Overview & Prep Week
Makeademy 2023 was a 2-week maker-centric programme hosted in Vilnius, LT. in collaboration with various maker spaces from various EU countries:
- 🇪🇸 IAAC - Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya & FAB LAB Barcelona, Spain
- 🇱🇹 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania
- 🇱🇻 Riga Technical University, Latvia
- 🇮🇹 CESIE, Italy
- 🇩🇰 Aarhus University, Denmark
The stated goals were to innovate existing engineering study courses and to developing a flexible, modular learning program using CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) approaches.
However, the programme also offered additional benefits beyond the obvious ones:
- Providing skills, knowledge and hands-on experience in digital fabrication and rapid prototyping disciplines to participants.
- Weaving cross-country support networks across different partner maker spaces and their participants.
While the first objectives and benefits were the most beneficial in the short term, the latter are indubitably the most valuable in the long term.
I genuinely believe that this programme has been a wild success because of the potential to create and catalyse future encounters and collaborations.
Structure
Week 1
As with any program that involves cross-country collaborations in post-covid times, this programme had a remote/on-site split.
The first week was 100% remote and allowed us to get to know each other, the participants, the collaborating partners, the maker spaces, and the installations that we would be able to use in LinkMenų fabrikas - VilniusTech during Week 2
Week 1 covered most of the prerequisites needed before meeting face to face:
- Getting to know each other
- Meeting our team
- Sharing our backgrounds, the skills we could contribute and the ones we would like to improve.
- Ideation and brainstorming sessions
- Reviewing the equipment available in LinkMenų fabrikas - VilniusTech as well as basic skills to operate them.
- Learning about EMP Recycling (one of our partners in Lithuania), and the recycled materials & salvageable components that they would make available to use in our projects
Week 2
Week 2 included:
- Flying to Vilnius, LT.
- Setting base in LinkMenų fabrikas - VilniusTech
- Touring the EMP Recycling facilities
- Conceiving, Designing, Implementing and preparing Operationalization of our products and solutions using recycled/reused components from EMP Recycling.
- Preparing pitches and business model canvases to present on Day 5 during the final presentations ceremony
This online journal will focus mostly on the WEEK 2, as the first week was mostly theoretical, zoom-centric, and asynchronous.
Let’s fly to Vilnius!
Whenever you are ready, jump into this imaginary plane and follow me to Vilnius for our Week 2 - Day 1 kick-off session.
