Trieste Mini Maker Faire 4th edition

ICTP joined with Trieste authorities to officially announce the program of its upcoming Trieste Mini Maker Faire that will run from 16 to 17 September. This 4^th edition of the Trieste Mini Maker Faire will be a two-day event able to gather hundreds of inventors, makers, scientists and artist.

At a joint press conference held yesterday morning in Trieste’s historic City Hall, local authorities (among which Assessore Serena Tonel and Lorenzo Bandelli for ReteCivica Trieste) and the ICTP organizers Carlo Fonda and Enrique Canessa from the Center’s SciFabLab officially presented the event to the public.

The upcoming Trieste Mini Maker Faire takes place at the ICTP campus in Miramare and, as organizers promised, “it will surprise you all.” In line with previous editions, leitmotifs of this year will be the creativity of the makers and the engagement of the public. “Our main message to the public, in particular to young people, is that we are all makers,” Carlo Fonda said.

Last year this festival of ingenuity registered over 16.000 visitors and the hope now is to do even better. Over 300 makers have already registered for the upcoming edition, for 80 projects in total; among these, 32 are from makers in the Trieste area, 17 from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, and 17 from other Italian regions (Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardia, Piemonte, Lazio, Campania). But the Trieste Mini Maker Faire is not just a national event: it has drawn the attention of makers from Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland. 

Photo Credits: Massimo Goina

“To celebrate and thank all the makers who have decided to join us this year, many who are coming from very far away, we have organized a party just for them on Saturday the 16^th at 20h00. It was important for us to reserve a moment for them to interact and share their experiences,” Carlo Fonda said. “We will also give different prizes to the makers, to be attributed to the most ingenious, the youngest, the one who came from the furthest, to the best female-maker, and so on,” organizers said.

A wide array of maker projects is guaranteed for everyone, no matter age or gender: from drones to rockets, from paper dresses to homemade brewing, and then robots, electronics, high-tech, recycling and much more, in a joyful celebration of engineering, crafts and the do-it-yourself mindset.

Photo Credits: Massimo Goina

The public will have an active role in the event by participating in crafting, tinkering activities, games and competitions: the program includes the construction and launch of water-rockets, a steam-boat race, videogame programming competition, design and race of toy-cars, 3D modelling and more.

For kids, who are all very welcome to the event, the organizing team has prepared interactive games, activities and a “Science Picnic”, a sort of event within the event. “We don’t want to teach things, but rather get people interested and curious about science and technology by showing them it’s fun,” Carlo Fonda declared.

Photo Credits: Massimo Goina

The Trieste Mini Maker Faire aims to leave a concrete contribution to the city hosting it. In particular, it hopes to make Trieste a “smarter city” and it plans to do so through a 24-hour “Hackathon” competition open to the makers: they will be given a topic and in 24 hours they have to come up with a working prototype. All the instruments they need can be provided by ICTP’s SciFabLab.

But there won’t be just science and technology. The 2017 Trieste Mini Maker Faire edition will be also characterized by music and art. It will be enlived by live performances, circuit bending, and DIY music, not to mention the live song compositions done by Maxino (a famous artist from Trieste). “Art plays an important role in this year’s edition,” Carlo Fonda proudly says “Urban Sketchers from Trieste are in charge to capture all the main moments of the faire in their sketches and to teach willing visitors how to do it. Many artistic installations will be exhibited on the campus and a comics workshop is also scheduled.”

Photo Credits: Massimo Goina

The event is co-organized by ICTP and the Trieste Comune. According to Trieste Assessore Serena Tonel, “The Faire will show the scientific diversity of our region, so important also in view of ESOF 2020. We are really happy and proud to keep supporting this initiative. Especially aimed to the young people, the event is an important tool to attract them to science and technology, showcasing future careers in these sectors which are often lacking in our country. To support this kind of initiatives is crucial to make Italy competitive at the international scale,” she concluded.

For more information about the event, visit http://trieste.makerfaire.com/

Openings to the public: Saturday 16^th (11h00 to 20h00) and Sunday 17^th (10h00 to 18h00).

Address: Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teorica “Abdus Salam” (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, Trieste

How to reach the centre: parking in Miramare could be difficult, so we suggest to take the train (over 80 regional trains will stop in Miramare during the two-day event), the bus number 6 from the Trieste city centre, or your bike!

Cost: it’s a free event

CALLS FOR VOLUNTEERS ARE STILL OPEN! IF YOU WANT TO BE PART OF THE TRIESTE MINI MAKER FAIRE ADVENTURE, JOIN US! 

---- Anna Lombardi