News Releases

UWM students and faculty join Maker Faire Milwaukee Sept. 28-30

By Laura Otto

MILWAUKEE _ Waterfalls that contain words, demonstrations that help you explore the universe, and amazing equipment that bring ideas to life are all contributions from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to the fifth annual Maker Faire, to be held at State Fair Park, Friday through Sunday, Sept. 28-30.

The event showcases tech enthusiasts, inventors and hobbyists of all ages who display their creations and share their knowledge and skills. It is at the State Fair Park Exposition Center, 8200 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis, on the following days:

  • Friday, Sept. 28, Night Market, 5-9 p.m.
  • Saturday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
  • Sunday, Sept. 30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Co-hosted by Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and Milwaukee Makerspace, in collaboration with MAKE: magazine, the fair celebrates the “maker movement,” a growing global community interested in technology, innovation, arts and crafts and entrepreneurship.

Nowhere is the maker movement more active in Milwaukee than at UWM. Various disciplines will be represented this year, including the engineering, arts, architecture, physics and UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center. Some of the exhibits include

  • The brainchild of Stephen Pevnick, emeritus professor in the Peck School of the Arts, Graphical Waterfalls are computer-controlled water features in which falling water droplets are programmed to produce letters, words, phrases and fanciful falling shapes.
  • The Center for Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics will give physical and digital demonstrations to help visitors explore the universe.
  • Twenty high school girls designed and built solar phone chargers while participating in UWM’s EnQuest, or Engineering Quest, program.
  • Members of the Robotics Association will show how their competitive robots are made – and even let visitors “drive” one.
  • See what is possible with equipment like scanners, slicers, printers, routers, plasma cutters and, of course, 3D printing. Staff at the UWM Prototyping Center at Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa will explain how to turn an idea into an object.

Admission is free with registration, donations accepted. Register at https://milwaukee.makerfaire.com/tickets/. Media can contact Pete Prodoehl, 414-390-5437, ext. 288, pprodoehl@bbcmkids.org, or Laura Otto, 414-303-4868, llhunt@uwm.edu.

About UWM

Recognized as one of the nation’s 115 top research universities, UW-Milwaukee provides a world-class education to 25,000 students from 91 countries on a budget of $653 million. Its 14 schools and colleges include Wisconsin’s only schools of architecture, freshwater sciences and public health, and it is a leading educator of nurses and teachers. UW-Milwaukee partners with leading companies to conduct joint research, offer student internships and serve as an economic engine for southeastern Wisconsin. The Princeton Review named UW-Milwaukee a 2018 “Best Midwestern” university based on overall academic excellence and student reviews, and the Sierra Club has recognized it as Wisconsin’s leading sustainable university.