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We’ve got it! We’ve got the schedule of speakers! And what a great variety they are! Here we go, in very particular order, the 2012 Atlanta Mini Maker Faire Speakers:

10:00am
Chad Ramey :: Making Nuclear Reactors at 17
Chad, from Newnan, GA, will be talking about his experiences designing and building his own inertial electrostatic confinement fusion reactor before he even graduated high school.

11:00am
David Greelish :: History of Computing and Retro Computing Kits
David Greelish, Founder of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society, will give a presentation on the history of computers, and especially show how the modern Make movement parallels the early “homebrew” computing hobbyists. Plus, a look at retrocomputing electronic kits and accessories.

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Credit: Amanda Mattison

Can you imagine drawing with a sharp knife? That’s what Amanda Mattison does in her original artwork housed in her shop Sharing Snips Scherenschnitte. She uses a finger mounted blade (that makes her sound like a superhero!) as other artists would use a pen. She might have some pieces of inspiration around her, but when she puts the knife to the paper, there is no design or pattern there – she just carves what she thinks looks best.

And not only will she be at the Faire, she’ll be bringing supplies so you can make your own cut paper artwork!

Credit: Timmy O’Brien

Timmy O’Brien of Whatever Unique, another one of our speakers, will be talking about making and the movies. Want to know a bit about him?

With an early start as a magician, and a degree in Technical Theatre and Design, Timmy O’Brien has developed a career out of hacking and making to build props, scenery, and special effects. Finding new materials, tools, and processes, as well as how to use all of those for unintended purposes has been both work and hobby. Timmy has worked on feature film and television projects for over a decade including Zombieland, The Vampire Diaries, and Gangster Squad.

And what ever will he talk about, you ask? Well we can answer that question too:

“Why you should let your kids play with tools and other ‘dangerous’ things, and how hacking and making from a young age has lead to a career in the television and film industry building props, scenery and special effects. “

His presentation is going to round out our day, starting at 4:00, so be sure to come check him out!

Credit: Chad Ramey

Well, when Chad Ramey was 17 years old, he knew enough to build an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion reactor. A Georgia Tech student now, he’s made the world’s smallest IEC fusion reactor. He’ll be the inaugural speaker on Saturday, starting about 10:00 in the auditorium of the CULC Building, so be sure to get to the Faire first thing!

One of our 2012 Makers, Matt Gilbert, has a collaborative sound installation up at a gallery called whitespace. Here’s the artist statement to give you an idea of what it’s about:

Selections from The New England Primer, an interactive sound installation by Matt Gilbert in collaboration with Ryan Peoples, investigates American approaches to childhood education as evidenced in The New England Primer, the first school textbook used in the American colonies. It taught the fundamentals of spelling and grammar through rhymes, prayers, Bible stories and cathecisms to be memorized by the students.

The exhibit includes several homemade sound controllers. Visitors are invited to interact with them, triggering samples from recordings of the Primer’s lessons and manipulating the ambient sound in the room. Also included are schoolyard recordings and samples from the 1953 instructional film for children, “How Quiet Helps Us at School”.

Selections from the New England Primer takes the lessons from the Primer—based on rote memorization, strict discipline, and Puritan values—and turns them into material for free self-directed play and investigation.

The show is up until September 29, so you’ve got about a week to check it out.

This year Tim Manasterski, roboticist, will host a 45 minute session on how to make a robot. The robot will be a simple line following bot consisting of two gearhead motors, drive and micro-controller. An infrared LED sensor array will provide the feedback for the line following and although the robot kit will come fully programmed, it will have a USB port for future modifications and customization. A line following robot was chosen for the workshop because they embody a host of robot technologies and are just plain fun to build and watch!

This workshop will cost $85, but you get to walk away with an assembled, fully functional line follower! For the workshop we only have 15 spaces, so please email us at atlminimakerfaire@gmail.com if you would like to get your name on that list!

Credit: Jeoff Davis

Lifehacker.com recently wrote a great article describing what a hackerspace is and why you should join one:

How to Find and Get Involved with A Hackerspace In Your Community

Did you know that we had (or will very soon have) four different hacker/makerspaces around Atlanta? They all have different emphases, but making is still at their core:

Freeside Atlanta
My Inventor Club
MASS Collective
Geekspace Gwinnett

They will all be present at the Faire this year so you’ll be able to get to know all of them and figure out where your interests might fit in best. The Atlanta area spaces will also be joined at the Faire by a number of other spaces around the Southeast:

Knox Makers - Knoxville, Tennessee
Hackerspace Charlotte - Charlotte, North Carolina
Chatt*lab Makerspace - Chattanooga, Tennessee
Makers Local 256 - Huntsville, Alabama

So be sure to check them all out to see what these Maker communities have created!

Credit: @the_la_l5p

Free Art Friday Atlanta wants to give you both.  Local artists create small pieces of art and hide them around Atlanta on the first Friday of every month.  Using twitter they leave clues about where the treasure is,  if you recognize where it is, and make a mad dash it can be yours.  Some of the artists will be at the Faire showing off their work, talking paint and magnets, and working a station where you can make free some free art yourself.  The hard part is deciding whether to keep your new creation, or to leave it somewhere special for somebody else to find.

Do you guys remember how smoothly the event ran last year? No one caught themselves on fire, the makers were able to set their booths up on time, the attendees found the place just fine, and the only hiccup was the lack of water. Do you know why that happened? Because we had some volunteers.

Last year was a relatively small event compared to this year, and that means we’re going to need even more volunteers to help out. We’ve split the day into bite-size chunks on our volunteer form so you’ll be able to give us a hand as well as peruse all of our lovely makers. AND you get a free t-shirt!

If you’re interested in helping the day run smoothly, please sign up to be a volunteer on our Volunteer Form. We thank you in advance!

Check it out – Georgia Tech’s Tech Lawn in all its green glory:

Now take a second and imagine the sidewalks lined on both sides by makers – R2 droids, wearable planters, book binding, live art installations, SMT soldering workshops, printmaking experiences, autonomous aircraft, blacksmithing demos, handmade jewelry, children artists, interactive art projects, mini welding workshops, make-your-own-soap demos, clean cookstoves, free art making stations, make your own animation setups, conductive electrical interfaces, art activists, mold making demos, Rube Goldberg machines, and budget screenprinting.

Then fill those sidewalks with people thirsty for interaction. Well over half our booths have some opportunity for participation, so whether you want to learn how to screenprint with pantyhose, a credit card, and cheap paint or you want to laser cut your own custom size project box from a sheet of wood, we’ve got you covered. We honestly do have something for just about everyone.

Unless you’re a hermit. And if you ARE a hermit, you may be in luck because there’s talk of someone bringing a geodesic dome for you to hide in. So if you know a hermit, please be sure to invite him/her.

See you on October 6th from 10am-5pm at 349 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta GA 30313!