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On 5-6 January 2018, we participated in the MakerFest Festival held annually in Gujarat, India (western part of India). Maker Fest is the Indian continuation of Maker Faire hosted across America, Europe, Africa and Japan. Over 80 makers, artisans, entrepreneurs, and students set up their booths to demonstrate their projects and creations over 3 days. These included robotic applications, 3-D printers, a fusion of handicrafts and technology, and school projects.

We displayed some of our recent projects, namely the Solar-X (to measure solar radiation during the solar eclipse), Pollution Sensor (to measure particulate matters concentration in the air), and Big Jerk (to measure acceleration in trains, aeroplanes, and Delhi Metro).

We had hundreds of school kids passing through our stall wanting to know how they worked and how to make them at home. The Solar-X device proved to be a popular one as many children were interested to hear more about the Total Solar Eclipse and how we were able to collect and analyse data.

Having school teachers bring their classes to the MakerFest on Saturday was something new for us. We rarely see such organised presence of schools in other maker festivals we attend. This shows that there is a curiosity to learn, know and make things among school children in India. But not all of them have the opportunities at schools, homes and neighbourhoods to come across such technologies. This was evident from the long queues for the demonstration of 3D printing.

We very much enjoyed participating and demonstrating our projects. Thank you MakerFest India for hosting us!