The digital manufacturing network of Emilia-Romagna at Maker Faire Rome

Let’s take a Renzo Piano architecture in Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica, put inside (and outside) it digital professionals, engineers, artisans, designers, makers (?!?); mix them and add 3D printers, innovative technologies from all over Europe, robots, drones and all types of Arduino applications. Garnish all this stuff with the secret ingredient (15.000 students!) and that’s the recipe for the Maker Faire Rome!

The Mak-ER roadshow started in New York in late September, and continues its European edition of the Maker Faire in Rome.

Mak-ER was represented by nine members of the network:

• ON/OFF FabLab Parma
• FabLab Reggio Emilia
• MakeInBo (Bologna)
• FabLab Valsamoggia
• FabLab Romagna
• RaspiBO
• CSP – WASP Project
• MakeRN
• Makers Lab Vignola

Each lab showcased its own projects contributing to the  progress of the regional network
Among others, the audience appreciated:

• the Big Delta Wasp the biggest 3D printer of the faire which builds houses;

• the MultiHand Project of FabLab Parma, a multipurpose electromechanical hand, the first stage of a study aiming to realize a complete mechanical hand, designed to be carried out rapidly by a normal printer 3D

•  RI///FLUX by MakeRN, an interactive multimedia system that allows to create sensitive environments, paths, and interactive digital sets.

• MakeinBo projects (e.g. Tentacle Lamp – and Ovum Succresco)

• the Cycloscope of Raspibo team, a street sampled trip from Bologna to Kyrgyzstan with an automated GoPro, all powered by a dynamo

• FabLab Romagna and the projects of the students

During a light talk on Sunday 5th October we explained the birth of Mak-ER, the final goals of our work, the achievements and the challenges that we are facing and future steps.

Most of the labs had their own talk and it was a big common success! Some of them also received the prize “Maker of Merit – Maker Faire Rome 2014”!

We described our project to the Foundation Make in Italy and to all the fablabs and maker spaces which were attending the faire. Associazione Make in Italy, which is sustaining us, confirmed its support.

It’s a long road but we’re going on the right way!

Stay tuned! 
Here the Facebook gallery of Maker Faire Rome