A WEEKEND OF WONDERS AT MAKER FAIRE UK 2014

TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR GREATEST SHOW AND TELL ON EARTH More than 300 engineers, scientists, crafters and artists, are set to showcase their inventions at this year’s Maker Faire UK at Life Science Centre in what will be a weekend of wonders featuring Makers, musicians, crafters and robots! Tickets for the event - a family-friendly festival of invention and creativity - are now on sale with organisers expecting the April event to be a sell-out. Maker Faire UK is billed as the ‘greatest show and tell on Earth’, bringing together hackers, crafters, coders, DIYers and garden shed inventors from across the globe – people who love to make things and who want to share their passion with the public. Over the course of the two-day event which will be held at Life Science Centre (26 & 27 April 2014), there will be demos of the latest technologies, talks from leading science and technology figures and plenty of opportunities for visitors to get hands-on and try things like soldering, 3D printing and bio-hacking. One of the headline attractions at the event will be the UK premiere of an android version of science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick who died in 1982. The android portrait of Philip K. Dick is an intelligent, evolving robotic recreation of the sci-fi writer who authored VALIS, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, UBIK, and many other masterworks. Built by Hanson Robotics using the latest artificial intelligence technology, this android is at the cutting-edge of robotic technology.  ‘Philip’ as the android is known, exhibits face perception, speech recognition, and conversational intelligence adapting Philip K Dick’s words and life history to generate new ideas during conversation with humans. Ian Simmons, Science Communication Director at Life said: “We’re thrilled that Hanson Robotics is bringing ‘Philip’ to Maker Faire UK.  Not only is it one of the most advanced cognitive artificial intelligence projects in the world but this will be the first time the project has been seen in the UK.   I’m sure ‘Philip’ will be a massive hit with all of our visitors.” Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faires are popular across the world.  They originated in the US in 2006 when Make Magazine co-founder Dale Dougherty created the first Faire in California offering tech enthusiasts, crafters, scientists and garage tinkerers a platform to show examples of their work and interact with others about it.  The event at Life is the UK’s official Maker Faire and regarded the leading European event for the Maker Movement with visitors and Makers alike coming to Newcastle from across the world.  Previous years’ events at Life have seen fire-breathing mechanical horses, Rubik’s cube-playing robots and musicians playing giant tesla coils. Tickets to this year’s event can be bought online at MakerFaireUK.com, or by calling 0191 2438223.  Prices are as follows: One day ticket:  Adult: £8.95, Child (aged 2-17) £6.45, under 2s FREE, Concessions: £7.25.  Family tickets for 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children are priced at £24.10. Weekend ticket:  Adult: £14.00, Child (aged 2-17) £9.50, under 2s FREE, Concessions: £11.00.  Family tickets for 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children are priced at £30.00. Maker Faire UK is independently organized and operated under license from Maker Media, Inc, and is presented by Life Science Centre with support from MAKE: makezine.com; Northumbria University, The MacRobert Trust, Newcastle University and the Gillian Dickinson Trust..