Tech fans flock to Maker Faire Lake County

Nearly 1,200 people attended Saturday’s Maker Faire Lake County at the College of Lake County in Grayslake.

Among the features of the event were an outdoor trebuchet catapult mechanism and rocket launcher.

An indoor gym accommodated 55 exhibitors. Attendees could experience a musical Tesla coils attraction, the Lake County Robotics Competition, a drone obstacle course, three-dimensional printers, leather working, hands-on maker opportunities and a string-art community project.

“It’s family-friendly, so we encourage and like people to come of all ages; a lot of hands-on, kid-friendly events,” said Rob Twardock, a CLC engineering professor and Lake County Robotics Competition coordinator.

Called the “Greatest Show and Tell on Earth,” Maker Faire Lake County was presented by CLC’s engineering and computer science department, and sponsored by the Baxter International Foundation and the college.

The Lake County Robotics Competition featured more than a dozen teams. CLC offers Saturday morning personal enrichment classes for the robotics competition.

“It’s kind of an event within an event,” Twardock said of the robotics competition, which offered trophies and cash prizes.

“One of the reasons we started it was to try to make a very open and easy access, low barriers kind of competition,” he said. “Kids love remote-control things.”

Competition challenges included robots corralling small balls into a designated area.

Buffalo Grove siblings Manvitha, 13, and Shreepadh Yakkali, 14, piloted their robot named Water Dog with its rolling floor mechanism. Think of a rotating brush carpet sweeper.

The siblings started building Water Dog last month.

Manvitha said, “It’s really fun, but it’s also kind of frustrating because the balls were getting in the wheels.”

Building Water Dog was, “pretty hard keeping it within the restrictions of the size,” Shreepadh said.

The children’s father, Murali, said, “It’s definitely a learning experience for them. It’s a lot of time and effort, but they had fun.”

Building a robot involves coding, among the skills found in the STEM principles of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“There are so many careers related to STEM,” Twardock said. “It’s not the future, it’s now. There are so many solid career and job opportunities in STEM fields, engineering being one of them.”

The Build-a-Blinkie.org station had a significant line of people who wanted to learn how to solder.

Kelly McCracken of Grayslake, helped solder a rainbow stick with children Maverick, 8, and Xoey Mora, 14.

“This is our second year coming here to the Maker Faire,” McCracken said. “We’ve seen things that these guys have never experienced before.”

Xoey may pursue a career in mechanical engineering with cars, motors and engines. Women in STEM careers offer unique viewpoints, Xoey said, in that, “It’s different the way that men would think about it.”

At the Ela Area Public Library table, volunteer Evelyn Hernandez of Waukegan and the library’s makerspace/technology coordinator Yolanda Prado helped patrons with button-making. A three-dimensional printer was available.

“It’s very important,” to teach children early about science, she said. “That’s kind of our initiative coming here to show the community, and show capabilities of what library services can provide for the community. I think our main goal is just to make sure that we get patrons to keep coming in and using everything that we’re able to provide them.”