Exploring the possibilities at our new location
Moving day is coming up fast (April 4th), and we still have plenty of work to do. Perhaps one of the most important, immediate tasks is determining where to put everything. We started that conversation during our first tour. After finalizing the lease, we started working on some drafts. We withheld any formal discussion until all of us were ready to share, and we learned a lot from each other. Now we’re all back to the drawing board working on revisions before our next meeting.
The preliminary drafts are shared below. We’re making revisions to all of these ideas based on what we learned from sharing with each other, but we’re also reaching out to members for their input. There are so many things that we want to do, and so many things that we want to provide, but like all things in life, we’ll have to make some compromises. There are a lot of little challenges to work with as well, like “you can’t run plumbing into there”, “you can’t put a window on that wall, there’s a building on the other side of it”, and “we don’t need a water slide”.
Anyway, we just wanted to share some of our (very early) thoughts. If you’d like to be part of the conversation, you can share your thoughts on our forum!
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- Jens’
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- Dom’s plan A
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- Dom’s plan B
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- Jess’s
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- Tom’s
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- Barb’s
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- Mike’s
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- Dustin’s
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- Bert’s
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- Robyn’s
MakeICT is moving!
That’s right, we’re finally moving! After months of shopping, touring, discussing, and negotiating, we’ve finally signed the lease on a new location in the Douglas Design District at 1500 E Douglas.
This new location offers nearly 3 times the space of our current spot in Delano, and we’ll be filling this with new tools, equipment, workspace, social/collaboration space, space to share, and everything else we can possibly fit! It has an awesome windowed storefront, and being located right on Douglas will give us great visibility. There’s a large workshop/garage in the back with an overhead door, so we’ll actually be able to work on the Electric Microbus at the makerspace! And of course, being located in the Douglas Design District puts us in some really cool company!
We’re super-duper excited about it, but there is a lot of work to do, and we’ll definitely need some help with cleaning, moving, and arranging everything. Our big objective is to have everything moved over and presentable by April 24th, so that we can host an open house for the Wichita Community Foundation’s ArtDOG event and Final Friday. We’ll open the doors in the late afternoon and host a variety of workshops starting at 6pm. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and our website for more details to follow!
Now, if I were you, I know I’d be dying to see what this place is like, so I have a couple of teasers for you.
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- Blank floor plan
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- Back workshop area
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- Front of the building
Wanna see more? Well you can! Join us this weekend (March 21/22) while we clean up the building, and again on April 4/5 when we will be moving everything over.
March update
News
I’m very pleased to announce Second Saturdays at MakeICT! We’re committed to providing at least one workshop every month, and we’ve been consistent with that. Scheduling these workshops has always been a little hairy though, but now you can count on a workshop happening every month on the Second Saturday! Most months will still probably see other events and workshops at MakeICT, but we’ll try to spread these out.
In January, our membership held a general meeting and voted in approval of MakeICT to to pursue a new location. With that approval, our board of directors entered negotiations for a new lease. Much to our dismay, the property we had our hearts set on was swept out from under us. Not to despair, though, because we continue our search and remain optimistic.
Past Events
Workshops
Valentine’s Day hand-made cards
One week before Valentine’s Day, we hosted a workshop for people to create fun, moving greeting cards. Valerie Lillich is a local crafter, and you can regularly see her hand-made greeting cards on display at craft shows, fairs, and markets. She shared her designs and instruction to make this workshop really fun. Thanks, Val!
You can check out more of Val’s work in her Etsy shop or at the Some Kind of Vintage booth at the Derby Antique Market.
Outreach events
Wichita Council of Engineering Societies
MakeICT was invited to be part of the WCES Annual Banquet for the first time this year. We had volunteers set up a table to demonstrate some of our fun toys, tools, and equipment – and to help spread the word about MakeICT. Huge thanks to our awesome volunteers!
Society of Women Engineers Expo (SWEexpo15)
Every year in February, the Society of Women Engineers Wichita Section hosts SWE Expo – a free event for kids to learn and experience engineering activities and workshops. This was our second year at the SWE Expo, and Barbara Davis (one of our board members) is also a prominent figure in Wichita SWE. She made sure we didn’t miss out.
We brought our 3D printers, markerbots for kids (and adults) to build, and this really cool binary card reader, made by John Harrison. Check it out!
devICT Events
Real Time Media Manipulation with Pure Data
At February’s devICT talk, our very own John Harrison brought his laptop, a webcam, speakers, and some bananas to demonstrate some of the power of PureData. I could tell you more about it… or you can just watch!
If you’re interested in learning more about PureData or patching in general, join the Wichita Patcher’s Circle! Beginners and veterans are all welcome!
Upcoming Events
Second Saturday Featured Workshop:
Learn to Solder with Tom McGuire
March 14
A hot Iron, a wet sponge, and a little patience is all it takes to make something really cool. Attendees will be given a circuit board, custom-designed by our workshop leader, as well as some nifty components to solder together and make something fun and interactive. What you make is yours to take home with you!
Workshop instruction will run from 1-3pm, but we’ll be sticking around until at least 4 to help out anyone who wants to stay!
March 14 – Pi Day – π recitation contest
Join us in celebration of everyone’s favorite irrational number! Whoever can correctly recite the most consecutive digits of Pi will win a Raspberry Pi 2, donated by yours truly!
Everyone’s also invited to bring Raspberry Pi projects for show-and-tell! What have you made with yours?
March 28 – Crochet Basics Workshop With Michelle Armbrister
This is an entry-level learn-to-crochet workshop covering basic stitches. Examples of some vintage items will be on display. Our workshop leader is generously donating supplies for the participants! Thanks, Michelle! I’m looking forward to this 🙂
March 28 – Arduino Day
Arduino Day is an international celebration of the microcontroller platform which has changed the way people can create! Everyone is invited to come hang out at the makerspace and to bring their favorite Arduino (or other microcontroller) project for show-and-tell. We’ll also be working together to build Arduino-powered floppy drive organ for the makerspace like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGSTYvx5c78
Join us!
April events
- Basic Electronics
Open Hack Nights
Don’t forget, every other Monday is Open Hack Night! We open our doors to the public and invite people to bring a project, bring a friend, or just bring themselves. There’s always something interesting going on!
PS – Readers paying close attention will notice that we skipped over February’s update. Well, we didn’t really skip over it – I’m just changing the naming scheme to be consistent with our newsletter and the timing of publication. Don’t worry – you haven’t missed out on anything yet!
January update
News
We held a general member meeting on January 12th. Members came in to learn and discuss some of the options and plans for MakeICT regarding location and equipment. We then held an official vote, and the people have spoken! They approved the MakeICT board to pursue a new location and purchase $41,500 worth of new equipment and tools! That list includes a laser cutter, a new 3D printer, a sewing machine, screen printing equipment, a pottery wheel, a kiln, several different machines to build out a wood shop and a metal shop, and various electronics. Are we missing something vital that you’ve just been waiting for? Well become a member today and join the conversation!
Past Events
Workshops
Chibitronics
With the help of our partners at Instructables and supplies from Chibitronics, Mike Doolittle led a workshop of crafting and creating with sticky-circuits and conductive tape. Here’s a project Kevin Falting made from what he learned at the workshop:
Advanced 3D Printing
As usual, James Lancaster impressed us all with his depth of knowledge in 3D printing and modeling. This month’s Advanced 3D Printing workshop focused primarily on OpenSCAD. OpenSCAD is software that works like a programming language for defining precise 3D models. Pretty cool stuff!
2015 Kickoff with devICT and Startup Wichita
My, my, how time flies! We kicked off another year with the fine folks at devICT and Startup Wichita. It was a great time for people to come out, share projects, meet new people, and celebrate all of the great things happening in Wichita in 2015! Thanks to The Labor Party for hosting!
devICT Events
Hackathon
A hackathon is an all-day event where developers gather under one roof and focus their attention on intense productivity. Hackathons often come with a theme, common goal, or competition, but this month’s hackathon was free-form. People were invited bring a project they’ve been working on or to try something entirely new. Looking forward to the next one!
Monthly Talk
This months talk was titled Intelligent GUI Automation with Sikuli or “There’s no API for that :(“ – presented by yours truly. This was the first monthly talk after breaking for the holidays, and attendance was impressive! These talks are always better in person, but if you happened to miss it, you can always watch it online.
Upcoming Events
February 7 – Let’s make moving Valentines with Valerie Lillich
Many ‘vintage’ valentines contain movement. Participants will be able to recreate three different mechanical cards in this workshop. They can also use the basic templates to make their own mechanical cards.
There are three different card types that will be covered:
- Slide card including a pull tab
- Moving wheel card
- Changing picture card
This is a beginner level workshop for all ages and costs $3.
February 10 – devICT Nerd Beers
Nerd Beers is an informal social gathering and open hack night. Bring some beer (if you’d like), bring your laptop (if you’d like) and come hang out and nerd out with fellow Wichita developers.
Feel free to bring a project to work on, or just show up and see what everyone else is up to. This is a completely open social gathering, the only rule is to get out of the house and show up.
February 19 – MakeICT at WCES (volunteer opportunity)
MakeICT will have a table set up at the Wichita Council of Engineering Societies Annual Banquet, and we need 2 volunteers from 5pm to about 6:45pm. We will be showcasing our 3D printer & foam cutter, and volunteers are needed to help with setup, tear-down, and sharing information about MakeICT. Interested in helping? Join the conversation!
February 21 – MakeICT at SWE Expo (volunteer opportunity)
Every year, the Wichita chapter of the Society of Women Engineers hosts this free event for kids in grades K-8. There are tons of hands-on, engineering activities and workshops showcasing different fields of engineering at different booths. MakeICT will have a booth, and we could use your help to make sure it runs smoothly. If you’re interested in helping out, please join the conversation!
February 26 – devICT Monthly talk: Real time media manipulation using Pure Data with John Harrison
Forget everything you know about procedural languages and object-oriented languages; Pure Data is none of those. Created for real-time manipulation of all media, Pure Data models the framework of old-school analog synthesizers. Code consists of diagrams describing data flowing between multiple objects.
With an emphasis on raw performance, Pure Data is popular with New Media artists and is the sound engine for some commercial games. Pure Data is open-source and cross-platform.
Here are some examples of projects powered by Pure Data.
March events
- Beginner’s crochet workshop
- Pi Day workshop
- Learn to solder workshop
Open Hack Nights
Don’t forget, every other Monday is Open Hack Night! We open our doors to the public and invite people to bring a project, bring a friend, or just bring themselves. There’s always something interesting going on!
Seeking volunteers: please automate this job!
Are you good with automating software? OR, are you looking for an excuse to practice try it out? Maybe you’re a Selenium wizard or maybe you just want to learn…
Well I have just the project for you!
Whenever we host MakeICT event, we end up cross-posting it to a bunch of places. It’s a bit cumbersome, it’s error-prone, and there’s definitely a better way.
Here’s what happens today:
- The event is created in WildApricot (our member management system), which generates a unique URL for attendee registration
- The same event details are posted to our Google Calendar, with the WildApricot registration URL at the top of the description
- Same goes for Meetup.com
- and Facebook
- and maybe Google+… did you know we have a Google+? We totally have a Google+.
- And of course we follow that up with a tweet and facebook invitations
Can you automate this? Maybe we can find one person to do each part of the automation, and then glue it all together at the end? Does something like this already exist? I don’t know!
But I do know these things:
- You cannot create events the WildApricot API, but you can read them.
- You cannot create events using the Facebook Graph API v2, but you can using v1 (will be deprecated 30 April 2015)
- You cannot create events using the G+ API. In fact, the whole thing is read-only.
- You can create events using the meetup API
So it seems like API’s are not the way to go. Do you have any ideas on how to tackle this? Would you be willing to help solve at least part of the problem? Join in the discussion on the MakeICT forum or shoot me an email at dom@makeict.org!
December update
News
General member meeting
Is MakeICT moving? Are we buying new equipment? How will we make all of these decisions? Find these answers and more at our general member meeting on January 12th at 7:30pm.
Newsletter
People have been asking us for a newsletter for a long time, but we’ve been so busy with everything else that we haven’t been able to create one. Some people read the blog entries on our webpage, some people are subscribed to our forum, and some people follow us on social media… but some of you still want MakeICT news delivered to your inbox. Hey, we totally understand, and I’m here to deliver!
To manage your mailing options, visit: http://makeict.wildapricot.org/newsletter
Past Events
Robot Sumo
Our Robot Sumo event was the brainchild of Ivan Quiroz, and we fell in love with it immediately. We had 18 people in 9 different teams come to build bots and 7 of those teams competed in the tournament. I didn’t count the number of spectators we had, but it was a full house!
Everybody involved had a great time. Ivan and Tom McGuire put a lot of effort in developing a custom robot kit, testing and tweaking prototypes, and developing instructional material. Gina Keezer, Paul Rattana, and Troy Griggs helped out with marketing and media, as well as being a sounding board. I contributed source code to help speed development. Some familiar faces like John Harrison and Christian Kindel came to mentor and assist. All of us contributed as volunteers, and it wouldn’t have worked without everyone’s help. Thank you, volunteers!
This was our first Robot Sumo competition, and we’re looking forward to doing it again. We’ve collected a lot of feedback from participants so that we can make the next one even better! If you weren’t able to participate this time, we hope you’ll join us for the next one. And if you did compete, we hope to see you (and your bot) make a comeback!
2014 Robot Sumo Winners
- Champion: Dragon Slayer – Katlyn Williams
- Runner up: Maelstrom – Rick Boyd & Christian Kindel
- Best in show: Bushido – Anna Lenhart Murray
For those of you who missed out on the action, you can watch videos of each of the battles on our Youtube channel!
Intro to 3D Printing
It’s no secret that we love 3D printing at MakeICT. There probably aren’t very many people nearby who have nearly as much experience with 3D printers as James Lancaster, who has hosted several workshops for us in the past. We’re pretty lucky to have him around!
James and I took feedback and suggestions from previous workshops and created a brand new, multi-workshop teaching plan. Then we tag-teamed the Intro workshop for 20 eager makers. Now we’re looking forward to hosting Intermediate and Advanced workshops! Stay tuned for dates!
Upcoming Events
January 10 – Instructables build day with Chibitronics
We are partnering with Chibitronics, creators of peel-and-stick electronics for crafting circuits, for this Instructables build night.
We will use these sticky circuit elements with copper tape to build beautiful designs that light up and can be enhanced with special effects.
We will teach you what you need for this workshop. We will supply everything you need for this workshop.
January 12 – General member meeting
The MakeICT board of directors will propose location/leasing options and equipment purchases to the membership for discussion, revision, and approval via vote.
January 13 – Nerd Beers
Nerd Beers is an informal social gathering and open hack night. Bring some beer (if you’d like), bring your laptop (if you’d like) and come hang out and nerd out with fellow Wichita developers.
Feel free to bring a project to work on, or just show up and see what everyone else is up to. This is a completely open social gathering, the only rule is to get out of the house and show up.
January 17 – devICT Hackathon
Let’s all get together and build something! Everyone bring your own project idea, and spend the day seeing what you can accomplish.
There are no requirements for what you work on, just something you have some interest in. This can be a great opportunity to try and learn something new, or try out that new language you’ve wanted to play with.
Nerd Beers is just a few days beforehand, so feel free to come out and discuss with the group to help you get an idea.
Some food and drinks will be provided.
January 29 – devICT Monthly Talk: Intelligent GUI Automation with Sikuli or “There’s no API for that :(“
By combining computer vision (OpenCV) and coding (Jython (Java + Python)), Sikuli can be used to automate any graphical user interface with programmable intelligence. The vision module allows users programmatically identify visual elements, query the screen, and perform logical operations based on the results. For example, one could write a script to find all checkboxes on the screen and toggle their state if the first letter after the checkbox is a ‘T’. This can be a powerful tool for GUI testing or automating UI’s when an API is not available.
Your presenter will be Dominic Canare.
February 7 – DIY Valentine’s Day Cards with Valerie Lillich
We’re still working out the details for this one, but it will be just in time for you to make something special for your special someone!
Open Hack Nights
Don’t forget, every other Monday is Open Hack Night! We open our doors to the public and invite people to bring a project, bring a friend, or just bring themselves. There’s always something interesting going on!
- January 12 (+general member meeting at 7:30pm)
- January 26
November update
News
Huge support from Wichita Community Foundation and the Knight Foundation
In case you missed it, MakeICT received a $100,000 grant from the Wichita Community Foundation and the Knight Foundation.
You can read more about it in this previous blog post, as well as in the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Business Journal.
Events
Annual Halloween Challenge
Some of the effort which went into this year’s Halloween challenge took us by surprise. Our #1 favorite was Cameron’s Iron Man build. We were so impressed, we created a category just for him!
Here are the other winners:
- Food: Erin Melroy’s Sugar Cookies
- Jack-o-lanterns: Sean Whalen’s pumpkin train
- Runner up: Ashlee Weeks’s Captain America
- Costumes: Lacy Hansen’s Rocketboy
- Runner up: Audrey Barba’s Labyrinth Costumes
- Props: Paul Rattana’s Gun Blades
- Runner up: Lacey Holtz’s Dioramas (this one actually came down to a coin toss!)
Cameron has been awarded 6 months of free membership to MakeICT, and the other’s win a $25 gift certificate. You can view all of the 2014 Halloween Challenge submissions on the Facebook event page.
Instructables Build night
Our Instructables build night for November brought Spark Cores to MakeICT. Mike Doolittle organized our makers and they’re now busy working on their Internet of Things projects. Stay tuned for some awesome how-to’s from some of our awesome members!
Book binding workshop
Krystal Groshans (a long time friend of mine!) graciously brought some of her crafting skills down to the makerspace with a DIY book binding workshop.
December events
- Robot sumo hackathon and tournament
- 3D printing intro workshop
- Open hack nights
- December 1
- December 15
- December 29
What we’re working on
Our directors and volunteers are always busy. Here’s what we’re spending our time on lately:
- A sustainability plan
- Location shopping
- Redesigning makeict.org
- A monthly newsletter
A solution to our chicken-and-egg problem
Since the first time we gathered to discuss how a makerspace in Wichita might work, we’ve struggled with the chicken-and-egg problem. Which comes first: the members or the makerspace? The members provide money for the ‘space, but the ‘space is the reason for people to become members. A catch-22.
Two years ago, our founding members helped to solve this problem by bootstrapping MakeICT with our personal funds, and that’s what put us in our current home on West Douglas. We’ve hit the capacity of the space and our growth has stagnated. Once again, we found ourselves with the same problem. We know what the community wants/needs, but we didn’t have the means to provide it…
Enter the Knight Foundation Fund of the Wichita Community Foundation, with their a very generous gift: $100,000.
We’ll use this to acquire premium, professional-grade equipment and tools – technologies that wouldn’t otherwise be available to the average person. We’ll develop high-quality instructional strategies and find ways to help our community share their knowledge with others. Lastly, we’ll be able to provide a comfortable space where the atmosphere is conducive to interacting, brainstorming, and meeting new people with different ideas and backgrounds – where creative collisions are a common occurrence, and ideas can blossom into real-life manifestations.
This support has shown us that people believe in our mission, our community, and our efforts. We’ll be working hard to be an even greater resource, and we’ll be looking for ways to connect with other individuals and entities to be an effective organization. Interested in being a part of MakeICT? You can become a member today by joining online, connect with others on our online forum, or connect in person during one of our public events. Our next open hack night will be December 1st at 7pm.
With a full heart and eager anticipation of the work ahead of us,
Dominic Canare, President <dom@makeict.org>
🙂
Out and about in October
October proved to be a good month for MakeICT to make some public appearances. First, we were invited to the North End Urban Arts Festival. We set up our booth right in the middle of other artists and makers, and we had a fun time. We didn’t bring our entire repertoire, but we did have plenty of tools and supplies for making catapults, brush-bots, and LED throwies. It turned out to be a very popular event – it’s great to see such an awesome community turnout.
We also had a significant showing at the Off the Grid – a pedal powered concert and eco-fest at the Bartlett Arboretum. Looking for evidence of creative collisions in Wichita? Try this. Catherine and I met at a board meeting for Bike Walk Wichita. She was spreading the news of the Off the Grid event and was really excited about building bike generators. I let her know that MakeICT probably had several members with relevant knowledge, and that they’d probably help if she ran into problems. We exchanged email addresses, and shortly after I started a new thread on the MakeICT forums.
Our makers loved the idea, and the conversation blew up from there. Catherine explained what she was working with, and several people chimed in with comments, advice, and questions. It wasn’t long before people were agreeing to meet at MakeICT to start building and experimenting. We ended up with 3 adult bike generators (one of which is a tandem) and 2 kid-sized generators for a separate activity. There was a lot of learning as we went, but it all worked out in the end.
More photos from the concert are available in our Facebook album and also in the Wichita Business Journal.
If you’ve been keeping up with us over the years, you know how much we love Halloween. This year we did something new – a Halloween Makeup workshop. We learned how to make comic-book style pop-art characters, zombies, fake blood, and wounds/scars. For more pictures, visit our Facebook page.
And because I’m sure some of you have been wondering what happens “behind the scenes” at MakeICT, our hard-working board members and a handful of others have been diligently searching and shopping for potential new locations for the makerspace. We’ve been connecting with community members and making a list of pros and cons. We want to make sure we’ve evaluated all of our options fully, so we can be sure that we make the right decision when the time comes. We’ve also been working hard lately to make sure we have a clear vision of the future that’s in line with our mission statement. We’re looking for more ways that we can better serve our community!
September’s out; October’s in!
September was a (uniquely) quiet month for us – but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy!
We’ve had some fun painting the Little Free Libraries, which will be installed soon. We’ve also been helping design and build a pedal-powered speaker system for an off-the-grid concert coming up on October 19th. If you go to the concert, before to look for MakeICT and say hi!
We’ve been doing some event planning as well, so there’s plenty to look forward to! In the next couple of months, be on the lookout for a brand new workshop on DIY bookmaking! We’ll also be doing 3D Printing 101 for newbies, an advanced 3D Printing workshop, and possibly a CNC Milling workshop as well.
And of course you know, since we’re in October now, so it’s time again for our annual Halloween challenge! We’ll be judging by category this year, so stay tuned for more details. In the mean time, have a look at some of last year’s submissions!
Right along in the Halloween spirit, our devICT group is taking a break from their regular monthly meetups and planning a Halloween Mixer!
Lastly (but certainly not least), we’re going to try something else totally new: a Sumobot tournament! A Sumobot is a robot that you can build which competes against another Sumobot to shove them out of a ring. We’re designing a customizable kit which will be given to teams and individuals who register. Along with the kit, we’ll be doing workshops prior to the tournament, so that you can learn absolutely everything you need to know to make a champion out of your bot!