Under 25’s Autumn Cohort 2023

Juan Castro-Varón

Juan is by profession a web developer, product designer, and engineer from Columbia, on a UK Global talent visa, currently Juans works with The Nature Conservancy Brazil creating a tool to identify illegally harvested wood from the Amazon rainforest using AI, to combat illegal deforestation, as part of a6-month Google.org pro bono fellowship. Before this, Juan was working at Google UK as a Software Engineer, making tools for Android developers.

Juan has joined Makerversity on the Under 25’s residency to further pursue his ‘passionate obsession’ with Silversmithing. Taking full advantage of high-resolution SLA 3D Printers and workshop space at Makerversity to develop higher fidelity castable resin/wax masters for his beautiful recycled silver pieces.

During his residency he is looking forward to having access to a studio outside of his home amongst a community of other makers across disciplines – looking to share skills and knowledge during his time here.

You can check out Juan’s website and blog Here.

Louis Barrett

Louis is an artist and designer, creating one-off collectible furniture pieces and art installations. With a background in industrial design, Louis’ process traditionally follows the natural progression from research, sketching, and ideation, to model making, concept realisation, prototyping, and 3D modelling, however he is not bound by this approach, and finds that each individual project develops organically. His pieces have been represented by hunter blond gallery.

Most of his work is current work is focused around photogrammetry, or 3D scanning, digitally manipulating scans and replicating these into functional objects, such as coffee tables with beautiful organic shapes.

Louis was recently invited to participate in a workshop at marmoles covarrubias in Guadalajara, Mexico, entitled “transforming the stone”, where he carried out an intensive workshop in order to create a unique piece from different types of stone utilising various techniques and processes.

During his residency he hopes to push the boundaries of his work both digitally and physically, whilst being apart of a space with other creatives and designers. Taking advantage of the machines and workshops available which he does not otherwise have access to.

Keep up with Louis work here.

Nguyen Xuan Huy

Nguyen is an avid VR enthusiast set out to make VR experiences affordable to the public. For advanced VR experiences, current market solutions cost around £5,000 and are primarily aimed at corporate customers. Xuan Huy set out to make them more accessible, starting with the production of VR gloves using do-it-yourself electronics and a 3D printer.

The gloves are designed to be fully modular, allowing components to be added or replaced as needed. These gloves will allow users to touch and feel their surroundings within a VR headset, creating a fully immersive and multi-sensory experience.

Currently he has two prototypes in development and testing,  with the ultimate goal to release the first consumer-ready version to the public through a Kickstarter campaign in a year’s time. During his time at Makerversity, Nguyen is keen to take advantage of specialist machines such as CNC’s, 3D printers, and the fashion workshop with sewing facilities to complete a consumer ready version of his gloves. As well as attending the business support sessions to aid the release of his product.

You can read an article on Nguyen’s project Here.

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