A Month At Maker’s Asylum

How did I get to know about Maker’s Asylum (MA) ? Long story short - I attended TEDxHRCollege - where Vaibhav gave a talk about MA - I was blown away by the concept – I dreamt about working at this place – within a week’s time Vaibhav posts for volunteers on FB – I apply - and here I am! So I join the team, it’s 18th February, what’s my job? Make stuff! So being fond of music (at higher decibels) I saw there are speakers, but they weren’t that cool. So there were a bunch of plywood sheets lying around. I picked one up and decided to build a speaker case. Meanwhile Yash and Vaibhav brought in some big, precisely cut sheets of plywood. Got to know they were planning to build a cabinet for the Asylum, to be used as an electronics library. So being fond of and wanting to learn woodworking I joined in. Then there was the self balancing bot build going on, another fun stuff. I am not an expert on this, so just check out the related blog on this by Rupin. So the speaker case was ready in 4 days, during which I was invited by Mr.Fernandes (ISDI woodworking workshop expert) to the ISDI woodworking workshop, when he saw me trying to get pieces of plywood cut using a saw, for the speaker case (must have pitied me!). Boy o boy the woodworking workshop! Someone gift me one mahn! Amazing, just get some wood and you can probably build anything out of it. Anyone can fall in love with woodworking for a while if they visit this place. Other stuff that were going on at the Asylum? Well, the bicycle build, the talks, meeting new people, the various fun discussions. How am I supposed to make this short and sweet? Let me try. The bicycle build meet up had some really epic ideas coming out, also people could point out the various problems a cyclist faces. Then there was a talk on UAV drones by Mr. Manish Patil, who had worked with the government. He told us how our government can upset/disappoint/(whatever) us, nothing surprising right! But the other things, like what kind of requirements the army/air force have, what kind of technology India has developed, the importance of UAVs, these were some great things to know. Then there was a talk by Deepak Gupta, who has worked with TATA-JLR, on safety measures in cars and a few other tech specs. Got some industry insight on what and how these car makers go about their business. By the end of the talk Vaibhav decided that we’ll have a portable wind tunnel build group soon! With all this fun stuff going on I was single handedly, with someone or the other lending a hand going about building the cabinet. Took me an entire month! with the doors, the angles, the alignments, the locks and the paint job. What a learning experience it was. Also SciCamp was hosted by the Asylum. After listening to few interesting talks I went on and started working on making a speaker stand. The only job that was completed in a day! Later on Kaustubh started working on making bob the biped, a dancing bot, he got the 3d printing done, we got some servos and got bob to dance using a remote control, will get the programming stuff done soon, fun stuff! Speaking of fun, we play table tennis whenever we are free! So basically it is difficult to summarize everything with the amount of activity, fun, the number of people I met at the Asylum in a month’s time.With the speaker case and stand, and cabinet I got to learn about woodworking. Through the talks, I got industrial exposure. Through build groups I met new people and saw how far can an individual’s imagination go. Through my work assignments at the Asylum I also got to know a fair deal about the kind of inventory a Makerspace requires and how it needs to be run. Basically in a month’s time at Maker’s Asylum, I have got the confidence that I can practically build or make anything. In case of any shortcomings, the knowledge of the makerspace community is there to help me. And one of the best aspects of this community that I am proud of? Anyone who wishes to make something or build something is welcome here irrespective of age, field of study or profession. The Asylum also helps an individual gain the self confidence and access to resources for making things, which of course our Indian education system fails to impart. You will find only passionate people over here, which creates a fabulous environment. Hope to see you soon at the Asylum.