News
Hearts and thoughts
In April we prepared for our Grand Open House event, and it required a lot of labor. We spent hours and hours prepping and painting walls to prepare for a flood of visitors, and we had lots of help from generous volunteers. One of those volunteers was Jaleel Alarbash. He was a student at Wichita State, and he had never heard of MakeICT before he came to volunteer. He and his friends had only heard that it was a worthy cause and that help was needed. Sadly, he was killed recently while helping to prevent the death of many others in a terrorist attack. Our hearts and thoughts go out to his family and friends in these times. His friendliness and eagerness to build a better community will not be forgotten here.
Congratulations
Congratulations go out to John Harrison (our very own vice-president) and the Filimin team on their successful Kickstarter campaign! Filimin is a wifi-enabled touch lamp, which helps keep people connected from anywhere in the world. If you’d like to learn more about it, visit http://www.filimin.com/.
Floor plan
Work continues on both high and low levels. Much of the floor plan has now been finalized, including spaces for the woodshop, metal shop + bike stuff, ceramics, electronics, textiles, the fab lab (3d printing, laser cutting, etc), shared workspace, the lounge, the gallery, retail/consignment space, studio space, and project storage space. Oh my!
Speaking of progress, check out the work that’s been done in the woodshop already! The walls are up, the ceiling is installed, power is ran, and equipment has been moved in. Mike Hutton and other member-volunteers have been working incredibly hard, and it shows! This is just a taste
As a reminder, all of this work is the thoughtful contribution of volunteers. People who want an awesome makerspace are creating an awesome makerspace. Want to be involved? We’ll be building walls around the ceramics studio this Saturday (June 6) at 9am. You can also find more volunteer opportunities on our website.
Past Events
Workshops
Basic Electricity Workshop
James Seymour and Tom McGuire were at it again! Combining their knowledge, experience, and humor, this duo brought the crowd up to speed on some fundamental electricity basics. This workshop included a kit with a bread board and basic components, so attendees could continue their tinkering and learning at home!
devICT – Unity3D – Make a game in 30 minutes
In one of the best-attended devICT Monthly Talks to date, Brian Foster demonstrated just how easy it can be to throw together a 3D game using Unity. Having the right tool for the right job can make a big difference, and watching Brian throw together a game from nothing was an impressive sight!
If this is exciting to you, then you may be interested to hear that we’re holding the first ever ICT Game Jam. No experience is needed, and cash prizes are available. For more information, please visit the registration page. Early-bird pricing is available through June 12th.
Upcoming Events
June 20 – Screen printing basics workshop
This workshop will be in 2 parts. In Part 1 (9am-noon), we’ll be demonstrating how to build your own screen. Materials will be available for purchase for anyone who wants to build a screen during this session.
In Part 2 (noon-2pm), we’ll show you how to actually use the screens to make prints!
June 20 – Annual meeting and potluck
That’s right – it’s that time of the year again! We’ll start our members-only annual meeting at 4:30pm, where we’ll review our activity of the past year, elect a new board of directors, approve the budget, and vote on other matters. The tentative agenda is available on the wiki.
Following the members-only meeting will be a public potluck. Everyone is invited, so please feel free to bring a friend, some food to share, and a project to show off. This year, we’re also planning on doing Lightning Talks! These are brief, informal presentations for people to share thoughts, ideas, projects, or anything else with a group of people.
June 25 – devICT – Robots – Bringing your code into the real world
Find out what it takes to build and code for a large robot. Chris Lofland will share his motivation for building a robot and explain the tools and platforms he uses to make his robot operate.
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!