Forward Fest 2026

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

12:00pm CDT

Wednesday August 19, 2026 12:00pm - 2:00pm CDT

Ever had a product idea but didn’t know how to begin building it?

This live, interactive session is for startup founders, creatives, makers, and curious people who want to explore physical prototyping without needing deep technical experience or a big budget.

Building on last year’s event, we’ll start with a basic introduction to AI-assisted hardware prototyping, then move into group ideation, whiteboard brainstorming, and a vote on which idea to pursue. From there, we’ll use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to help plan the prototype, choose affordable off-the-shelf parts, figure out how to connect them, generate code, troubleshoot, iterate, and test the result live on real hardware.

I’ll be bringing a variety of sensors, electronic components, microcontrollers, displays, motors, lights, and other parts so we can build and adapt on the fly instead of just talking about the idea. Think of the microcontroller as the “brain” of the prototype, with sensors as the inputs and lights, motors, displays, or other parts as the outputs.

This is not a polished engineering lecture. It is a live prototype build where the group helps shape the direction. Some things may work right away. Others may need debugging, rethinking, or a quick pivot. That is part of the process.
Attendees will see how an initial idea can move from rough concept, to hardware plan, to wiring, to code, to live testing. The goal is to make hardware prototyping feel approachable, creative, and possible, especially for people who have ideas but do not yet know how to turn them into a working proof of concept.

You’ll walk away with:
-A clear example of how AI can help move from idea to prototype
-Insight into early proof-of-concept hardware design
-A better feel for sensors, boards, wiring, code, and live testing
-A look at how messy, iterative prototyping really works
-Inspiration to start testing your own ideas with affordable tools and parts

From zero to prototype. Experience it live with AI and real hardware.

Hosted by Quantum Ideation and Prototyping LLC

Event Organizers