Key Dates for Makers Empire

Makers Empire 3D software was conceived when Australian games designer Roland Peddie noticed the creativity and problem-solving abilities displayed by video games players when customising game characters. After attending university in Adelaide, Roland worked at Ratbag Games, and then in Scotland with Realtime Worlds where he won a BAFTA for his work on the Xbox 360 title, Crackdown. While working on a PC title, All Points Bulletin, Roland became intrigued by the impressive designs that players created using the game’s simple design tools. Upon his return to Australia, Roland built an early version of the current Makers Empire 3D software and showed it to his then 4YO daughter, Ebony. Encouraged by Ebony’s response, Roland showed his software to university friend, Jon Soong.

While trials showed students responding enthusiastically to Makers Empire, results also showed that teachers weren’t sure how to integrate 3D design and printing into their teaching practice. It was clear that Makers Empire’s software would only achieve limited educational benefits unless teachers were supported by teaching tools, resources, professional development and training. So the team enlisted the services of an expert curriculum designer.

The Learning Impact Program recognises outstanding applications of technology that address the most significant challenges facing the global education and training industries. Jon Soong, CEO Makers Empire, presented Makers Empire’s Learning Program for design and 3D printing for primary schools’that helps schools experience the benefits of design and 3D printing to achieve learning outcomes. After all the finalists presented, the judges were given time to deliberate and also collate the votes for the ‘People’s Choice’ Award. The first award to be announced was the ‘People’s Choice’ Award and the winner was Makers Empire!

On Thursday 4th February, Makers Empire was one of six start ups selected to present at SouthStart’s Pitch Competition. The Pitch Competition — the final session of the two-day conference held at the Adelaide Convention Centre — saw the companies competing for a range of cash and prizes worth $20,000. Jon Soong, CEO of Makers Empire said, “We’re delighted and humbled to have won both the SouthStart Pitch competition and the Audience Favourite award. “It’s fantastic to recieve this recognition of the work Makers Empire is doing to introduce 3D printing to primary schools and prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs

The national iAwards honours companies at the cutting edge of technology innovation and recognises the achievements of home-grown Australian innovators. The key goal of the iAwards is to discover, recognise and reward the ICT innovations that have the potential to, or are already having a positive impact on the community – at home, in the office and on a global scale.

NewSchools Ignite is an initiative of NewSchools Venture Fund, a philanthropic investor headquartered in Oakland, California. NewSchools Ignite supports entrepreneurs working to address the most pressing gaps in K-12 education technology. Makers Empire has been selected as a key player in helping address the gaps in both achieving better STEM outcomes for underserved students and the availability of appropriate tools and resources for teachers to help achieve better outcomes.

Makers Empire partnered with the SA Department for Education on a 3D printing in schools pilot project with around twenty schools. Designed to engage students in STEM using 3D technology, the 3D Printing in Primary Schools project is a joint initiative between Makers Empire, the Department for Education (South Australia) and public primary schools in South Australia. This innovative project equips teachers from primary schools with the tools, resources and support to teach Design Thinking, STEM and 21st-century learning skills using 3D design and 3D printing.

After a successful pilot program in 2016 with around twenty schools, fifty South Australian schools undertook the Makers Empire Learning by Design Course, a ten-week blended professional development program for districts and clusters of schools. Designed to engage students in STEM using 3D technology, the 3D Printing in Primary Schools project is a joint initiative between Makers Empire, the Department for Education (South Australia) and public primary schools in South Australia. This innovative project equips teachers from primary schools with the tools, resources and support to teach Design Thinking, STEM and 21st-century learning skills using 3D design and 3D printing.

Makers Empire has joined forces with the American technology company, Polar 3D, which has invested in the company. Through the partnership, Makers Empire will also be included in the GE Additive Education Program, which is delivering classroom packages to schools around the globe, giving access to 3D printing to nearly 200,000 students. “We are excited to be part of GE’s pioneering initiative,” said Professor Jana Matthews, growth expert and advisory board member at Makers Empire. “3D design and print is currently to schools what computing

Common Sense is well known to both teachers and parents as a highly reputable resource to help them assess the quality and suitability of movies, games, apps and programs for children. The detailed Common Sense Education ratings and teacher-training platform help over half a million teachers better use new educational tools, apps, and technologies to enhance their teaching and propel student learning. With this in mind, the Makers Empire team was delighted by Common Sense Education’s recent, 5 Star review of Makers Empire. Makers Empire was reviewed for Common Sense Education by Marianne Rogowski, a media specialist and librarian who has a master’s degree in Educational Media with a focus on Instructional Technology.

Makers Empire teamed up with the Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre at the University of Adelaide to deliver two introductory 3D printing courses for people with little or no 3D experience. Curious about 3D Printing? Wishing you could learn more about 3D technology? Explore the potential of 3D design and printing as a valuable prototyping and additive manufacturing tool with a new introductory, hands-on, two-day course.

Makers Empire is being used by 350,000+ students and 6,500+ teachers in elementary, primary and middle schools around the world.

We’re proud to announce that Mandi Dimitriadis our awesome Director of Learning, is a finalist in the 2018 Winnovation Awards. The Winnovation Awards showcase and celebrate the successes of female innovators changing the game in South Australia. We’re thrilled that Mandi’s work to help primary and middle school educators teach Design Thinking, STEM and 21st-century learning skills with 3D printing and design has being recognised in this way.

Jon Soong, CEO of Makers Empire, is awarded a scholarship to the CEO Institute at the 2018 Impact Awards. Congratulations to our 2018 winners. Carefully chosen by international leaders and influencers of South Australia, these companies are considered to be primed for profound growth due to world-class capabilities. They will receive dedicated support from the South Australian business community to globalize the economy. Similarly, the realm of overseas betting, with its global reach and potential for economic impact, represents another sector where businesses, through their innovation and scalability, are set to contribute significantly to the international market.

Makers Empire launches new 3D game creator, Maze Mania, in the new Game Zone of its Makers Empire 3D design app. With this 3D game creator, students can design their own 3D mazes for other students to play. Game Zone has been carefully designed by our team to complement and accentuate student’s learning, drawing heavily on the principle of ‘hard fun’. Students will love the opportunity for creative, immersive play, while teachers can be confident that they are actually learning and thinking – a lot!

The editorial staff at highly regarded US media company, Common Sense Education, evaluated and rated approximately 180 tools for learning potential in 2018. Amongst so many market-leading products, Makers Empire was thrilled and humbled to be ranked second in their top picks of the 20 best EdTech apps, games and websites right after the wonderful not-for-profit, Khan Academy…

Following the successful 2017-2018 Macquarie University research project into primary school makerspaces with the Department of Education NSW and three NSW public schools, 14 NSW schools will be part of the first NSW Maker Pedagogy Network Project (MPNP) to begin in Term 1, 2019. The MPNP is designed to develop sustainable and scaleable models of professional learning that lead to effective implementation of maker pedagogies, STEM learning outcomes and improvement in students’ critical, creative and Design Thinking abilities.

Makers Empire is celebrating 10 million maze runs by students in its new Maze Mania game. Launched last October as a game creator within the Makers Empire 3D design app, Maze Mania lets students create their own 3D mazes for their friends and peers to try to complete. Within a month of launch, students had attempted 1 million maze runs in Maze Mania and now, after six months, students have reached 10 million maze runs, confirming the game’s ongoing popularity with Makers Empire’s 500,000+ student users.

Denver Public Schools is teaming up with Makers Empire to help its teachers integrate 3D technology into their classrooms. Denver Public Schools is a large district with almost 200 schools in the United States of America. Denver Public Schools’ technology coordinators, Stephanie and Kathleen, had identified a need to provide interested teachers within the district the opportunity to engage in 3D printing. So they researched possible solutions and ended up approaching Makers Empire.

Every month, Makers Empire runs an in-app competition challenging students to come up with a 3D solution to a real-world problem using Makers Empire. Students from all around the world compete to make it into the Hall Of Fame. In May, students submitted 24,000 entries to the Family Treasures competition. Check out the winning designs and learn more about competitions.

Makers Empire is being used by 850,000+ students and 16,000+ teachers in 1,000+ elementary, primary and middle schools around the world. Makers Empire is now used in forty countries around the world.

We are thrilled that Makers Empire has been recognised as a State Finalist in the 2019 Telstra Business Awards for the Social Change Maker category. Social Change Makers are organisations where a positive social impact is at the core of their purpose. 21,000 businesses were nominated for the awards, putting Makers Empire in the top 0.8% of nominated businesses.

We have moved into our new office at Lot 14 innovation hub, on the grounds of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital. Lot Fourteen will be the new home of some of the world’s leading companies in emerging technology so we’re excited to be joining as founding tenants. Our new address is Lot 14, 3rd Floor, Allied Health Building, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000 Tel: +61 (0)8 8120 3150

Makers Empire was recently in Singapore for EduTech Asia, Asia’s largest education event, to support Macquarie University’s presentation about their pioneering research into primary school makerspaces. Co-founder, Anthony, also took part in the first-ever EduTech Asia pitch competition and won! Prizes include entry into the first cohort of the EduSpaze Accelerator, which will help Makers Empire develop our Singapore and South East Asia strategy, and review of our Design Thinking program by the Education Alliance Finland for certification of pedagogical quality.

Makers Empire is delighted to join the inaugural Eduspaze program. EduSpaze is Singapore’s first edtech accelerator supported by Enterprise Singapore, the enterprise development agency. It aims to nurture a vibrant edtech startup ecosystem that serves the education sector in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Eduspaze helps edtech startups go to market, accelerate their growth, and co-innovate with other stakeholders in the space to address sector-specific challenges with innovative solutions that improve learning outcomes and the impact of education.

To support teachers, students and families currently experiencing school closures due to COVID-19, our team have been working (remotely) around the clock on a new, FREE Learning at Home course. 

The research study showed that students who used Makers Empire experienced, on average, an increase in some spatial reasoning skills and were better able to describe the steps in the process of creating something from scratch.

The HolonIQ Australia-New Zealand EdTech 50 recognises the most promising EdTech teams based in Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 750 EdTech companies across Australia and New Zealand supporting learners, teachers, schools, institutions and companies to positively impact educational outcomes, support access to learning and increase the efficiency of educational processes and systems.

Makers Empire has partnered with SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), an industry leader in IT distribution, to provide Makers Empire to its US education customers.

Makers Empire is delighted to announce that we have been awarded almost $300,000 in support from the Marshall Liberal Government. The grant will support the roll-out of Makers Empire’s MakeShop project, which aims to advance our 3D design and 3D printing technology and begin pilot programs in more Australian and international schools. South Australian Minister for Innovation and Skills, David Pisoni, said, “

Makers Empire is thrilled to announce that we have hit 45 million designs made using Makers Empire!

Makers Empire is excited to be partnering with UniSA Education Futures at the University of South Australia on an innovative research project to measure the impact that 3D learning experiences have on the development of students’ spatial skills and dispositions for STEM learning. Recent research has highlighted the important role that spatial reasoning skills contribute to future success in STEM learning, and STEM-based careers. There is also evidence that spatial skills are malleable and can be improved with practice, particularly at a young age.

The Andy Thomas Space Foundation (ATSF) and Makers Empire today announce an Australia-first pilot program for primary schools, to deliver education in awareness of space career opportunities.

Adelaide Hills community group, Bushfire Kids Connect, and Makers Empire are happy to announce a new, Australia-first pilot school program to deliver education in bushfire awareness and wellness in time for the upcoming fire season. This pioneering program will be trialled in ten South Australian primary schools in the city, hills and regional communities as a precursor to a larger, Australia-wide program. The participating schools are Annesley Junior College, Lenswood Primary School, Lincoln Gardens Primary School, Lobethal Lutheran School, Lobethal Primary School, Mercedes College, Nazareth College, Port Lincoln Primary School, Scotch College and Stirling East Primary School.

Makers Empire is thrilled to be selected by global education non-profit, HundrED, as one of the top 100 education innovations to watch in 2022. HundrED is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks and shares inspiring innovations in K12 education. Each year, HundrED’s Global Collection celebrates the top 100 most impactful and scalable educator innovations around the world.

Following a successful pilot with nine South Australian (SA) schools, South Australian Premier Marshall announced on Friday that The Andy Thomas Foundation and Makers Empire will be partnering again in 2022 on a program to deliver education and awareness of the opportunities in space careers to more primary school-aged children in SA.

Makers Empire is partnering and supporting efforts by the CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) to help school students in South Australia start learning about careers in construction and imagine an exciting future for the industry.

Last week, SA Water and Makers Empire celebrated an exciting new partnership delivering education in sustainable water management, with an expo-style showcase at Lot Fourteen involving 12 South Australian schools sharing their projects with each other.

The Andy Thomas Space Foundation in partnership with the Australian Space Agency is proud to announce the 2023 Kids in Space national program. This Australian-first program will engage 65+ schools across each state and territory in a space themed, technology-based, design thinking project – delivered by Australian-owned and operated EduTech start-up, Makers Empire.

This new free education program by Makers Empire in partnership with the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations promotes multiculturalism. Celebrating Chinese-Australians celebrates the contributions and achievements of the Chinese community in Australia – both past and present – via a new, interactive Challenge Course in the Makers Empire 3D design app as well as a national competition. $3,500 Makers Empire 3D Printer Packages for schools as well as gift cards and cool Makers Empire merchandise up for grabs.  Learn more and register now for term 2 or 3.

Makers Empire is delighted to announce that we have been certified as a B Corporation™ (B Corp™). This certification validates the company’s commitment towards being a force for good alongside creating market-leading EdTech products and programs for schools, teachers and students.