We are just weeks away from the second annual Lynchburg Mini Maker Faire on March 25th! Check out some of our featured events and makers below. Remember, entry is free but you must register! Get your tickets here.

Share your business or product idea on stage for a chance to win a Business Starter Package from Opportunity Lynchburg, full of valuable tools for startups in our area. Apply online to share your pitch! A panel of entrepreneurs will provide feedback and suggestions, and a winner will be selected.

The James River Council for the Arts and Humanities invites you to this family friendly competitive event. Simple rules, tons of fun! Take a hand-held power tool, turn it into a custom racing machine, and compete with your friends and neighbors. Don’t forget to decorate your racer and give it a bold name. Compete for prizes and bragging rights! Not sure where to start? Join us Saturday at Vector Space for a free Build Day to get advice and ideas for creating your own power tools racer. Register your tool here.

Airigami specializes in creating large-scale installations, illustrations, and experiences entirely out of balloons. From stadium-filling sculptures to sleek advertising imagery, Airigami combines storytelling & visual artistry to capture the attention of audiences world-wide. At LMMF the creative genius behind these sculptures will be piloting a new crowdsourced experience. YOU get to help build the 10x10' balloon mural on site!

MEET THE MAKERS

In addition to these exciting events, we have an amazing line up of makers ready to share their passions with you. From professional woodworkers to hobbyist 3D printers, there is so much to see and do! View all registered makers here.

Happy Engineers Week! We are celebrating for the third year in a row with our partner Framatome Inc. Each year we host a free Family Night Workshop where kids ages 8-12 and their caregivers can come together to learn about and explore engineering. We provide the tools and materials for a hands-on project, which changes every year. In the past we have done earthquake shaker tables and a giant pinko board.

This year, each family will make an art pendulum. With a wooden frame and moving platform, the pendulum will work by sliding under a pen or writing tool that is fixed in postition. When the hanging platform is pushed, the pen draws figures and elipses based on the pendulum movement. Students will tweak the height and movement or the platform as well as the color and type of writing utensil to create unique works of art.

Another feature of our E-Week celebration this year is highlighting a few of the engineers doing awesome work at Framatome and in our community. Let us introduce you:

	Elisa Calvo Tone has a Masters Degree in Nuclear Energy and Renewable Sources Engineering. Her childhood dream of being an astronaut morphed into an engineering career dedicated to finding solutions for clean energy and better quality of life on our own planet. Elisa uses post-it notes to record crazy ideas and discussion points for later reference. When not engineering, she enjoys baking with her toddler (brave woman), volleyball, knitting, and reading.
	Meet Heshan Gunawardane, a Mechanical Engineer at Framatome. Heshan started tinkering and taking things apart at a young age, and followed his uncle and cousins into a career in engineering. He recalls, "Growing up in Kenya, I would go for holidays to my country of birth, Sri Lanka, and stay with at my uncle’s house.  He was a marine engineer, so he started out his career on commercial ships going around the world, before settling down in the government sector as he got older.  Two of his sons chose to pursue engineering as well, one a marine engineer, and the other an electrical engineer.  My uncle was always tinkering with stuff, fixing broken stuff around the house, or working on his cars.  I used to help him with these tasks, if it wasn’t too “dangerous” or I wasn’t in the way.  This combination of the family influence, my personal experience and a natural inclination towards the sciences and mathematics drove my decision to become an engineer." Heshan enjoys listening to music, particularly vinyl, as well as reading, traveling, and hitting the gym. The one item on his desk he can't do without: his coffee mug. We feel you, Heshan.
	Pam Reed is a Mechanical Engineer that specialises in Plastic Product Design. She loves to walk out on a manufacturing floor and watch products roll off a press. The noise and the smell of industrial space brings a great feeling of accomplishment. When you’ve worked a design up from paper and developed the tooling and process to create it, the moment it culminates into a real life product is empowering! Pam also loves to nerd out in the garden...learning about soil chemistry and plant characteristics is a favorite hobby. Like many of us she can be her own worst critic, so she keeps an inspirational message or quote on her desk to keep negativity at bay.
	Aaron Pierce is a VCU grad with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He enjoys engineering because there is never a dull moment: each day presents a different problem to solve or an opportunity to learn something new. Aaaron recently got into analog photography and film development, and has combined his interests in gardening and coffee by growing and roasting his own coffee beans.
	Maya Chandrashekhar has BS and MS degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She loves problem solving, and being part of a field that has been making the impossible possible for centuries. When she's not at work Maya enjoys hanging out with her kids and puppy, and cooking. She would be lost without her cell phone (wouldn't we all, Maya!).

This Fall myself and Adam Hughes lead two projects with students from Linkhorne Middle School. Each group met at Vector Space for two hours once per week, for the entirety of the semester. On Mondays our students worked to create an anti-fighting campaign to spread to their peers at school, as well as an FPV robot for home security.

When asked to identify problems in their everyday lives, this group didn't hold back. They identified racism, fighting, and home security as issues they wanted to tackle. With a twelve week time line (a total of 24 hours), we focused on both fighting at school and a home security solution. I worked with five students to craft a plan to reduce fighting at school; students talked about how pointless fights are and that communication is key to preventing these skirmishes. In an effort to spread their non-violence message, they made t-shirts, patches, and stickers for their classmates. The students each worked on a design for the campaign; they chose green and black as their colors and a fist and "Non-fighter" or "NF" as their visual elements.

Once designs were finalized students made samples of each product (which they later kept for themselves); t-shirts were screen printed, patches were embroidered, and stickers were made on the vinyl cutter and applied to pop sockets. The students then broadcast their campaign to their peers by going on the morning announcements and taking orders at lunch for each product. Items were sold at cost and then students spent their remaining time at Vector Space filling the orders. 

For the home security group, students learned about electronics, soldering, radio, and motor controllers. They built a small rover with a camera attached, which could be controlled remotely. The camera was set up with first person view (FPV) goggles, with the idea that one could drive the bot around your home from a safe distance away to ensure that no intruders were present. One modification was the addition of magnets to the rovers tracks, so that it could climb metal surfaces (or a refigerator). 

All of our students did a great job identifying a real problem and creating a workable solution. Throughout the class many iterations of each project were necessary, from troubleshooting screen printing inks to redesigning the rover when a 3D printed model failed. As an integral part of the engineering design process, our students learned that failure is not the end of a project but the next hurdle to overcome.

This Fall myself and Adam Hughes lead two projects with students from Linkhorne Middle School. Each group met at Vector Space for two hours once per week, for the entirety of the semester. On Wednesday our students turned to computer programming and microcontrollers to make their daily lives easier and more efficient.

Using the BBC Micro:bit, each student programmed a watch (or other object) to their liking. The micro:bit is a microcontroller half the size of a credit card, with a 16 pixel LED grid, accelerometer, light sensor, compass, wifi, and blutooth capabilities. Each is powered by two AAA batteries or via USB cable. The programming is done quickly and easily with Blocks, a browser- and app-based JavaScript drag and drop coding tool. An extensive project library and thurough documentation make this an excellent tool for education and beginning programmers. 

While the initial focus of the project was making smart watches, a few students discovered other uses for the micro:bit and went different routes. One student created a guitar, which used the built in light sensor to control musical notes played. Sound was played through headphones or computer speakers, which were connected to one of the micro:bit's four digital/analog input/output rings. Students that did make watches added unique functions like games (rock, paper, scissors was popular), a compass, and personalization with scrolling text. 

In addition to programming, students used hand tools, sewing machines, leather punches, and more to create watch bands. They chose leather and fabric pieces that they again personalized; each student determined how to attach their micro:bit and battery holder to the band, and used snaps or other attachments to close the band. Check out the slideshow below for images of the students working on thier projects.

Background

At long last, we have an update on the status of our Upstairs Renovation progress! This summer after much deliberation with our Board of Directors and our landlord, we made the decision to expand into the second floor of our building on 5th Street. While huge (4,000+ sq ft) and exciting, the space did need some work to make it functional. So, we began the Help Us Up fundraising campaign which so many of you generously contributed to. During the process we began working with a new architect (both of them have been fantastic, but it became clear that we'd need someone local), and thus had some new developments on the exit requirements from the second floor. While we waded through the many possibilties for egress, we paused our fundraising efforts until we had a clear picture of what the new exit plan was and the associated costs.

Well, it's good news! We are adding a metal fire escape staircase to the back (parking lot) side of the building, and are just $3,000 short of our fundraising goal. As we approach Giving Tuesday and the holidays, we are confident we can raise the remaining funds by the end of the year. Click here to donate now!

Progress

We have extended our lease, agreed to renovation terms with our landlord, and submitted our building permit to the city. We are ready for action! In the meantime, we spent a week this fall sanding the floors upstairs. We are adding a finish to the floors now (like, literally now. Adam is there up to his elbows in 5 gallon buckets of polyurethane). Desks and the new computers will move upstairs this week. Ceiling insulation is being installed 11/27, and HVAC is scheduled for December. Once we finish the floors we will paint, add the dividing wall between the classroom and computer lab, and replace four windows. The last steps will be building a smoke enclosure around the existing stairs, installing bathroom fixtures, and building the pre-fab fire escape. We aim to have all of this done in early 2018. 

Next Steps

We are busy building, and we could use some help! The top priority is the remaining $3,000 we need to finish the space. We'll also need a few volunteers for painting and drywall. Below are a few ways you can help:
- Giving Tuesday 
If you are making donations, consider a gift to Vector Space
- Holiday Gifts
Many are leaning away from toys and trinkets, and instead making meaningful memories and contributions for the holidays. Consider a donation, a gift membership, or even a family workshop!
- Employer Matching
If you decide to make a monetary gift, ask whether your employer has a matching program. This applies for any nonprofit giving!
- Amazon Smile
Help while you shop! Shop at Amazon Smile and select Vector Space as your charity of choice to give back 
- Kroger Plus Rewards
Visit the Kroger website to link your card to Vector Space (#91070), and each time you shop you will support our organization
- Volunteer
We will be looking for help with painting and drywall in the next two months. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date!

Vector Space is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax deductible. Thank you for your support, you are making such a difference in our community. We'll see you upstairs!!!