The Miami Mini Maker Faire was held in Wynwood to the delight of almost 4,000 attendees and 100+ exhibitors. The Faire is held in creative communities around the world and is a celebration of imagination and innovation. FIU CIS co-produced the event that featured FIU student exhibits and workshops: Deon Wilkins and Fernando Campo presented the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles developed in the FIU Discovery Lab; Charleotte Farolan, Women in Computer Science President and WICS members hosted a day long soldering workshop where they taught hundreds of kids to assemble and solder a small robotic bug or a USB LED Flashlight; Diego Bracamonte worked with Microsoft to demonstrate 3D printing tools and integration; and Adam Manoussakis and members of the Miami Northwestern Bicycle Blenders demonstrated and distributed hundreds of human powered smoothies.
Cristy Charters, one of our new Instructors and the Regional Code.org Representative presented a workshop on teaching computer programming in elementary schools. At the FIU CIS booth, our advisors challenged attendees to solve a binary sudoku puzzle. Jairo Pava, and FIU CIS Alumni and Developer for Ultimate Software partnered with Miami-Dade County Library System and their Teen Technology Center YouMedia to demonstrate robotics technology and provide a workshop on engineering solutions with robotics.
As you can see from the Miami Herald write-up, this is a great community building and outreach activity to create STEAM career awareness in South Florida.https://miamiherald.typepad.com/the-starting-gate/2014/11/miami-mini-maker-faire-brings-tech-crafts-family-fun-to-wynwood.html
Many of our students and staff made significant contributions to the Faire’s operations especially Sydney Sheran, Ashley Austin, Joshua Martinez, and Camila Lomanto. The event will be even bigger next year and our School will continue to encourage FIU students, faculty and staff to inspire others by sharing their knowledge and creations.