Moonlighter

08/30/2026

✨ THE DECO PORTALS ARE HERE! ✨

Today, we’re proud to unveil the Deco Portals on Lincoln Road—a vibrant new creative contribution to the City of Miami Beach and the culmination of six months of learning, designing, making, and collaboration.

The Deco Portals were created by the graduating cohort of Maker Cities, our NSF-funded workforce development program at Moonlighter FabLab. Over the past six months, these emerging makers have developed hands-on skills in advanced manufacturing, learning how to take an idea from concept to reality through digital design, prototyping, and fabrication.

Using 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC machines, students transformed their ideas into a real-world public installation that will now become part of the Lincoln Road experience.

Today isn’t just about unveiling the Deco Portals—it’s about celebrating the graduates who made them possible. 🎓🔧

They came to Maker Cities to learn the tools of advanced manufacturing. They leave having designed and built something that will be experienced by thousands of people in their own city.

We couldn’t be more proud of this cohort and the creativity, craftsmanship, and determination they brought to the project.

Congratulations, Maker Cities Class of 2026! 🎉

Your work is now part of Miami Beach. 🌴✨

Beach City of Miami Beach Lincoln Road U.S. National Science Foundation

08/28/2026

Join Moonlighter FabLab on Lincoln Road & Meridian Avenue tomorrow, August 29 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. for the unveiling of Deco Portal, a series of Art Deco inspired arches designed and fabricated by students participating in the Maker Cities program.

For details, visit https://bit.ly/4iA6Z1w.

08/17/2026

We’re excited to share that Tom Pupo, Executive Director of Moonlighter FabLab, took the stage at the MIT Museum during the FAB26 Conference to share the progress of Maker Cities, our NSF-funded workforce development initiative.
Maker Cities is exploring how FabLabs can become powerful pathways into the emerging technology workforce—combining advanced manufacturing, design thinking, entrepreneurship, industry mentorship, and real-world civic placemaking projects into an experiential learning model for adults.
But the vision extends far beyond Miami Beach.
As we learn from our first cohorts, our team and research partners are documenting what works, what can be improved, and what can be replicated in other communities. In 2027, we will release the Maker Cities Playbook, bringing together best practices, data-driven insights, curriculum resources, and implementation tools designed to help FabLabs, makerspaces, workforce development organizations, and community partners across the country adapt and launch the model in their own cities.
Sharing this work with the global FabLab community at MIT is an important step toward that goal. We’re inviting FabLabs across the United States to follow the project, learn alongside us, and ultimately help us scale a network of community fabrication labs as accessible centers for advanced manufacturing education and workforce development.
What starts with one cohort in Miami Beach has the potential to become a model that communities across the country can make their own.
More to come as we build toward the 2027 Maker Cities Playbook. Fab Foundation U.S. National Science Foundation

08/17/2026

We’re honored to share that we’ve been awarded a Capacity Building Grant from the Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation. This investment goes beyond funding, it strengthens our ability to grow, innovate, and build a more sustainable future for our organization. Through this support, we’ll be able to advance projects that strengthen our mission and expand the impact of our work in the community. Full article on our website. The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation The Miami Foundation

08/12/2026

Congratulations to Moonlighter Team Members: Emil Rodriguez-Torres and Jadayne Smith! They traveled to the international Fab26 conference at MIT to attend their formal graduation ceremony. Emil graduated from Fab Learning academy which builds leadership in developing K12 curriculum that uses and Jadayne graduated from Fab Academy with final project recognition “Best Game” among the cohort of students from around the world. FabAcademy is the distributed global learning program that leads students through 6-months of intensive skill building that empowers them to learn how to make (almost) anything across physical and digital means of creation. From coding an app that runs on a custom pcb circuit to CNC-milled objects. We are so proud of them as they bring these skills to their work every day at Moonlighter FabLab to enhance our year-round programs.

07/04/2026

Maker skills are paying off. Side hustles are actually turning into successful businesses according to Squarespace:

New research from Squarespace analyzed more than 30 hobbies across annual income, hourly rates and job posting volume to find which passion projects are generating the most real income in the U.S. right now.

The top earners:
App development: $119,786 average annual income, up 119% in search interest year over year
Pottery and ceramics: $106,858
3D printing and maker projects: $101,249

The fastest-growing categories by search volume — even if they haven't hit the highest income numbers yet — include crafts and handmade goods (up 930% over four years), print-on-demand and merch design (up 636%) and social media management (up 490%).

The context behind the numbers: a LendingTree survey found that nearly 60% of Americans picked up a new hobby during the pandemic, and about half of them turned it into a side hustle. That shift has continued well past COVID — and it's finding its most profitable phase yet as platforms, tools and marketplaces make monetization more accessible than ever.

The common thread across every category on this list isn't a specific skill. It's the decision to treat something you already do as something worth building deliberately.

The data on what pays is increasingly clear. The variable is whether you start.

05/29/2026

Calling all creative kids ages 7-14! Join us for Summer STEAM Maker Camp 2026. With a new project theme each week, kids will get a chance to design, build, engineer, and experiment all summer long! Link in bio (Moonlighter.camp) to learn more and register!

05/04/2026

We're still catching our breath from a whirlwind Maker Faire Miami weekend. This is our biggest event each year and we are so proud of all of the crew, volunteers, makers, and sponsors who helped make it come to life. If you missed it or just want to re-live the experience, the photo album is live!

Maker Faire Miami 2026 brought together thousands of students, families, and makers for three days of hands-on learning, live demos, workshops, and inspiring talks.