The Week that Was: Get Started with Product Design

Six days of intensive recording, mixing, coding, designing, modelling, making and one exhibition later (at Europe's largest multi disciplinary arts venue, no less), we've made it: twelve unique musical instruments made in just over a week.

I, for one, am exhausted (and only marginally better at Processing). I'm sure everyone who has been involved with the project will agree that we are insurmountably proud of what our young people have achieved.

The workshop in our Pearson Lab was set in motion after the Prince's Trust received a huge donation of £500,000 from Will.i.am's i.am.angel foundation, to establish STEM programmes to develop digital skills for young people to improve their employability.

Over the course of a six-day workshop, in conjunction with the Prince's Trust and generously funded by the i.am.angel foundation, Makerversity ran the programme 'Get Started with Product Design' with a group of twelve aspiring young creatives at our home in Somerset House.

Across the week, the workshop introduced the group of 17-25 year olds to a range of musical, electronic and digital making skills and they heard from professionals from across the creative industries and expanded their knowledge of the possibilities for employment within product design.

Their challenge? To produce a unique digital instrument each, using their newly acquired skills that would appear for a one-day exhibition on July 3rd, 'Input > Output', held at the iconic Barbican Centre as part of the programming for Digital Revolution.

Through sessions run by Makerversity members, the group learnt to record, sample and mix their own sounds...
...they had a great introduction to circuitry and conductivity with the help of Bare Conductive's electric paint and were wowed by their TouchBoard drum kit...
...they picked up the basics of Processing to code their MaKey Makey kits...
...our wonderful friends from AutoDesk came by to help out with 3D modelling...
...and 2052 opened their eyes to the possibilities of 3D printing!
On top of all of this they learnt to laser cut and engrave...

...and even typeset exhibition graphics!

Will.i.am came to meet the young people at their exhibition on July 3rd spoke to them about their experience of the workshop and even had a listen to their unique recordings through their Electric-Painted, laser-engraved, MaKey-MaKey programmed, 3D printed objects!

Their work from the programme will be on display at the Barbican, named Input > Output, for the rest of the summer - go and see it!

A huge thanks to all of our members who ran sessions, helped out with tech or gave talks to the group this week - we couldn't have done it without you!

Hacking the Pearson Lab: Classroom of the Future

July 2, 2014 / Uncategorized / 0 Comments /

The Pearson lab was taken over yesterday afternoon, by a small team of hackers from the Pearson group who were joined by a recent graduate of a Centrepoint Charity employability programme, Aimee McDonald, with the aim of producing a cheap ways of integrating tech into the classroom.

Using a few simple and affordable technologies, including a Raspberry Pi, Wiimote and an Infrared pen, the group managed to build an interactive digital whiteboard for a fraction of the price of those bought for schools.

Assembled Education

This weekend, on Saturday 28th June, we hosted General Assembly's Assembled Education, a day packed with of talks from experts on the future and development of education.

Talks covered pupil-centred learning and the future of programming, making and technology and the impact of these on education, featuring speakers from Pearson, Emerge Venture Lab, Media Taylor, the Ada Lovelace Academy, Makerversity, Technology Will Save Us, Suklaa and KIDE.

Look who’s in the paper today..

June 30, 2014 / Design, Making, Members, Press / 0 Comments /
Our very own Alex Bygrave is in the paper this morning, for the project he's been working on for Sugru. Check out the video below!

Women in Wireless

Leading the Innovation Charge, the latest event from Women in Wireless - a nonprofit organisation that empowers and develops female leaders in mobile and digital media - was held in the Pearson Lab last night.

Image from Women in Wireless via Twitter

A great crowd turned out to listen to a panel of speakers share their views on innovation. The panel comprised of Diana Stepner, VP Innovation Partnerships & Developer Relations at Pearson, Sarah Watson, Group Mobile Manager from the NET-A-PORTER Group, Liz Whitney, Business Director of ustwo, Roberta Lucca, CEO of WonderLuk, Sally Turner-Hopkins, Founder of Angel Academe and panel chair, Russell Buckley, Government Advisor, Angel Investor and Mentor.

World Cup Commiserations: It’s the taking part that counts, right?

So England already out of the competition, but we could at least have a bit of a get together in the studio to watch our last game and celebrate that at least we've not been out at the group stages since 1958...!

Social Enterprise Meetup II

The evening of June 23 saw the second Social Enterprise Meetup at Makerversity. Over pizza and beer, the group heard from activist, facilitator and author of 'Anarchists in the Boardroom', Liam Barrington-Bush and discussed new ways of organising for social enterprises.

And they’re off!

This week, we begin our 5-day workshop 'Get Started with Product Design', a collaborative project between Makerversity and the Prince's Trust.

After our taster day last Tuesday, we selected twelve aspiring young people - all aged 17-25 and come from varied skill and experience levels - interested in furthering their skills and learning more about digital making. Today, we set out on our challenge to record, design and build twelve digital musical instruments in one week.

Introducing the Dream Team
Alex Morrison, Brian Sannoh, Christine Hewitt, Christine Katerere, Christopher Adam, Hannah Buller, Jake De Freitas, Nathan White, Nathaniel Momodu, Mansur Rahman, Rodel Bernabe and Zachary Brockbank.

Keep an eye out for these guys! Next week, on July 3rd, they will be exhibiting their outcomes at the Barbican Centre as part of the programming for Digital Revolution! Incredible!

Let’s ‘Get Started with Product Design’

Today, a group of aspiring young people came to Makerversity for a taster day of the Prince's Trust's 'Get Started with Product Design' programme.

After an introduction to and a tour of Makerversity, the group had a go at laser cutting and 3D modelling and spoke to some of our members about their work and routes into design.

The week-long course will take them through the whole design process and will feature sessions led by some of our Makerversity members! The workshop starts next Monday, 23rd June. Really excited to have them back!

Future of Education

How will emerging technologies and innovation impact the future of education? #edtech

On Monday, 16 June, Re-Work played host to a one day workshop in our Pearson lab attended by education practitioners, technologists, innovators and strategists who came together to discuss the future of education.
The day was a packed schedule of talks, demonstrations and brainstorming, covering topics such as the maker movement, wearable tech and AR with featured speakers and pop-up stands from across industries, including Pearson, General Assemb.ly, Ultimaker, Technology Will Save Us, the Innovation Unit and many more!

MAKERVERSITY: At Somerset House, London | MAKERVERSITY Ltd | Company Number. 08431139

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