This weekend Make48’s National Competition hits the stage at The University of Missouri-Kansas City for the sixth season of the 48-hour invention competition.
Seven teams will compete from March 31st to April 2nd in downtown Kansas City. We watched them take on various challenges, collaborate with each other, and bring a working prototype to life in 2 days with the help of mentors and tool technicians at their city competitions. They’ll do it all over again for the T-Mobile challenge at UMKC’s Innovation Studio and represent their city in the process.
SLIDESHOW - TEAMS COMPETING AT MAKE48 SEASON 6
Wichita, Kansas will be represented by the L Quadratics team (Lacie, Jay, Justin and Jo Leatherman)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin will be represented by Dreaming DeNicolas (Kevin, Melissa, Winston and Emilia DeNicola)
Madison, Wisconsin will be represented by the Stellar Tech Girls (Marina Bloomer, Keerthi Peddinti, Ella Burmania and Nina Chan)
Indianapolis, Indiana will be represented by The Mavericks (Jason Tuntland, Kelly Tuntland, Tyler Tuntland and Grant Venable)
Beloit, Wisconsin will be represented by Rock River Dinners (Eric Seo, Sydney Felhofer, Joshua Laue and Aleksander Mytko)
North Little Rock, Arkansas will be represented by BruWin (Galen Jauss, Allen Thomason, Evan Goodwin and Les Williams)
Kansas City, Kansas will be represented by the Little Red Hens (Mariah Presley, Callie Dyches, Cecilia Leal and Lyra Thompson)
The challenge from T-Mobile will have to do with Animal Wellness. As in previous competitions, teams have 48 hours to brainstorm an idea, buy supplies, work with tool techs on the build and criteria of the challenge, and create a 1-minute (promo) video. After the clock stops, teams will pitch their idea to a panel of judges, and a small crowd. That night one team will be crowned Make48’s season six winner.
Building will take place at the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise and Research Center, a hub for students, faculty, and the Kansas City community to discuss, design, build and innovate. Features of the 57,800 sq. ft center include $3 million worth of fabrication and prototyping equipment, industrial and research-grade additive manufacturing equipment (3D printing), high-performance computing software, augmented, virtual and mixed reality equipment and much more.
A large group of experts will be onsite to help the teams build their products. Eight team members from T-Mobile will work with the teams on how best to bring innovation to their products. To build their prototypes, equipment and tools will be provided by our amazing supporters. Experts from Onshape, ShopBot Tools, Airgas, Lincoln Electric, TotalBoat, Fastenal, MatterHackers, KREG Tools, Ultimaker, Glowforge, Gridlock Table, and Harley-Davidson will be assisting team members with their build, graphics, pitch and more.
We’ll also have a number of tool techs from around the country. Makers like Jimmy DiResta, Brandy Aubé from Studio Aubé, Luke and Priscilla with P & L Smithed, and Tyler Isaacs (Wooden Whiskers Trading Company), and Makers from Kansas City and beyond (link). With a large number of hands, teams should have no problem building a successful product in just 48 hours.
On Sunday, teams will have 10 minutes to present their ideas to a panel of experts. These judges have years of experience in design, production and innovation. After all have pitched their ideas, judges will deliberate to decide which team will win $10,000, a custom-made trophy, and have the opportunity to see their idea move to production.
The weekend competition will be filmed around the clock with the finalé of season six to air on This Old House Makers Channel (Ch. 458 on Roku) later this fall. Stay tuned for more updates and follow us on social media to catch all the exciting outtakes at Make48’s sixth national competition.
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