Did the blog seem slow yesterday? Oh that’s only because we were being visited by TEDx celebrity Thomas Suarez, the 12-year-old mobile app developer who gifted the world with Bustin Jieber, a Justin Bieber whack-a-mole.

The Biebs has apparently seen the app and finds it funny. Such a stand up guy, and it’s no surprise he and Thomas are being honored by the Tribeca Film Festival at its Third Annual Disruptive Innovation Awards. Also among the honorees is MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, who is being recognized for his leadership in developing a cutting-edge, open source 3D printing ecosystem. Here’s the video of Thomas’ TEDx talk about learning to make apps.

 
Here’s a nice little coincidence: Thomas, on top of being a highly motivated innovator and impressive speaker – and a great kid – is a big fan of MakerBot. While in New York for the awards at Tribeca, Thomas stopped by our headquarters. I thought he was doing us a favor in gracing us with his presence, since we were all huge fans even before the Tribeca announcement, but the admiration was definitely mutual.

At every pass through different parts of the office, Thomas pointed out different things to us that only a real enthusiast could know. When one of our technical staff breezed by, Thomas stopped him: “Hey! You’re the guy that did the…” We tried to prompt him with why he recognized Sam, but our suggestions were actually not right. “No, it was the ReplicatorG video!” And he was right.

In the BotCave, Thomas pointed things out to his dad who told me his son was the 3D printing expert in the family. Incidentally, the senior Mr. Suarez was looked over for a VP post in Thomas’ company Carrot Corp., but ended up accepting a Manager position instead. I have the business cards on my desk to prove this relationship. Over lunch with Bre, Thomas tried to gently explain a few finer points to some of our non-technical staff. “Do you know what Skeinforge is?” he asked politely. We do know, but that’s exactly how a skilled tech evangelist speaks to someone he’s just met about something he thinks is really cool.

The Suarez family also recently acquired a MakerBot Replicator. We have been following his tweets and Thingiverse activity, just waiting to see what he cooked up for the Tribeca event. He brought us a sneak peek, and I’ll share pictures of it on this blog just as soon as he’s made his appearance tomorrow.

Good luck, Thomas!

 

We’ve got a great thing happening on Twitter right now. For anyone interested in attending the TEDxNYED conference, we’re giving away two tickets ($100 value) to the best two answers to the question,

How will 3D printing change the world?

Here’s some info on the event.

TEDxNYED is independently organized by New York educators. At TEDxNYED, live speakers and TED Talk videos combine to spark deep discussion and connections. TEDxNYED presenters are invited to share their insights and inspire conversations about the future of education. Attendees of the conference participate via networking sessions where they educate one another and, in the spirit of TED, help spread these ideas.

TEDxNYED is operating under license from TED, organizers of the immensely popular TED Conference, an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” TED has created TEDx, a program of local, organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

We’ll pick two winners from all the submissions and give each of them a ticket to attend the TEDx event in New York City.

Where Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street)
Astoria, NY 11106

When April 28, 2012

In order to participate in our giveaway, you have to drop us a tweet. Tell us how 3D printing will change the world in 140 characters or less. Mention us with @makerbot and be sure to hashtag #3DPrinting so we can find your tweet and put you in the running.

UPDATE: These tweets are being accepted until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 23. Right around the corner, so share your thoughts with us now!

 

Thingizen deeeep conducted a Project Shellter workshop at TEDxYouth@Flanders last week. The enthusiastic kids envisioned all sorts of fantastical shells for hermit crabs. Now they need to be modeled so they can be printed and introduced to the crabitats!
Will the Karshellians like a multi-room shell? Will Paris Shellton dare to wear a shell adorned with wings? There’s only one way to find out: empirical science!

Are you a Blender ninja or a Sketchup wizard? Maybe your Maya-fu is legendary. If you’re looking for a unique challenge please consider helping out by modeling one of the drawings produced at the workshop.

Drop a comment here if you take on the challenge then upload a finished model to Thingiverse and tag it with shellter.

The kids and crabs thank you!

Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter:

• projectshellter.com
• @ProjectShellter
• @ShellterEast
• @ShellterWest
• Thingiverse
• bit.ly/​ProjectShellter
• bit.ly/​ProjectShellterVideos

This guest post is part of Project Shellter

 

Thingiverse citizen deeeep is organizing a workshop around Project Shellter at TEDxYouth in Flanders, Belgium on November 20:

We are organizing a workshop for kids from 11 to 18 year old during the TEDxYouth@Flanders event in Belgium.
The idea is that the kids will sketch out their ideas for the shells and then some of them will get picked and made in CAD and printed. I will try to post the sketches and CAD files on thingiverse once they are done, so everybody can enjoy them and the kids can see their models online and see people liking them and printing them.

Thanks for the interest and support deeep!

We can’t wait to see what shells the kids create! Upload them to Thingiverse and we’ll print them out put them in the @ShellterEast and @ShellterWest crabitats!

If you’re in Flanders on November 20, go check out the event!

Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter:

• projectshellter.com
• @ProjectShellter
• @ShellterEast
• @ShellterWest
• Thingiverse
• bit.ly/​ProjectShellter
• bit.ly/​ProjectShellterCams

This guest post is part of Project Shellter.