Monthly Archives: July 2012

Watch LI4E Makerspace Team in Red Bull Creation Live, July 19, at 9pm

Watch the LI4E Makerspace team live, starting tonight, July 19, at 9pm, as they embark on the 72 hour Red Bull Creation Build-a-Thon!

PopSci Teaming Up With Red Bull Creation 2012 !

Popular Science (PopSci)  is joining in the hack- and make-a-thon Red Bull Creation fun next week, as the LI4E Makerspace team joins in with 11 other teams from around the country in a 72-hour finals competition, running July 19-22.   PopSci will be co-hosting the livestreamed event as it happens.

Click the pic below to learn more about the “Bullduino” being used in the competition works.  Go LI4E Makerspace Team!!

LI4E Makerspace Team Earns Spot in Red Bull Creation 2012 Finals!

Planning out the Red Bull Creation entry

They did it! Learning is for Everyone’s LI4E Makerspace Project team will be representing Tampa Bay,  Florida and Learning is for Everyone as a finalist in the 2012 Red Bull Creation Contest. Provided only with an arduino open source microcontroller – called a Bullduino, in Red Bull’s honor – teams from around the country put together a device of their choosing to try to impress judges with their creativity and engineering skills.

That was easy!

The LI4E Makerspace team created a Rube Goldberg-esque Red Bull Wake-Up Call alarm clock, and entered a video of their contraption into the competition on July 3. The clock, in their words, is “an over-engineered beauty .. ” Apparently Red Bull agreed!

The Red Bull launcher

Red Bull Creation judges selected the LI4E Makerspace team and 11 other teams from around the country as finalists, who will now compete in a 72 themed build that kicks off July 19. After a public voting period, top scoring teams get to take their creations the World Maker Faire 2012 in New York, in September. Besides getting to showcase their creations, Red Bull Creation finalists will be vying for a top prize of $10,000.

LI4E Makerspace and Team Duct Tape members, with mentor Paul Markun, of Tampa Technik.

The LI4E Makerspace Project is an effort by Learning is for Everyone (LI4E) to bring community makerspaces to Tampa Bay. The LI4E Makerspace team is an intergenerational, multi-talented crew of youth and adults, who are students, writers, artists, programmers, engineers, craftspeople and all-purpose tinkerers – a cross section of the community that would value and use a makerspace. Many of the team members are also members of LI4E’s award winning FIRST Tech Challenge team, Team Duct Tape, recently returned from competing in the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis, MO.

LI4E’s motto is “No Limits!” and the Red Bull Creation team exemplifies that no-holds-barred creativity in all they do. More information about the LI4E Makerspace team can be found here .

Congratulations, LI4E Makerspace Team!  We’ll be following closely next week,and fully expect to see one or both of their creations at Tampa Bay Mini Maker Faire 2012!

We Make, Therefore We Are!

Enjoy this fun look at Learning is for Everyone’s Makerspace Project Red Bull Creation 2012 entry! Team members hailed from LI4E’s FTC Team Duct Tape , and put their collective creativity to the test to develop the massive Rube Goldberg-like device in just three days!

Here’s the team’s description of their creation:

This over-engineered beauty is the Red Bull Wake-Up-Call alarm clock. Since anything worth doing is worth over-doing, this Bullduino-driven morning persuader is configured out a variety of repurposed items, including:

  • a 60 year old Seth Thomas travel clock
  • a Yamaha stage piano with speaker and woofer
  • an NXT brick
  • a couple of LEGO motors
  • a steel trap triggered by a falling anvil
  • and lots of duct tape!
They Make, therefore they Are – awesome!

LI4E Makerspace Project Team in Red Bull Creation Contest 2012

The LI4E Makerspace Project is an effort by Learning is for Everyone, the lead sponsor of Tampa Bay’s first ever Mini Maker Faire, to bring makerspaces to Tampa Bay .  Not waiting for makerspace to start making things, team members are hard at work and play in  2012 Red Bull Creation Contest , armed with a “Bullduino” and loads of creativity, hoping to make it into the top 12  makers or maker teams, who get to compete in a 72-hour build starting July 19.

After a public voting period, top scoring teams get to take their creations the

Getting a few supplies for the Red Bull Creation project.

World Maker Faire 2012, in September. Besides getting to showcase their maker awesomeness, and hang with other great techies and artists, Red Bull Creation contestants will be vying for the top prize of $10,000  - pretty decent seed money for a Makerspace!

Working with a few things the LI4E Makerspace Project team found in the garage.

You can follow along the LI4E Makerspace Project team’s adventure on their Facebook page .  And check back here soon to see a video of their creation!

GO TEAM!