Dale is the President of Make Community LLC. He has been called the “godfather of the Maker movement”, having founded both Make: magazine and the first Maker Faire in 2006. Dale was instrumental in launching the Maker movement that is transforming innovation in industry, hands-on learning in education and the personal lives of makers of all ages. MAKE invites everyone to become a maker, and integrate creative goals with technical skills.  

Dale’s vision and mission continue to be the guiding force for the maker movement and its personal impact on improving education and empowering more people to see themselves as creators and innovators using the tools and skills practiced by hobbyists as well as professionals. He wrote the book “Free to Make” in 2016 to provide deeper insight into the ideas and people behind the maker movement. He lives in Sebastopol, California.

Andrew is the Bergeron Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship at the Lassonde School of Engineering, York University (Toronto), where he teaches courses in technology entrepreneurship, renaissance engineering and technology commercialization. He has received multiple teaching awards, including Educator of the year at Lassonde (2018).

Andrew is the Director of Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology (BEST). The BEST program supports entrepreneurial programs and initiatives at Lassonde focused on enabling engineering students to develop business skills and understand what it takes to launch a start up enterprise.

Lauren is the Chief Creative Officer of engineering.com, and Co-Founder of ProjectBoard, the infrastructure that powers Make: Projects. Prior to her current role, Lauren spent over 6 years as a Walt Disney Imagineer in Los Angeles, working on projects including Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride, and EPCOT Master Planning. Lauren also founded Disney’s Moonshot initiative. She has a BFA in Communications Design from Syracuse University.

Matthew teaches engineering design, including 1st-year engineering design and Prototyping & Fabrication. This practical, hands-on course increases student proficiency in the development of prototypes using low fidelity prototyping, iterative design, and advanced manufacturing tools. In 2017, he contributed to the launch of the first engineering design minor in the US, credentialing students for a course of study in engineering design, teamwork, and client-based projects.

He has a deep interest in engineering education, specifically curriculum that can be employed to build capacity for student development in makerspaces. He has taught and mentored faculty in Brazil, Malawi, and Tanzania to launch makerspaces and work with institutions to develop engineering design curriculum. He is the faculty mentor for Rice’s Design for America chapter, for which he has been given the Hudspeth Award for excellence in student club mentoring.

He has designed a number of academic products that help students improve their prototyping techniques, including a low fidelity prototyping cart and the Laser Cutter Prototyping Library.

Pete graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2006 with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and worked in a mechanical and structural engineering consultancy before returning to Sheffield for his doctoral studies in 2009.  His PhD involved designing and building test rigs to simulate medical and surgical procedures.

In 2015, Pete again returned to Sheffield to teach in the University’s brand new Diamond building, creating and delivering practical laboratory classes in dynamics and revolutionising the Engineering Applications teaching in manufacturing technology for first year Engineering students.

In 2017, he worked with a team of students to create The iForge, the UK’s first student-led makerspace. Run by a team of over 40 students, it provides a space for students to learn practical skills and collaborate, both as part of and outside the curriculum, in a relaxed environment, and is developing a global reputation.

In 2018 he was awarded the Early Career Senate Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and in 2020 became a National Teaching Fellow.

Taylor is a teardown engineer at iFixit.com, the world’s largest online repair manual. He has a life-long obsession with technology and has spent most of his life tinkering. He graduated from Utah State University in 2018 with a BA in Technical Writing, relocated to California, and has been working with iFixit ever since.

At iFixit Taylor works with a team of engineers, writers, and video producers to take apart the latest technology, investigate its inner workings, assess its repairability, and then distill their findings into various forms of engaging content. Their videos, blog posts, and repair guides regularly get hundreds of thousands of views.

Alison is a Makerspace Developer with the Maker{Futures} programme. She has over 17 years of experience in developing and delivering STEAM and maker education through non-profit organisations, universities, schools and libraries and is an advisory board member for FIRST Lego League. She has a particular interest in under-represented groups in engineering.

Alison leads an Ingenious public engagement project funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Maker{Move}: Think like an Engineer trains and supports local engineers from industry and academia to run engineering and maker activities in schools.

Tony leads the University of Sheffield’s programme in sustainability research, across pure and applied sciences, engineering and social sciences.

His focus is on the global food, water and energy nexus challenge, feeding a growing world population, reducing the impacts of agriculture and food production that account for 25-30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and harnessing the power of the sun for food production and renewable energy.

Tony is very active in translational research, disseminating evidence-based science to both experts and non-experts, and has been a regular contributor to TV, Radio, National Press and at learned societies from The Royal Society of Chemistry to Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs. He presented evidence at the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris in 2015 and returned to COP22 in Marrakech in 2016.

Tony delivered the televised Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2002 and was awarded an OBE in 2006 for ‘Services to Science’.