Ingenuity Fest 2012 will take place this weekend, September 14 to 16 at Cleveland Lakefront Docks 30 and 32, in 120,000 square feet of warehouse space. Aside from music and artistic performances, the festival will showcase the work of local inventors working on some fun and interactive projects.

“It ranges from DIY aesthetic things to engineers,” says director of programming James Krouse. “We have inventors or people who are beta testing a product or are in academic engineering programs. This is a place to display these innovations.”

The Make Space area of the festival will include the Lorain County Community College Fab Lab and the Cleveland MC2 Stem School Mobile Fab Lab -- a NASCAR trailer equipped with computers, software and lasers for creating 3-D images.

“It’s just a collection of designer software and laser cutters,” says Krouse.

A CWRU engineering graduate student will have a display of solar-powered fireflies that mimic the algorithm of fireflies’ communication. A panel of local chefs and sustainability advocates will speak on Friday about local food and sustainability. A series of talks on Saturday will examine the history of flight -- from the Wright brothers all the way through the Mars Curiosity expedition.

Source: James Krouse
Writer: Karin Connelly