It was billed as “The Greatest Show (&Tell) on Earth,” and students from UC San Diego were again part of the spectacle as Maker Faire San Diego took over Balboa Park over the weekend of October 1-2. For the second consecutive year, CSE students were among the participants from the Jacobs School of Engineering, the Qualcomm Institute and their joint Engineers for Exploration student program. One CSE alumnus (at left) , Stephen Foster (Ph.D. '15), who co-created the company ThoughtSTEM to teach coding and other IT skills to youngsters, was among the speakers. Foster has also developed educational games such as CodeSpells and LearnToMod. Foster's presentation? "The Matrix is Here. And You Can Hack It" and how to shape the future of immersive virtual reality.
The celebration was an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students and much more. The Faire is a part of Innovate San Diego, a week-long series of events showcasing innovation in the Cali-Baja region, and it has become part of pop culture – a place for experiential marketing, debuting new technologies and inventions, and celebrating geekdom of every stripe through the global, tech-influenced and do-it-yourself community known as the Maker movement.
