We Get Together and Sparks Fly

The first annual “Maker Break” was hosted by Project Manus at MIT’s Johnson Athletics Center in spring 2018. Organizers invited students, faculty, and staff to unwind with hands-on activities ranging from origami and jewelry making to welding together 350 digits of Pi.

Work on the collaborative steel sculpture, which involved 70 participants over the course of the day, will continue at future maker events before the final product is displayed on campus.

Other activities included demonstrations of laser cutters and CNC mills, a “machine autopsy station,” and a competition to build RC cars from motley parts and race them around an obstacle course.

In total, more than 700 students took part in the first Maker Break. Following on that event’s success, a second was scheduled for October 2018, promising attendees free burritos and the chance for teams of four to six people to tackle “a mystery challenge for which you will be given Arduino, motors, duct tape and more.”