Equal parts street festival, science fair and business networking event, Louisville Maker Faire is billed as “The Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth.” Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers, all sharing the Louisville Maker Faire purpose – to entertain, inform, connect and grow the maker community.

Launched in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maker Faires have been held in more than 200 cities throughout the world, according to Make:. The Louisville Maker Faire dovetails with UofL’s strategic goals, said UofL Interim President Lori Stewart Gonzalez.

“UofL and Louisville Maker Faire share a common goal: applying creativity and innovation to address needs today and into the future,” Gonzalez said. “At UofL, we concentrate our research and scholarship efforts behind three Grand Challenges – Empowering Our Communities, Advancing Our Health and Engineering Our Future Economy – knowing the solutions we find will make a difference and create a thriving future for Louisville, for Kentucky and for the world. Louisville Maker Faire, and the makers it calls attention to, do likewise. We are proud to again host Louisville Maker Faire and are thrilled that it is returning.”

Sponsors of the event include GE Appliances, a Haier company, and FirstBuild, a co-creation community that is changing the way products come to market backed by GE Appliances and housed on UofL’s Belknap Campus.

“At GE Appliances, we’re always looking for new and better ways to make life easier for our customers, drive change in our communities through opportunity and create possibilities sparked by connection and curiosity,” said Kevin Nolan, president & CEO of GE Appliances. “The Louisville Maker Faire brings our community of makers and creators together driving inspiration, innovation and collaboration. The opportunity for students from kindergarten to college to experience creativity in action helps them see the potential of what can happen when we come together and what can be made from concept to creation.”

Maker Faires contribute greatly to fostering learning and inspiring a love of inventiveness in children and ultimately have a positive economic impact on the cities where they occur.

“Louisville Maker Faire helps us further advance our vision of innovation and lifelong learning for all by showcasing our active maker community, growing tech sector and thriving art scene that is building momentum across our city and the region,” said Grace Simrall, chief of the Office of Civic Innovation and Technology for Louisville Metro Government.

To participate in the 2022 Louisville Maker Faire, go the event’s web page.

See a video from the .

“Honorary degrees salute special achievements and recognize outstanding service to the university and to the community,” said Gonzalez. “I am pleased and proud to confer this degree on such an extraordinary individual.”

Nolan’s leadership and efforts have resulted in $50 million to help support public education initiatives in Louisville to provide equitable access to quality educational opportunities for all students. For Nolan’s commitment to public education, in 2020, he received the Kelly Award from the Kentucky Department of ����ֱ��.

During his time as vice president of technology at GE Appliances, Nolan created FirstBuild, a global maker destination, in partnership with UofL. The partnership continues today, boasting 15 products on the shelf and 454 prototypes created.

Nolan is also a longtime member of UofL’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s advisory board. Gonzalez noted that, thanks to Nolan, strong ties between UofL and GE Appliances have been built resulting in the development of scholarships and GE’s participation in student organizations such as Speed Spectrum, Society of Women Engineers, the Women’s Leadership Conference and the Engineering Living Learning Community.

Since 2004, GE Appliances has hosted 575 co-op students from the Speed School, which have completed 1,314 co-op rotations. In 2020, UofL honored GE Appliances as its “Outstanding Corporate Partner of the Year.”

“With Kevin’s leadership, GE Appliances invested in first-generation college students through support of the Speed School’s Brown-Forman Engineering Academy,” said Gonzalez. “Kevin has also invested personally, giving to the Mechanical Engineering Fund in the Speed School.”

In his remarks to the graduating class of 2022, Nolan emphasized the importance of how one’s unique gifts and differences can define character and create future opportunities. Nolan, an honors scholar graduate from the University of Connecticut, where he received a mechanical engineering degree, shared how struggles with dyslexia early in his studies hampered his interest in school. It was one of his professors at the University of Connecticut whose belief and support helped drive and influence Nolan’s success.

“It’s your differences that make you special,” said Nolan. “Leverage those differences to create opportunities for yourself. Don’t try to fit in by becoming something else or someone else. Be who you are and who you want to be. We need all of you with all you have to offer. After all, creativity thrives on the diversity of ideas. And that’s why I have been so committed to this university and why I have appreciated the many partnerships we have built with UofL.”

Nolan’s final word of advice to the 2022 graduates: Stay curious.

“Use your skills and innate curiosity to fuel your passion and discover what you love,” he said. “I have been so fortunate to have my career and passions intersect. It is truly something I wish on all of you. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keeping asking the question, ‘what if’.”

Hear Kevin Nolan’s complete remarks on the UofL YouTube channel .