Strange Loop

Hardware Hacking For The Rest Of Us

The Maker movement has focused a great deal of attention on the emerging tools and technologies that are newly enabling people to create innovative devices easily, quickly, and inexpensively. These technologies are significantly narrowing the gap between having an idea and being able to build a solution in physical hardware. Yet many disciplines have not adopted these new powerful tools. This lack of adoption stems from reasons including unfamiliarity, intimidation, lack of appreciation for their power and simplicity, etc. This workshop represents an effort to overcome this lack of adoption. It is focused on delivering a hands-on experience designed to make Makers out of the participants. People who are interested in the tools of making but don’t know how to get started are the ideal attendees. This workshop is not merely an introduction to Arduino or 3D printing. Instead, it is an exploration of how the new tools of Making can be successfully applied to solving problems in any new domain. This workshop specifically demonstrates the tools of Making in the “Big Data” domain. It will develop the ability to prototype, build, and deploy a simple Arduino-based sensor platform. This sensor platform uses XBee wireless zigbee devices to transmit the data to individual computers or to the Digi cloud through the iDigi gateway. The workshop covers basic Maker skills, from programming Arduinos to soldering, to sensor integration to visualizing data on a computer.

Kipp Bradford

The Kippworks

Kipp Bradford is an educator, technology consultant, and entrepreneur with a passion for making things. He was the founder or cofounder of start-ups in the fields of transportation, consumer products, HVAC, and medical devices, and holds numerous patents for his inventions. Some of his more interesting projects projects have turned into Kippkitts. Kipp co-founded Revolution By Design, a non-profit education and research organization dedicated to empowerment through technology and co-organizes Rhode Island’s mini Maker Faire. As the Senior Design Engineer and Lecturer at the Brown University School of Engineering, Kipp teaches several engineering design and entrepreneurship courses. He serves on the boards of The Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art, The Providence Athenaeum, and the community arts organization AS220. He is also on the technical advisory board of MAKE Magazine, is a Fellow at the College of Design, Engineering and Commerce at Philadelphia University, and is an Adjunct Critic at the Rhode Island School of Design.