Tomorrow the filming the season five will begin, where eight teams have moved forward from the ‘City Series’ to compete on the national stage.
Make48 is in Wichita, KS to film at GoCreate makerspace this weekend. The City Series launched in Wichita, and we’re excited to have the innovation space host our teams, tool techs and guests over the 48-hour weekend.
Last year, we met the amazing crew at GoCreate and many of their members and mentors will help the teams again this year. Courtney Rosenquist (Make48 Influencer Relations) experienced her first Make48 event in Wichita last year and she’s excited to return.
“I am so thrilled to be back in Wichita for Nationals. The GoCreate facility is truly special. Everything from the people to the space itself. The teams will not go without anything they might need. I can’t wait to see the magic happen!”
Many of our team members are traveling to the ICT state. This will be Kollin Wasserlein’s (Grantwriter for Make48 ) first visit to GoCreate. Kollin experienced his first 48-hour challenge at the MakerspaceCT event in Hartford. “Our Hartford event was a great way to be introduced to Make48. Now, with that experience under my belt, I'm excited to see the size and scale of a national event, with the lights and cameras of a television program seen by millions.”
One of the benefits of bringing Make48 to cities across the country, is growing an ecosystem of makers, inventors and entrepreneurs. As we head into states, local investments have helped bring Make48 into the community, like Wichita, Kansas. Last year David Marshall joined the team as Make48’s Wichita ambassador. "I heard through Kim, GoCreate’s Assistant Director, that Make48 was coming to Wichita for an Invention Competition. I thought I would volunteer and it turned out to be an incredible recipe of makerspace, contestants, challenges, Tool Techs, vision, prototypes, and more in a 48-hour time limit. It was both challenging and magical. As a volunteer and Tool Tech, I had the opportunity to float around, help build/create prototype pieces, and support everyone as needed. It WAS fun and exciting."
David is looking forward to watching it all come together this weekend, where it all started. "Who will rise to be the best of the City Champions? That is part of the excitement. The other part for me is that this is on a larger stage. This is on PBS, one of the best audiences in the United States. They are thinking people, they are adventurous people, they are creative people….they will all love this new level of innovation competition brought into their homes. I am so looking forward to seeing innovation and collaboration at its best, and who is going to rise to the top as Make48’s #1 Team in the first National Innovation Competition."
This weekend the teams will build their ideas by mentors and tool technicians. Travis Putman has been a Make48 volunteer and Tool Techs since 2015. “This is my 9th Make48 event and I think my biggest reason I keep coming back is that I really enjoy helping people succeed. When the teams approach me with an idea, I really enjoy helping them figure out a way to create their prototype from the available resources and in the available time. It can be quite the challenge most of the time. Once their parts are completed and I hand them the pieces of their idea, I really enjoy seeing their faces light up with excitement. Plus, when they are presenting their pitch, I feel proud knowing that I have helped with their project's success.”
As our CAD expert, Travis will also be working with our new CAD software, PTC’s Onshape®. Teams and tool techs will be trained on the cloud-native product development platform, Make48’s exclusive computer-aided design (CAD) tool. There are many benefits to using Onshape and it will be a huge advantage for teams and professionals.
“The main advantage of Onshape is that it does not require a fancy expensive computer to run," Travis remarked. "Simply open a browser on any computer. or install the app on a mobile device, and the user is up and running. As the teams and techs start creating models, they can easily be shared with others to make it super easy to collaborate on ideas and make their prototypes. With everyone using Onshape, there will not be any compatibility issues that can happen between different CAD packages. Everyone will be working from the same up to-the-minute data, so getting the right version of their parts created will be a great advantage."
Travis is certain everyone will master the software quickly. “We all have our favorite software to use for various tasks. Since CAD software can be somewhat complicated at times, most users have a specific program they are comfortable with. Onshape is a very capable CAD program and I think the teams and tool techs will have no problems adapting to it once they get the basics.”
Toys are the challenge theme at Nationals, but teams don’t know yet the criteria. It can be almost anything, and the teams will be on their toes until it’s announced when the clock starts.
Kollin is eager to see the event unfold.
“I can't wait to see how the teams react to the pressure of this larger event. We got to see the winning teams each work on such different challenges at their City Series events, and now we get to see them work on this fun challenge in the pressure-cooker of the national show. The stakes are completely different now, and I can't wait to see how these teams step up to the challenge.”
After Nationals, Make48 will be hitting the road and moving forward to the 2022 City Series, beginning this summer. Teams can start applying now for a chance to compete at one of our events this summer. Visit https://www.make48.com/competitions to learn more about the city series events.