Con el fin de apoyar a los nuevos participantes del Desafío STEM 2017, Arduino y Telefónica se han unido para crear una serie de tres podcast, abiertos al público en general, conducidos por David Cuartielles.

Desafío STEM es un concurso interescolar que fomenta el desarrollo de competencias tecnológicas, creado por Telefónica Educación Digital para impulsar la implantación de nuevas formas de aprender a través de dinámicas motivadoras y fomentar las vocaciones STEM.

Durante los podcast se abordarán los siguientes temas:

• Primer podcast: 15 de Noviembre
  Cómo crear proyectos creativos usando tecnología digital.
• Segundo podcast: 22 de Noviembre
  Identificación de problemas técnicos en la creación de proyectos.
• Tercer podcast: 5 de Diciembre
  Nuevos usos de tecnología en el aula.

La duración de los podcast será de una hora comenzando a las 19: 00 GMT+1. Podrán seguir la transmisión del podcast en: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafiostem

David responderá durante el podcast preguntas de la audiencia que se envíen antes de los podcast. Para enviar las preguntas, seguir el link que se presenta a continuación y llenar el formulario: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafio-preguntas. También se podrá participar en twitter con el hashtag #desafiostempreguntas.

To support the new participants of Desafío STEM 2017, Arduino and Telefónica have come together to create a series of three open podcasts, conducted by David Cuartielles.

Desafío STEM is an interscholastic competition that promotes the development of technological competences, created by Telefónica Educación Digital to promote the implementation of new ways of learning to motivate and inspire students to pursue STEM vocations.

The following topics will be addressed:

• First podcast: November 15
  How to build creative projects using digital technology.
• Second podcast: November 22
  Identification and resolution of technical challenges in the creation of projects.
• Third podcast: December 5th
  New uses of technology in the classroom.

The duration of each podcast will be one hour starting at 19:00 GMT + 1. To follow along, please click on the following link: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafiostem

David will answer questions from the audience during the podcast, which need to be sent beforehand via this link: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafio-preguntas. Twitter users can also participate using the hashtag #desafiostempreguntas.

**To the members of the Arduino community interested in social innovation and tech for the greater good, this is a call for your help.**

Almost a year ago I was awarded with an Ashoka Fellowship, which got me to join a group of people working with projects all over the world having to do with social change through entrepreneurship. Issues covered by the Ashoka fellows range from gender equality, passing by collaborative economy, democratic access to all sorts of material resources, and ending with education using technology.

I have always been engaged in different social initiatives in my life: helped creating two Scout groups, joined several student associations (became president of one), played in a band (sorry we’re not on Spotify), taught martial arts to kids with visual impairments… and helped create the largest community dedicated to open hardware in the history of technology (so far).

During the last 10+ years I have been focused in building the Arduino platform, but also in reaching out to other communities, including arts, design, and more recently, education. Therefore, the Ashoka Fellowship feels like the perfect fit to encourage me to continue to be engaged with the development of our platform by making it more accessible to others.

(For those interested, the Ashoka Fellowship got me and Arduino to collaborate with the PUIG Foundation in helping Spanish speaking teachers to realize some of their educational tools, but that is material for a different blog post.)

The role of the Arduino founders is, among other things, engaging with the community in trying to improve the platform, but also society in general. Not in vain, we work with open source, use open tools and create open content. In the past, thanks to the Arduino community, we have translated the Arduino IDE and the Arduino reference to multiple languages, added features to the software (also some bugs), or corrected errors on the website. With this post, I (we) want to invite the Arduino community to engage in a larger effort for the greater good. Something that can help shaping the future of how technology engages in making the world a better place.

This year (as a matter of fact, starting next week) Arduino will be working with UNLEASH in an effort to help them accomplish their goals through the innovative use of our platform. From August 13th to 21st, 2017, Denmark will host the first UNLEASH event, where 1,000 top talents from 129 countries are going to meet to create innovative solutions to challenges within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The talent pool draws from tech entrepreneurs, leading academics, and young development program officers. This year, talents will co-create solutions focusing on seven SDG-related themes: health, food, water, education & ICT, energy, urban sustainability, and sustainable consumption & production.

Over the nine days, the participants will work to create real, scalable solutions to the Sustainable Development Goals. The UNLEASH event has made a call for young talent and can only host 1,000 volunteers, but we want to augment their ability to share and collaborate online. Arduino has created a channel on the Arduino Forum named “UNLEASH 2017” where we invite all of you to participate in the online discussion to help those participating on site with possible technical challenges they may face. The channel will be open for as long as the collaborations go on. We expect some interesting projects to emerge, where some of the Arduino community members may even team up with those attending the event IRL.

Personally, I will be hosting an open seminar online (URL to be announced) on August 16th at 5pm CET to help the participants–but also anyone interested–in getting started with the use of Arduino tools. I will highlight examples of projects using Arduino, and there will be some time for questions via a chat. Later, I will follow the Arduino Forum and help with the moderation of the conversations happening there. I would love to see some of you there as well!

Earlier today, Arduino co-founder David Cuartielles participated in DSI4EU’s policy workshop entitled “Shaping the Future of Digital Social Innovation in Europe,” which gathered digital social innovators and policy makers to inspire and connect with different networks. During the workshop, Cuartielles and other leaders demonstrated clear examples of digital social innovation throughout Europe, along with some best practices and hands-on tips.

How is Digital Social Innovation (DSI) connected with Maker Culture, you ask? DSI is a type of collaborative innovation in which users and communities collaborate with digital technologies to co-create knowledge and solutions for a wide range of social needs at a scale that was unimaginable before the rise of the Internet. The organizations and projects identified and mapped by DSI4EU can be grouped within six broad domains and projects like Arduino are empowering people to develop New Ways of Making thanks to open hardware and educational programs!

DSI4EU is a support action in the H2020 Collective Awareness Platforms program. The initiative will grow and scale the current Digital Social Innovation network of projects, organizations, and individuals bringing together social entrepreneurs, hackers, communities, and academics working on key DSI fields such as the Maker Movement, the collaborative economy, open democracy and digital rights. It’s fostering digital innovations for social good, helping communities share data, collaborate to solve societal problems, and scale their initiatives focusing on open and distributed technologies and new sustainable business models. Finally, it’s representing the building blocks for a new participatory innovation model for Europe, a more decentralised web and an inclusive and sustainable society, including a radical approach to scaling, extending and connecting the DSI network in Europe.

Arduino Day’s events’ map is updating constantly with new events created by local communities worldwide. The participation is open to anyone who wants to celebrate Arduino, Genuino and all the amazing things that have been done (or can be done!) with them and the community of open source enthusiasts. The call for submission is now extended and open until March 15th! We’ve already received 280 submissions from more than 55 countries! Celebrate with us and add your local event  now on day.arduino.cc.

If you want to attend one of the events near your town,  check the map on the Arduino Day website and remember that this year we are also celebrating Genuino, Arduino’s sister brand for products sold outside of USA. US-based events will be called ’Arduino Day’, while events based outside the US will be called ’Genuino Day’.

Some days ago Massimo Banzi and his team announced that the third edition of Arduino Day organized directly by the Arduino team will take place on Saturday April 2nd 2016 in Berkeley (CA) at Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, University of California with Massimo Banzi, Tom Igoe and David Mellis.

“We’re really excited to express our love for open source – said Massimo Banzi, CEO at Arduino – in a day of celebration of our amazing community of makers, developers and partners. 6 million downloads of the Arduino Development Environment in the last year alone show the sheer size of our community.”

This is the draft agenda of the event (registration form coming soon):

– 11 am – 6 pm: exhibition of Arduino projects
– 12 pm – 4 pm : hands-on activities
– 3 pm -5.30 pm : Arduino co-founders  presentations

• David Mellis  “Makers and machine learning: a system for analysis of real-time sensor data”
• Tom Igoe “Talk Making amazing things talk”
• Massimo Banzi “IoT and the connected objects”

“I’m also excited” – said David Mellis, Arduino co-founder – “to hold an Arduino Day at UC Berkeley’s Jacobs Institute because they both represent a playful and innovative approach to design and engineering. I’m looking forward to seeing all the amazing things that people here at Berkeley have been building with Arduino. I’m also hoping that Arduino Day will be a chance to connect makers on campus with those in the broader community.”

 David Cuartielles will be in Mexico City to take part to Genuino Day organized by Hacedores at Centro de Cultura Digital in Mexico City.

Share your pictures, comments and news on your social channels using Hashtag: #ArduinoD16

What happens in Zaragoza when you mix David Cuartielles, a group of teens, an Arduino Yún, 12 cokes and a bunch of mentos?

Here it is:

Circular Knitic is an open hardware project created for DOERS, an exhibition curated by Arduino co-founder David Cuartielles, which takes place at Etopia Center for Art & Technology in Zaragoza, Spain.

It consists of an exhibition and a series of presentations, workshops and seminars focusing on the world of open creation, invention and personal fabrication. It aims to unveil a variety of extraordinary creations, ideas that are transforming the world, but mostly show visitors a group of people: “the DOERS, constantly looking for new projects that surprise us”.

During a period of eight months, 5 knitting machines will be knitting slowly and produce enough tubulars so that the ceiling of the art centre will be covered with knitted scarves.

Using digital fabrication and maker tools like 3D printing, laser cutting, makerbeam, and Arduino Uno— Knitic duo designed a replicable circular knitting machine. It’s not the first time they experiment on knitting techniques. A couple of years ago I interviewed them on this blog for their previous project focused on giving a new brain to old knitting machines using Arduino Due.

Various designers are experimenting with 3D printing in fashion but this doesn’t mean  to 3d print garments directly. Knitic approach shows how digital fabrication could have greater impact on the way clothes are prototyped and produced, especially on producing new concepts of machines:

In maker culture, production of textiles is often overlooked. Circular Knitic demonstrates that beautiful textiles can be produced with digital fabrication tools.

Most of Circular Knitic parts are made with  RepRap 3D printers, some others are made of plexiglass that can be easily lasercut in a fablab. Instructions and all the stl files for the components are available for download on the project’s GitHub page.

The videos below shows the building of the machines and when they are in action.