A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.
A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.
Hacker and Maker spaces provide passion-based education that many of us missed in traditional education systems. The learning which takes place in these spaces is intergenerational, transdisciplinary, and multi-intelligent. A panel of hackerspace founders will ask how these alternative education venues can be recognized as a legitimate route to certification, how they propagate knowledge across the culture, and how they avoid becoming dull and co-opted. With Mitch Altman (TV-B-Gone), Willow Brugh (Space Federation), Jimmie Rodgers (Bucketworks and The School Factory), James Carlson (Schoolfactory.org), and Jon Santiago (NYC Resistor).
Though most (in)famous for inventing the wildly popular TV-B-Gone, a keychain that makes it fun to turn off TVs in public places, Mitch Altman is an inventor with decades of experience with microcontrollers and teaching. He is also co-founder of Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco, and contributes to MAKE Magazine.
Willow Brugh is the program director of Geeks Without Bounds, codirector of Space Federation, and cofounder of Jigsaw Renaissance and GameSave. Besides helping space facilitators to start up hacker and maker spaces (and help their existing ones be more sustainable), she also enjoys moderating transhumanist discussion groups, working on motorcycle engines, and mashing meta objects together. Willow hails from Seattle, but spends her time bouncing around talking to amazing people about using their powers for good. Find her on the internets just about anywhere as willowbl00.
James lives and works at the crossroads of the co-working and maker movement. After leaving high school at 16, James launched a successful career as an entrepreneur and technologist but never stopped looking over his shoulder at school. He founded The School Factory, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the business, education, and creative communities together to transform public learning.
Jon Santiago works with schools and community based organizations to create after school programs that are hands-on, engaging, and promote knowledge in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Prior to co-founding STEM2GETHER and HTINK he co-created the NSF supported GreenFab program in the South Bronx, which introduces high school students to digital design and fabrication in the context of environmental sustainability. Jon has helped start Young Maker programs in New York City and Newark, NJ, which get middle school and high school students interested in electronics, computer programming, design, and the use of traditional hand tools. Jon has also worked with MakerBot Industries to develop 3-D printing curriculum and professional development workshops for teachers. He is part of the adjunct faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, where he teaches undergraduates in the Integrated Digital Media department. As a member of the NYC Resistor hackerspace in Downtown Brooklyn, Jon teaches electronics and programming classes to beginners and enthusiasts. Jon graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) where he worked with the FabLab program, a global initiative to bring digital fabrication laboratories to communities around the world.
