Maker Faire

Model Rocketry John Boren, Estes-Cox
A product designer at Estes, John will begin with a brief history of Estes and why it came to be. He will discuss the different types of model rockets and in particular the different methods of recovery devices. He will look at how advancements in technology have allowed the modeler to use model rockets for more then just shooting them off for enjoyment.

Art of the Catapult Bill Gurstelle
Author of "Backyard Ballistics" and "Art of the Catapult", Bill Gurstelle offers a historical and technological review of the catapult as well as a preview of the day's King of Fling contest.

Robo Thespian Will Jackson
Meet a robot who was made for the stage. Will explains how RoboThespian works and describe the surprising reactions people have to his robot.

Deep Sea Suburbs: Backyard Anthropology Mister Jalopy
Born out of the need to repair garage sale purchases, Mister Jalopy embarked on the quest to be handy about 10 years ago. This talk traces his inspiring path of discovery as he built skills and became a Make contributing editor.

Austin Food Makers Marla Camp
The editor of Edible Austin, Marla Camp, talks about the local makers of good food and how rewarding it is to make your own food.

Automata: Life in Wood Sarah Alexander
A jaunt through the last 30 years of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre with its director who is the daughter of the founder, Sue Jackson. Glimpse some of the fantastic automata from the collection and learn about the artists who made them.

21st Century Woodworking Tools Ted Hall
The founder of ShopBot tells how his company was an outgrowth of his passion for building wooden boats and how that led him to create an affordable, capable CNC machine for the rest of us.

Pleo and Its Maker, Caleb Chung Caleb Chung
Caleb co-invented the 1998 hot toy of the year, Furby, which sold over 40 million units worldwide, generating over $1 billion in sales. Caleb is inventor and co-founder of UGOBE Life Forms, which will be coming out soon with Pleo, a robotic dinosaur.

Design Squad Austin Children's Museum
Unleash your ingenuity and challenge yourself to think like an engineer with this area inspired by the popular PBS show--at the Faire through its friends at Austin Children's Museum. Don't miss special guest appearances by Design Squad host Nate Ball and second season cast member Deysi.

Crafty Biz 101 Jenny Ryan
Learn about crafting as a business and get tips on exhibiting at local craft fairs from Jenny Ryan, founder of Felt Club in LA.

Big Bold Embroidery Jenny Hart
Austin-based artist and entrepreneur Jenny Hart will present a slide show of her embroidered portraits and talk about her innovations in embroidery design. Hart is an artist, author of three titles with Chronicle Books (Sublime Stitching Craft Pad out Spring '09) and founder of Sublime Stitching."

Flying Cars Vernon Porter
Vernon believes that the future of the flying car is now. He is building a prototype flying car that uses a Mazda RX-engine and runs on regular gas. Designed to fly two people at 150 mph cruise speed, it fits in an ordinary garage.

Self-Guided Design Chalo Colina
A prolific maker, Chalo will talk about the role of common sense and self-confidence in meeting technical objectives using resources at hand. He believes that most people already have most of what they need to make things they might assume that are beyond their ability.

Kosmophone: Music from the Spheres Jerry Chamkis
Jerry is founder of the Acme Electric Robot Company in Austin. He builds music recording equipment and teaches at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. His Kosmophone is a gamma-ray spectrometer operating in the range of about 3 to 7 million electron-volts (MeV) controlling a MIDI music synthesizer.

The Making of ArtGolf ArtGolf Team
ArtGolf is Maker Faire’s newest homemade attractions. Get the scoop on this design-and-build project from its makers.

Wonderful Little Things Mark Frauenfelder
Editor-in-Chief of MAKE and founder of Boing-Boing,net, Mark Frauenfelder will give a little talk about the funny little things you find in the back of old magazines, and what you can find there today.

Automata: Life in Wood Sarah Alexander
A jaunt through the last 30 years of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre with its director who is the daughter of the founder, Sue Jackson. Glimpse some of the fantastic automata from the collection and learn about the artists who made them.

Model Rocketry John Boren, Estes-Cox
A product designer at Estes, John will begin with a brief history of Estes and why it came to be. He will discuss the different types of model rockets and in particular the different methods of recovery devices. He will look at how advancements in technology have allowed the modeler to use model rockets for more then just shooting them off for enjoyment.

Armchair Astronomy Tierney O’Dea
You can now use an observatory telescope even though you are sitting at your computer at home. Tierney of SLOOH.COM will talk about a web site for armchair astronomers. SLOOH.COM is an online network of observatories with its flagship observatory located at the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands and two more online soon in Chile and Australia.

Hacking the iPhone George Hotz
Rochester Institute of Technology student and chronic hardware hacker, George Hotz recently unlocked the iPhone.

The Maker As Revolutionary Wendy Tremayne
In 2005, Wendy launched Swap-O-Rama-Rama, an "alternative to consumerism" in the form of a clothing swap and DIY workshop. The aim is to inspire creative reuse through the recycling of used clothing by cutting, sewing, and transforming the garments into something new, original, and decidedly your own. Since its introduction, Swap-O-Rama-Rama has grown to more than 40 cities around the world, including a very special swap at Maker Faire.

Handmade Nation Faythe Levine
Faythe will discuss the new wave of craft that is sweeping the nation. In 2006, she began shooting her documentary, Handmade Nation, traveling to 15 cities and interviewing over 50 community members. She will show a clip of the documentary in progress and discuss the different ways to get involved with the craft community as a maker.

Deep Sea Suburbs: Backyard Anthropology Mister Jalopy
Born out of the need to repair garage sale purchases, Mister Jalopy embarked on the quest to be handy about 10 years ago. This talk traces his inspiring path of discovery as he built skills and became a Make contributing editor.

Gigapan Rich LeGrand
The next generation of panaromic imaging is here and in gigapixels. Rich LeGrand of Austin-based Charmed Labs has been working with Google, NASA and Carnegie-Mellon University to create a robotic unit for taking gigapixel pictures with ordinary digital cameras. The images can be viewed in Google Earth or online at gigapan.org.

Lunar Laser Ranging at McDonald Observatory Washtub Jerry
Learn about the first 37 years of lunar laser ranging at McDonald Observatory in west Texas. Lunar data is used to study many aspects of the earth and much more.

The Art of Living Dangerously Bill Gurstelle
There are people who take extraordinary risks to achieve their goals. What can we learn from them? What keeps us from living dangerously and participating in events like Punkin Chunkin, Burning Man, and High Desert Rocket Launches.