Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • Subscribe!
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

How much will Maker spaces play a role on campuses in the future?

By Paul Heney | December 22, 2015

Share

@DW_EditorPaul J. Heney – Editorial Director

[email protected]

On Twitter @DW_Editor

Insights

Thinking outside the [box]

College has changed a lot since I was a student. Shortly after I graduated from Georgia Tech, the campus underwent quite the building boom, thanks to its upcoming status as the Olympic Village for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Touring the school in the subsequent years always left me amazed at the new amenities. And I can recall looking at the University of Arizona when I was considering graduate school, my jaw dropped at the prospect of high-rise dorms with huge swimming pools right beside them. It was like spring break compared to what I’d known.

But changes in the college experience today go far beyond mere physical structures. While touring the new Sears Think[box] innovation hub on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, I was blown away … what these engineering students have at their disposal today is incredible.

Think[box] functions as a comprehensive fabrication laboratory, a place where the University hopes members of the engineering, design, arts, humanities, science, medical and business communities will interact. The goal is to help both students and faculty become the entrepreneurs and technology leaders of the future. Think[box] is also open (and free!) to the public, which I think will add a great mix to this campus hub.

Think[box] has been around since 2012, but it’s just moved into a new $35M home, a seven-story, 50,000 sq-ft building. The layout of the project is quite impressive:

The first floor includes interactive presentation and workshop areas, an inventor’s hall of fame and social meeting spaces focused on users from outside the university, including K-12 students, industry groups and community groups.

The second floor has open space to support generation and development of ideas. There is a range of informal, re-configurable spaces for users to meet, think and develop their ideas. It will include multi-media equipment to support group collaboration and expression.

The third floor focuses on prototyping, with a wide range of state-of-the-art digital manufacturing equipment for users to quickly turn their ideas into some form of physical object.
The fourth floor houses traditional fabrication/manufacturing workshops.

The next phase of the project, to happen over the next year, will add a garage-style project floor; a floor devoted to startup assistance (including business planning, intellectual property and legal advice), and a floor for incubating startup companies that develop both within and outside the university.

I’ve been told that top-notch universities have been visiting Think[box], to see how to create similar spaces on their campuses. My thought was: What a great recruiting tool for CWRU. I tried to imagine prospective engineering and design students getting a campus tour and then seeing this lineup of toys: 3D printers, circuit-board routers, laser cutters, a computer-controlled ShopBot router, a Lynx 3D Microscope, a 3D scanner, a mixed signal oscilloscope and a vacuum chamber.

What aspiring engineer wouldn’t want to play—and learn—here?


Filed Under: Commentary • expert insight, 3D printing • additive manufacturing • stereolithography, ALL INDUSTRIES

 

About The Author

Paul Heney

Paul J. Heney, the VP, Editorial Director for Design World magazine, has a BS in Engineering Science & Mechanics and minors in Technical Communications and Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech. He has written about fluid power, aerospace, robotics, medical, green engineering, and general manufacturing topics for nearly 25 years. He has won numerous regional and national awards for his writing from the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

Tell Us What You Think!

Related Articles Read More >

PCB mills
Basics of printed circuit board milling machines
September 2020 Special Edition: 2020 Additive Manufacturing Handbook
The Decision-Makers’ Guide to Additive Manufacturing: Explore the essentials of today’s AM environment and improve your results
Top 3 reasons why you should consider additive manufacturing today for production parts

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Industrial disc pack couplings
  • Pushing performance: Adding functionality to terminal blocks
  • Get to Know Würth Industrial Division
  • Renishaw next-generation FORTiS™ enclosed linear encoders offer enhanced metrology and reliability for machine tools
  • WAGO’s smartDESIGNER Online Provides Seamless Progression for Projects
  • Epoxy Certified for UL 1203 Standard

Design World Podcasts

July 26, 2022
Tech Tuesdays: Sorbothane marks 40 years of shock and vibration innovation
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • Subscribe!
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings