Events and Activities

Regular Events

FUBAR Labs hosts a number of regular meetups which are organized by our members.  These meetups are open to the public and free to attend. Keep an eye on our social media for posts about when and where they’ll be held. Some are in-person, some virtual, and some mixed. 

Open Hack

Open Hack is held every Thursday at 7:30 – 9:00 PM and Sunday afternoons at 1:30 – 3:00 PM. During open hack, the space is open to the public for visitors to come and check us out or work on their own projects. People can also learn how to use some of the machines we have during open hack time or use the machines themselves if they’re already comfortable with them. Open hack nights are typically when we work on large group projects, so they’re a great time to visit the space and find out what we’re working on. 

AI Study Group

The AI study group meets virtually on the first Sunday of every month 2PM. This meetup is open to anyone who is interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence– there are no expectations about experience or technical expertise. Each meeting features a presentation related to machine learning. Some of the meetings focus on reviews of cool publications in the field, others feature interesting demos of projects that people have been working on. 

Microcontroller Mondays

Microcontroller Mondays group meets on the fourth Monday of every month from 7:30 – 9:00 PM. This meetup is open to anyone who is interested about microcontrollers or need help with microcontroller projects – there are no expectations about experience or technical expertise. Each meeting features a related presentation. Some of the meetings focus on reviews of cool publications in the field, others feature interesting demos of projects that people have been working on. 

 


Activities at the Space

While the interests represented at FUBAR Labs are too numerous to count, there are some longer running activities that are group efforts. 

Power Racing Series

The Power Racing Series (PRS) is a competitive event that was originally started at Maker Faire. The objective of Power Racing Series is to modify children’s “Power Wheels” toys into $500 lean mean racing machines.  FUBAR Labs has designed, manufactured, and raced several cars over the past years, earning first place finishes and a wide collection of podium appearances. Despite the inherent silliness of this hobby, power racing is actually a really awesome way to learn about a lot of maker skills: working on the cars requires welding, soldering, 3D modeling, working with power electronics and motors, and teamwork!

Combat RoboticsMechanical Mayhem

Much in the way of the television series, FUBAR Labs members build 1 & 3 pound combat robots for fighting in a variety of arenas and venues all across the country.  While this is a newer activity for FUBAR, we’re always keen to show new entrants and interested participants the ropes, get them involved, and smashing, crashing, building, breaking, and making with combat robotics.

FUBAR Labs is an organizing partner with the Garden State Combat Robotics League to host over events in and around New Jersey.  Find out more about them here.


Past Events

We’ve held many events at FUBAR Labs over the years, but these are some of the events that have been on docket before that we’re hoping to continue to run & participate in as we continue to grow and live in our North Brunswick location.

Women’s Coding Coalition

WCC was a free program aimed at adult women without a background in computer science who wanted to get some exposure to programming in a friendly, low-key environment. The group met once a week and followed a loose curriculum meant to introduce coding concepts gradually. The program was organized by female members of Fubar and ran for several months in 2017-2018.

Introduction to Fusion 360

This was a multi-part paid class designed for people with little to no experience with 3D modeling. The class placed an emphasis on using Fusion360 to design models for 3D printing.

NJ Maker Day

We haven’t been able to put on much of a show for NJ Maker Day for the past few years but we’re eager to host activities for next year! In the past we’ve held open houses with activities such as screen printing, soap-making and demos of our equipment.

FubaCon

FubaCon was a “crappy robots” competition where people would build silly robots out of spare parts and have them “fight” to knock each other out of a ring. This event was a ton of fun– we had parts available so that people could walk in off the street and make something really simple, then decorate it to their heart’s content and compete.

Women’s Maker Group Series

A series of classes geared towards adult women (18+) to gain exposure to a wide variety of maker activities from welding to tabletop figure painting and freely explore all aspects of making.  Many of our participants are educators so it is a great opportunity to relax in a child free zone and release their inner maker.