cope through these stressful times, which is why we’re not too sad about postponing this year’s event. We know that although it threw a wrench in a lot of our plans, this is an opportunity for lots of new makers to explore, grow, and create! So while you’re inside… consider learning a new skill, starting a new project (or finally finishing the one you started long ago), and registering to showcase at Maker Faire Miami! Our Call for Makers has now been extended to June 30, 2020. If you already registered – no worries; your spot is secured for the new dates. But if you don’t think you can make it, please email mario@mariothemaker.com.

We are still set on making this one of the most memorable weekends of the year – and with your help, we know it will be!

Fight against COVID-19

If you want to join the efforts to supply Open Source Medical PPE using your maker skills, join the local Facebook Group!

Registration Information:

Registration Opens: 3/2/2019
Registration Closes: 4/15/2020

Contact Information:

Web Site: www.makemia.com
Organizer: Andrea Suarez

Competition Description:

Join us for Robot Riot at Maker Faire Miami 2020 on April 25-26th!

This event is FREE for all weight classes! This will be a 2-day event for Antweight (1lb) robots with CASH PRIZES on Sunday. All other weight classes will run as a 1-day event on Saturday, Additional prizes TBD.

Weekend Maker Faire passes are given to each team member. This is done via the “Call for Makers!” on the Maker Faire Miami website. **This step MUST be done to receive passes for Maker Faire Miami!** Only one exhibit is required per team unless you would like to see each robot listed individually on the Maker Faire Miami website. Additional attendees must purchase tickets to enter Maker Faire Miami.

Check-in will begin on Saturday morning. Competitors can arrive as early as 7:30am and MUST be ready to safety by 8:30AM (you risk forfeiting your first fight if you aren’t through safety before we start). Battles will begin at 10:00 am and continue until 5:00 pm.

The arena will be our local 6’ x 6’ with a push-out zone. We’ll be following the SPARC ruleset (http://sparc.tools/ under “SPARC Document Update”) with the following points of emphasis:
– No fire weapons
– Exposed batteries are automatic forfeits
– One postponement
– One unstick per fight (if you become unintentionally stuck)
– No entanglements
– ONE MATCH FINAL – Winner of the final takes first; there will not be a second finals fight if the winner bracket position loses.
– FIGHTS WILL BE 2 MINUTES LONG
– **HAVE FUN**

Please reach out to info@makemia.com with any questions.

Maker Faire Miami is a family-friendly event with lots to do for all ages! Invite family and friends to buy tickets to watch you battle and enjoy all the Maker Faire has to offer.

Classes:

Robot Category	Robot Class	Entry Fee	Slots
Combat	Antweight	Free	24
Combat	Beetleweight	Free	16
Combat	Fairyweight	Free	8

Maker Faire Miami will be back and better than ever on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26th – now indoors at the Watsco Center! Last year we had over 150 makers, over 5,000 attendees, Power Wheel Racing and amazing hands-on activities for all ages. This year we’re planning on featuring even more amazing makers and expanding our activities!

Stay tuned for the official Call for Makers, launching this December.

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Maker Faire Miami Outreach Ambassadors:

As we start to expand the faire even more, we’re looking for volunteers to help represent Maker Faire Miami at more events across the region. If you’re interested, please let us know! Register Here