It’s only a couple of weeks until the Vancouver Island Maker Faire! The Maker Faire is an eclectic event, representing everything from engineering and science to arts and crafts. It’s a great opportunity for artists, tinkerers, and hobbyists to show what they do best. At the recently held “Meet your Makers!” at the Maritime Museum, I had the chance to meet the organizers and some of the presenters.

I helped carry in a functional trebuchet from the Engineering Students Society of the University of Victoria. This trebuchet saw active service during the recently held Siege Week charity event, allowing the public to fire their array of weapons at targets, with proceeds going towards Engineers Without Borders. By the sounds of it they’ll be doing some more target practice during the upcoming Maker Faire.

There was also a representative from the Victoria Robotics Club in attendance at the meet and greet. The club exists to promote science and robotics for children, and they’ll have their robots performing for the public. While their home built robots won’t be dueling to the death on the floor of the Panorama Recreational Centre, there will be robots; actual robots!

This is an event where the organizers are as interesting as the other presenters. One of the organizers, Vanessa, was operating a homemade 3-D printer!

This is a unique event for Vancouver Island, which Quarky Science is happy to be a part of. The Maker Faire is one part market, one part science fair, one part art show, and all the creativity you could ask for. You can find us and the other presenters at the Maker Faire at the Panorama Recreational Centre on July 28-29^th.