When the Town of Vienna Youth Players needed a custom cityscape backdrop for their summer production of Guys & Dolls, Nova Labs members and volunteers stepped up. Using Big Blue, our large-format CNC router, the team transformed twelve sheets of plywood into a glowing Broadway-inspired skyline.

Our first week of Summer Camp is in the books! From 3D printing and laser cutting to resin art, soldering, and cardboard engineering, campers explored the Nova Labs makerspace while creating projects that showcased their creativity and new skills.

Nova Labs is bringing makers to the Fairfax Funky Flea! Visit our shared booth on the last Saturday of each month to shop handmade goods from local makers, meet members of the Nova Labs community, and learn more about our makerspace.

Nova Labs Kinetic Sculpture Team (NLKST) captured the highest honor at the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race, earning the title of Grand East Coast National Mediocre Champion for its outstanding performance aboard Meep Meep and Meyond, a human-powered amphibious vehicle that impressed judges and charmed spectators during the day-long event.

We are opening our doors to the public with our 2025 Open House! This is a great opportunity for us to show the community how we've transformed our makerspace since we moved to Fairfax City in 2022.

Working with National Bell Festival to support the Solidarity Bell.

When Nova Labs was looking for a new home on a tight deadline, we searched far and wide, trying to find something we could afford, continue to grow in, and in a location that wasn't so far out that it would disrupt our established community of members. When we found this building, we knew it would take a lot of work, but it checked all the boxes. We loved the opportunity to add a makerspace to the middle of Fairfax, right off 66, and close to George Mason and Northern Virgini

If you don’t have plans for July 4th, you do now! Come see Nova Labs in the Independence Day Parade in downtown Fairfax! We’re bringing the award-winning Kinetic Sculpture with fresh decorations, just for the fourth, and we’ve made another round of awesome cupcakes… but not the kind you eat. Nova Labs has been perfecting its cupcake game since 2017, when the Go-Cart Cupcakes first appeared in a holiday parade. Before that, they were designed around little red tricycles. Ever

2024 Nova Labs Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race troupe. It is not hard to picture a kinetic sculpture, or a race. But when the terms are put together, all bets are off! Wikipedia defines kinetic sculpture races as, “organized contests of human-powered amphibious all-terrain works of art.” While this barely scratches the surface, the event does involve such vehicles and it is somehow organized, if you are not too picky about semantics. As for the racing part, getting to the fi

The Nova Labs First Robotics Competition (FRC) team had a rollercoaster of a season! Our goal was to make it to Worlds, and by winning Ashland to compete at Owings Mills and Districts, we all worked hard to achieve that goal. When we did make it to Worlds, we were all blown away by the sheer enormity of the convention center, and by the creativity and uniqueness of all the other teams' robots and their approaches to problem solving. Waiting to find out if we might be chosen

By Paul Chase On Wednesday, June 22nd, members of the Washington-Liberty NASA TechRise Team (pictured below) toured Nova Labs after reaching out about our 3D Printing capabilities. The team is working on a 2U satellite form factor - that’s 10cm by 10cm by 20cm - to monitor radiation in the upper atmosphere, to be launched on a sounding rocket later this year. Nova Labs printed a weight-optimized prototype of their mounting frame (pictured below) on one of our Prusa Minis, w

By Paul Chase Last Sunday the Kinetic Sculpture Team met to work out what went well during last month's race in Baltimore, and to talk about what will go even better this coming year. The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race will run on May 6th, 2023 - only 324 build days remaining! After meeting a new member, Kevin, and another current NL member, Josh, who were interested in joining the team, we reviewed the sculpture itself and tried to figure out logistics, and broad design to

“Like Punching a Mountain in the Face” By Crystal Thurber “Does everyone on the sculpture have a life jacket?” the Dockmaster bellowed....

Editor's Note: We welcome this article by guest writer (and pioneer of the Internet) Vint Cerf. Mr. Cerf is Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, and has been a friend and supporter of Nova Labs since soon after its founding. We thank him for his continued involvement, and for engaging Nova Labs in this effort to support first responders and communities in Virginia. Stop the Bleed contents before going into their MOLLE bag. On Saturday, October 23, a Nova Labs team of volunteer

An annual tradition in Baltimore since 1999, the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race is produced by the American Visionary Art Museum. Like...

NL Makers Repairing Old Sewing Machines: Revived & Reused for Refugees’ Economic Prospects, for Women’s Health, and for the Environment Article by MakerSchool English 7th-12th Grade Class Interview of Isaac Zama and Kathy McCabe conducted by MakerSchool English 7th-12th Grade Class Edited by Melanie Cameron Nova Labs Makers are making with a purpose! Sewing machines destined for landfills are given new life, and women who have lost their homes and livelihoods are being given