Maker

realized that their Arduino was actually broken and it was swapped for a spare.

At the announcement of “Fifteen minutes to go!” moans and groans erupted among the contestants, and emissaries were dispatched to the podium to negotiate for more time. With five minutes left, some teams were trying to dress up their creations and pass off a simple blinking light as a game or toy, but two of the teams were completely done, leisurely spending the last few moments to review their code and weed out any last bugs. At “Time’s up!” most of the teams began reluctantly scooping partially completed devices into the judging boxes. Under the strain of being lifted, wires pulled free and some of the devices did not survive the boxification process.

Judging took place in a conference room ten floors up, where we’d gathered some of the digerati of Adobe to evaluate the projects. If getting the objects into the box was a risky endeavor, getting them out proved to be downright dangerous, and many more finished objects perished at the judges’ tables. However, the nonworking objects proved to be as fascinating as the working ones, and by our strict rules, many of the broken ones scored as high or higher than the working objects. Of the working ones, a polyphonic flute/trumpet easily proved to be the judges’ highest subjectively ranked object.

The day’s clear winner, based on total time of engagement, was a nonworking puzzle game that involved dropping colored beads down channels that led past photosensors. Tantalizingly, a blinking light deep inside the object suggested that if beads were into the room, Julie used an LED and a resistor as a lit- dropped at the right time, something would happen. mus test to determine technical savvy and ensure that But nothing did happen, and the judges gave up play-each team had someone who remembered something ing with it, but only after many minutes of trying. about electronics (“Do you know what these are?”). Two days later prizes were awarded at a simple

The time passed all too quickly. At the one-hour ceremony, and the excitement over the grand prize mark, few of the teams had the Arduino’s “Hello paled in comparison to the absolute glee expressed World” blinking light working. Many were still making by the teams when they were given back their cre-drawings on notepads and holding cups and plates ations. Later, we found some of the teams gathered to illustrate how their device might work. At two around tables resurrecting their devices. hours, only a few teams hadn’t yet got the light to The overwhelming response from participants has blink, and furious trading and general construction been, “Let’s do it again, only we get all day to do it — and development had begun. The level of excitement I know exactly what we’re going to make next time!” in the room rose as strange objects took shape, Well, we’re changing the rules next time, and there’s blinking and buzzing to announce their arrival. At going to be a new list of parts to contend with.... three hours, general activity rose to a frenzied pitch.

Original plans were abandoned as the deadline loomed, and hasty fallback solutions were crafted.

The last team not to get a blinking light suddenly

identical supplies, including a CD with some sample code and simple documentation. We arrayed the remaining items on the parts table, set up shared tools on the tools table, and powered up the projector to display the simple rules. We displayed the prizes and MAKE schwag prominently at the front of the room, and of course we had T-shirts printed up to commemorate the event.

I stood behind the podium and looked out over the empty MAKE tables. In just a few moments we would open the doors and let the teams in, and chaos would almost certainly ensue. There had been last-minute panics and near cancellation of the event when it was learned that the fire alarms might go off if we used soldering irons inside the auditorium, but with some deft negotiation and the addition of an industrial fume extraction system that looked like it was going to inhale some of the contestants, we got the green light.

Robyn opened the doors and as the teams spilled

The level of excitement in the room rose as strange objects took shape, blinking and buzzing to announce their arrival.

Gever Tulley ( gever@tinkeringschool.com) is founder of the Tinkering School, senior computer scientist at Adobe Systems, and general fool-around guy.

46 Make: Volume 14