MAKER’S CALENDAR
Our favorite events from around the world.
» Bent Festival
April 22-24, New York City
An annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year artists come to perform music with their homemade or circuit-bent instruments, teach workshops, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture. bentfestival.org
» FEBRUARY
» Family Science Days
Feb. 18-22, San Diego, Calif.
Browse interactive exhibits, learn about cool science jobs, and have your questions answered by experts at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. aaas.org/meetings/2010/program/fsd
» MARCH
» National Science and Engineering Week
March 12-21, United Kingdom
This year’s theme is “Earth.” Expect nearly a million people to participate in the ten-day program of science, engineering, and technology events and activities all around the U.K. britishscienceassociation.org
» 2010 Green Energy Summit
March 24-27, Milwaukee, Wis.
The Green Summit’s schedule of events includes renewable energy demonstrations, workshops, and training seminars. Keynote speakers include a NASA scientist and several Congress members. renewableenergysummit.org
» Scifest Africa
March 24-30, Grahamstown, South Africa
Last year, 68,000 people attended Scifest, making this event the biggest of its type on the African continent. During its weeklong run, visitors explore more than 500 exhibitions, lectures, workshops, excursions, and whiz-bang science shows. scifest.org.za
» APRIL
» Breakpoint
April 2-4, Bingen am Rhein, Germany
What happens at Breakpoint? The concept is simple: organizers set up a stage, invite programmers, artists, and musicians from around the world to enter competitions, and then audiences watch in amazement at the audiovisual “demo” presentations that come out. breakpoint.untergrund.net
» SparkFun Autonomous Vehicle Competition
April 17, Boulder, Colo.
Electronics wizards, roboticists, and just plain geeks compete to create a vehicle that can autonomously navigate a course around the SparkFun building. A cash prize is awarded to the winner. sparkfun.com
» Trenton Computer Festival
April 24-25, Trenton, N.J.
In 1975, the world’s first personal computer, the Altair 8080, came out. The very next year saw the first personal computer expo. The show celebrates its 35th anniversary with a host of events including conferences, contests, speakers, exhibits, and a flea market. tcf-nj.org