Make Magazine and Science Chicago are seeking DIY-savvy Chicagoans to submit grassroots inventions and gadgets to American Maker, a day-long competition at the Museum of Science and Industry’s Lab Fest, 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive, on Sept. 20.

American Maker will be Make Magazine’s first competition in Chicago but not their first innovation-celebrating event. For the past three years, Make Magazine has hosted Maker Faire, the original audition-formatted showcase hosted in various parts of the country.

Dale Dougherty, editor and publisher of Make Magazine, said American Maker will be on a more competitive level than Maker Faire and on a much smaller scale with about 1,000 attendees expected. So far, a dozen entries have been submitted for the event, Dougherty said.

He said Make Magazine got the idea to come to Chicago when Cheryl Hughes, the executive director of Science Chicago, visited Maker Faire 2008 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds in San Mateo, Calif. Dougherty said he has been working with Hughes to produce the Maker Faire-like festival to coordinate with Science Chicago, beginning on Sept. 15.

Chicago’s inaugural American Maker event may pave the way to team up with other science museums across the country in cities such as Boston, New York City and Seattle, he said.

Hundreds of makers and an audience of about 65,000 gathered at Maker Faire 2008 amid more than 500 booths, numerous exhibitions and hands-on workshops on May 3 and 4. Dougherty said he has seen battle bots, humanoids, new interfaces for making music, handy remote control devices and even “hacked” commercial products re-designed in a wide range of mediums at previous events and expects similar submissions in Chicago.

“There’s a lot of creative work out there that doesn’t get the proper recognition,” Dougherty said. “It doesn’t fit into a proper category like art or science because sometimes it’s a blend of things.”

Makers will be given about 15 to 20 minutes to showcase their creations where Make Magazine editors as well as to-be-announced Chicago-area judges will decide on who moves on to the next round. With about 20 contestants being highlighted, judges will pick the best of the best to win a $500 prize and an appearance in Make Magazine.

Anthony Pratkanis’s 16-year-old son, Tony, of Santa Cruz, Calif., has been participating in Maker Faire for the past three years. At the last event in San Mateo, Calif., Tony Pratkanis displayed his fire-locating and extinguishing robot, Solenopsis Invicta.

Maker Faire brings together people who create innovations that make visitors say, “Wow, how did they think of that?” said Anthony Pratkanis, who describes Maker Faire as a celebration of creativity.

“You have people doing high-tech robots like my son, you have folks doing crafts and other folks doing hobbies like old fashion printmaking,” he said. “It’s a cultural event that has real value.”

Anthony Pratkanis said it’s easy for people in our society to gain self esteem from products they purchase in retail stores. As a parent, he said he is glad to see his son creating and achieving inventions he is proud of producing.

“There is more to life than simply junk you can buy in a mall,” he said. “This is what America should be about: making, planning and building stuff-not buying stuff.”

American Maker as a part of Lab Fest will kick off the year-long celebration, Science Chicago, which is spearheaded by the Museum of Science and Industry.

Science Chicago is an initiative of about 120 local universities, science institutions, cultural institutions and a wide variety of Chicago organizations, said Hughes.

Seeking to be the world’s largest celebration of science, Science Chicago will offer a hands-on science program for families and communities to eventually be an active program in various Chicago neighborhoods by spring 2009.

Highlighting the importance of science through our region and the critical nature of having science education in our schools is the overall goal of the ambitious program, Hughes said.

“A project like Maker Faire [is] an excellent example of how scientists don’t need to be just PhDs in a lab,” Hughes said. “There is an inventor in many of us.”

For more information about American Maker or to submit an entry, visit MakeZine.com/American.