Milk Labs

We’re taking part in the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival again!

gabrielaavram — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:37:49 +0000

After the great success of last year’s Lifelong Learning Festival, we’re back with two events in this year’s Festival programme:

On Tuesday, March 18th 2013, we’ll have an Open Evening from 7 to 9 pm at our current location, the Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick. Come and meet the members of the Limerick hackerspace, explore their projects & ideas, talk about 3Dprinting and other technologies of the future. We’re planning to have a 3D printer on display if everything goes well!

We’ll also talk about Gaelhack, a 3 days summer convention of Irish hackerspaces taking place in Mount Melleray in June, and about the Dublin mini-maker faire on the 27 of July 2013.

If you are interested in DIY electronics, programming, robotics as well as in urban gardening, crafts, recycling and upcycling, come and talk to us next Tuesday!

Here’s how you’ll find us:

View Interaction Design Centre, UL in a larger map
On Saturday, 23 March 2013, from 10:30am to 1pm we’ll be running an Arduino workshop, in collaboration with the IDC.

Arduino is an open-source electronic prototyping platform. It was designed for making the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible.

Limited to 20 places. Registration required!

Please comment here or join our Facebook event. You will receive a confirmation and a code that you will have to bring with you.

The workshop will take place in the Computer Science building at the University of Limerick, room CS305a. Please note that access to the building will be permitted only between 10:15 and 10:30, so make sure you show up on time!

View Interaction Design Centre, UL in a larger map

Both events are free of charge and everybody is welcome!

Build your own miLKlabs torch at the Electric Picnic

trevorpower — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:47:15 +0000

The Electric Picnic is on this weekend 31^st August, 1^st and 2^nd of September.

If you are there on the Saturday or Sunday be sure to call into the Science Gallery‘s inflatable tent (part of MindField) between 12 and 3 to solder your own miLKlight.

Why so quiet?

trevorpower — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 20:55:59 +0000

We are still here, and there are plans to organise events later in the year that do not require a permanent premises but as of June we have been without a physical space.

We have had to leave behind our nice room in the Friary, primarily for financial reasons but also because it was neither a good location for members to use regularly nor was it a good premises for hosting public events.

We do have a goal of finding a place that suits us. In the meantime it might be difficult to keep the virtual space alive and active and we will need help. If you think you can help in any way just get in contact with us in the forum. Or, at the very least you can help by letting us know that you support the idea of a Limerick hackerspace.

Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival events at miLKlabs – a review

gabrielaavram — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:44:52 +0000

The Open Night and soldering workshop on Tuesday, March 27 went extremely well, thanks to our own Conall Cheevers, Marty McGranaghan and Trevor Power. About 10 people of all ages showed up, talked to us about what we were doing there, and had a go at soldering (some of them for the very first time), assembling their own tiny miLKlabs flashlights.

On Wednesday, March 28, the attendance for the Introduction to Arduino workshop surpassed any expectations. We asked people to register beforehand, because our space is limited and the participants needed desk space to be able to practice, this being a hands-on workshop. After registering 9 people (via comments on this site and the Facebook event), we had 17 people coming in on the night, 9 of them not having registered and 2 registered participants not showing up. We didn’t send anyone away – although we had to borrow chairs from our neighbours and cram everybody around the desks.

We have to thank Trevor Hogan for finding time in his busy schedule to run the workshop, between his teaching commitments in C.I.T. and his PhD work in Strathclyde. Conall Cheevers and Gabriela Avram supported him with the organisation (Gabriela) and with the running of the workshop (Conall). The feedback from the participants was excellent and people showed interest in similar events in the future.

The Tweasure Hunt on Sunday, April 1st, benefitted a lot from the nice sunny weather. The event was organised by Gabriela Avram in collaboration with Tara Robinson and Sharon Slater and it tried to combine the past and the present of Limerick in a fun, instructive and social event for individuals and families. Four teams signed up on the day and after a short briefing with tea/coffee and cake at miLKlabs, they took to the streets to discover historical plaques, reenact old photos and talk to Tidy Towns volunteers at work on the streets of Limerick, tweeting back photos in order to gain points. A detailed description of the event, together with the photos will follow soon!

Our participation in the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival gave miLKlabs excellent exposure, due to the variety of promotion channels used by the organisers of the festival. People who otherwise wouldn’t have heard about us came through the doors, looked at the space, asked questions and might decide to come back for other activities. It also involved a lot of work from our part, but the participants’ reactions and feedback made it all worth it! Well done to everybody who was involved!

Limerick City Tweasure Hunt details

gabrielaavram — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:56:49 +0000

What’s the aim of the Tweasure Hunt?
The aim of this tweasure hunt is primarily to have fun but also to uncover some of Limerick City’s fascinating history and hidden treasures.

How do we gain points ?
Each team will be given a set of instructions with a list of quests and challenges each scoring different points. This will involve finding places, talking to people, taking photographs, being creative and tweeting. The winner of this game will be the group who amasses the most points. Your prize for winning will be being crowned inaugural Tweasure Hunt 2012 Champions!

What you we need for the hunt?

A team (2-6 people)
A smartphone
A Twitter account
A Tweasure Hunt pack which contains instructions and the teams logo
A sense of fun and adventure

What do we do to score points?
Pick a quest-then go find the place, info or person.Take your photo, make your recording…..
Tweet the answer/photo/object along with the #LmkTH and your Team Name
All photos must have the team logo in it somewhere
The Tweasure Hunt organising team will be back at base calculating your scores.

How long do we have?
Registration is at 11.30 where teams will receive their pack and instructions.
The hunt begins at 12 sharp and finishes at 2pm at miLKlabs Limerick.
Over the duration of the hunt it will be up to each team to decide how and where to allocate their time and resources to gain the most points and win!

Besides the fun and the learning experience, we’re up to something good: we will be trying to update and enrich the list of Limerick plaques at Open Plaques.Open Plaques is a community-based project started in 2009 which documents, catalogues and promotes commemorative plaques installed on buildings and other public landmarks. It is ‘the museum of the street’.

Their list of Limerick plaques , originating in a list received from the Limerick Civic Trust, needs your contribution: photos of plaques, updating the list for plaques that are gone or newly erected plaques and adding historical information.This is not only a matter for a Sunday Tweasure Hunt – we can all contribute to this, anytime, anywhere we discover a hidden gem. That’s why crowdsourcing is so great:) You can find more instructions here.

What happened here? Digital traces and physical places

gabrielaavram — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 11:54:18 +0000

As part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival!, we will run a Tweasure Hunt (a treasure hunt guided via Twitter) on Sunday, 1st April 2012, starting with 12pm.

Registration starts at 11:30am with a cup of tea and cake at the miLKlabs, in the Franciscan Friary on Henry Street.

We are planning to run a treasure hunt with a difference, in search of little known places in the city centre. Twitter, Foursquare, web sites and Google maps will be involved, so a smartphone will be needed on each team!

If the red door on the left is locked when you arrive, please ring the door buzzer or text 089 4569898 (the miLKlabs phone).

This is a family-friendly event. We are aware that the first street event organised by Limerick Tidy Town is on at the same time, and we’ll do our best to create contact points.

If you have any question/suggestion, please leave a comment here.

Workshop: Introduction to Arduino on Wednesday

gabrielaavram — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 11:35:45 +0000

On Wednesday, 28 March 2012, we are inviting students, artists, designers and anyone interested to learn the basics of Arduino, simple electronics and building interactive project to join us for an introduction to Arduino lead by Trevor Hogan.

Photo by the Arduino Team

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It is intended for artists, designers,
hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. (www.arduino.cc ) Arduino makes it easy to learn how to read sensors, control electronic devices, and communicate between various hardware and your computer.

Requirements:
- Laptop (Mac OS X, Windows or Linux) with a USB port
- Software installed (Optional):
- Arduino IDE (http://Arduino.cc/en/Main/Software)
- Processing (http://processing.org/download/)

Good to bring (optional):
- Some experience with a programming language.
If you know what if statements and loops are, you’ll be in great shape.
- Some basic knowledge of electric circuits
- Wire cutters / strippers

The workshop will start at 7pm and will run until 9pm. Participation is free, but registration is compulsory. In order to secure a place, please leave a comment here or join our Facebook event.

This is how you’ll find us: View Larger Map

If the red door on the left is locked, please ring the door buzzer or text 089 4569898 (the miLKlabs phone).
If you have any question, please leave a comment here or drop an email to limerick-hackerspace@googlegroups.com.

The event is part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival.

Soldering workshop on Tuesday

gabrielaavram — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 11:16:32 +0000

Photo: Lou Dennehy

On Tuesday, 27 March 2012, starting with 7:30pm, miLKlabs will open its doors to the public for another Tuesday Open Night – this time as part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival!

Members of the public are invited to come in and see our space, have a look at our past and more recent projects, and find out more about hackerspaces and maker spaces across Ireland and abroad.

Visitors will be encouraged to learn how to solder to assemble their own tiny miLKlabs flashlight !

Come anytime from 7:30 until 9pm! This is a map with our location. If the door is locked, please ring the door buzzer or text 089 4569898 (the miLKlabs phone).

If you have any question, please leave a comment here or drop an email to limerick-hackerspace@googlegroups.com.

Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival

gabrielaavram — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:14:27 +0000

We are happy to announce that miLKlabs is participating in the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival, taking place in Limerick city and county during the week 26 March – 1 April 2012.

We will host 3 events during the following week:

Tuesday, 27 March 2012 between 7:30 and 9pm we will run a soldering workshop.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 7-9pm – Introduction to Arduino workshop, lead by Trevor Hogan
Sunday, 1st April 2012 12- 2pm – City Tweasure Hunt – a treasure hunt using Twitter, Foursquare and Google Maps

More details to follow soon!

Activities this week (30 Jan-4 Feb)

gabrielaavram — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:22:39 +0000

Tuesday, 31 January 7-9pm – Open Night

Everybody’s welcome, come and meet us, talk about projects and bring any broken objects or things you’d like to improve with Sugru.

Two packs of Sugru just arrived and they’re here for sharing – let’s play with it!
If you never heard about Sugru, you’ll get the chance tomorrow night.
You can also read more here, and maybe watch a few videos to see what other people did with Sugru, to get an idea!

We’ll video the best sugru hacks, and we’ll post them here.

Wednesday, 1 February

The Rainbow Stitch’n Bitch group will be our guests at miLKlabs. If you knit, sew or do crochet and you’d like to meet like minded people and have a cuppa, join us on Wednesday from 17:45 on until 20:30.
The “bitching” part will include a chat about combining crafts and electronics.

Saturday, 4 February 2012

We’ll be open from 10 till 13:30.

Planning two activities:
- Mochimochi (fun little objects) & Amigurumi(fun little animals) knitting (or crochet) and experimenting with electronics (augmenting the little objects with LEDs, magnets etc)

- brainstorming for organising a Limerick urban game (treasure hunt, photo walk, foursquare trail) later on in spring.

All these activities are open to anyone who is interested. We have a phone number: 089 4569898 that keeps the place of door
bell. If you find yourself in front of the building and the door is locked, ring or text, and someone will open the door for you.

It would be good to have an idea about numbers, so if you intend to come, please get in touch via email, comment on our Facebook page or here!

Looking forward to seeing you this week!