Maker Faire Rome 2019 Day 3 in Review

Maker Faire Rome 2019 - The European Edition ran from October 18 to Octcober 20 2019. At the three-day gathering of makers, companies, and everyone in between, I witnessed loads of innovation, forward-thinking technology, and exciting endeavors. This proved no different on the final day.

Over at the Arduino booth, I had the pleasure of checking out a few new Arduino boards. The Arduino Nano Every as the name suggests, is engineered for everyday maker projects. There's Arduino IDE support for quick project start up. The ATMEGA4809-powered Arduino Nano Every rocks 4KB flash memroy with 6KB SRAM and a whopping 8 analog inputs. Next up, the Arduino Nano 33 IoT is tailored for Internet of Things projects. It tacks on WiFi as well as utilizes a powerful ARM Cortex-MO+ microcontroller. Aside from WiFi, the Arduino Nano 33 IoT touts Bluetooth, and gets its power from an ATSAMD21G18. The Nano 33 IoT steps up to 256KB flash memory, with 32KB SRAM. Finally, there's the Arduino 33 BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). Decked out with Bluetooth 5, the Arduino 33 BLE is a dedicated Arduino board suitable for everything from motion tracking applications to wearables, environmental sensing, and even mesh networking. A beefy ARM Cortex-M4F processor makes the Arduino Nano 33 BLE capable of tackling pretty hefty maker projects. There's a whopping 1MB flash memory and 256KB SRAM, plus an embedded 9-axis IMU. 

One of the events I was most excited to witness was a robot footballer exhibition. This proved a unique and fascinating demonstration of how far artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have come. Sure, we probably won't be rooting on an all-robot World Cup, but it was certainly an enticing and engaging match. 

In the Electromaker community, many of us including myself are super into 3D printing. An item I've added to my wishlist is the Palette 2. This nifty device boasts compatibility with multiple filament types including PETG and PLA. With the Palette 2, it's possible to combine up to 4 different coloured filaments, splicing them and feeding them into your 3D printer in real-time. This in turn makes it possible to whip up gorgeous, multi-color prints. 

Where Maker Faire Rome - The European Edition truly shined was its uncanny ability to feature a slew of different makers, from well-established brands such as Prusa and Arduino with maker-tested products, to insanely creative innovators such as Lumi Industries with its folding 3D printer, 3D printable 3D printer, and 3D printed headphones, and neat products such as a wearable GoPro type device, Cleep, poised to launch on Indiegogo. Overall, the 3-day event which attracted thousands of makers of all-ages proved an inspirational endeavor.