Short Programs
Creating and Maintaining Safe and Productive Makerspaces That Matter to Students
Date: March 21-23, 2016 | Tuition: $2,500 | Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 1.3
*This course has limited enrollment. Apply early to guarantee your spot.
Application Deadline »
Introduction | Who Should Attend | Learning Objectives | Program Outline | Schedule | About the Instructors | Location |
Introduction
This course is a small investment for participants who want to know how to obtain measureable/justifiable impact from large investments (tens of thousands to millions of dollars) their university will spend to create a makerspace(s). This course will help you understand how to invest money, space, and other resources to obtain the results that you want. The course provides knowledge, and covers best practices, that have been used to design, create/upgrade and sustain safe and productive modern academic makerspaces.
We cover proven methods to get students excited about using these spaces, forming peer-mentoring communities within these spaces and perpetuating a culture of safe, fun and responsible use. We'll also cover fundamental principles of makerspaces that are necessary to success - understanding the general types and their pros/cons, the import of culture and community, assessing impact/justification, training models, common maker equipment, optimizing access while minimizing boundaries, creating effective safety systems, and understanding the relationship between safety and complimentary policy, insurance, legal, and regulatory issues.
Fundamentals: Core concepts, understandings, and tools (65%)
Latest Developments: Recent advances and future trends (35%)
Lecture: Delivery of material in a lecture format (30%)
Discussion or Groupwork: Participatory learning (35%)
Tours: Visits to MIT makerspaces (35%)
Introductory: Appropriate for a general audience (90%)
Specialized: Assumes experience in practice area or field (10%)
Who Should Attend
This course is designed for anyone working to create or maintain makerspace in an academic setting. Approximately 80% of course topics are applicable to general makerspaces (e.g. company, community, high school, etc.) and so this class will be useful for areas outside of universities/colleges as well.
Learning Objectives
This course will cover the fundamental principles of successful makerspaces:
- Understanding the general types and their pros/cons
- The import of culture and community
- Assessing impact/justification
- Staffing and training models
- Common maker equipment
- Optimizing access while minimizing boundaries
- Creating effective safety systems
- Understanding safety and complimentary policy, insurance, legal and regulatory issues
Program Outline
Each day will consist of morning classroom sessions, followed by afternoon sessions in which the participants will work in groups to practice implementing the material. Depending on participant interest, activities may include: student surveys/data gathering, policy documents, access plans, programming (hobby use, personal use, class/research use, entrepreneurial, etc.), safety and training plans, machine selection, or facility layout/design. We will cover examples of successful makerspaces from several universities and participants will tour a variety of MIT's 40+ makerspaces (engineering, science, dorm-based, artistic, student teams, classroom, etc.).
March 21, 2016
- Morning: Examples and types of makerspaces, boundaries/access, community/culture, safety/legal/regulatory issues, programming
- Afternoon: Tours of four makerspaces, safety plan activity, Q&A
March 22, 2016
- Morning: Navigating campus politics, data and metrics, equipment selection, space design/layout, staffing
- Afternoon: Tours of four makerspaces, space design/layout activity, Q&A
March 23, 2016
- Morning: Space design/layout activity (continued), Q&A
Course schedule and registration times
This course meets 10:00 am - 4:30 on Monday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm on Tuesday, and 9:30 am - 1:30 pm on Wednesday.
Computers or tablets with the ability to run Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (or equivalents) are required for this course.
About the Instructors
Martin Culpepper
Prof. Culpepper serves as MIT's Maker Czar and leads MIT's 'Project Manus' program—the upgrade and enhancement of MIT's maker capabilities. This includes improving access for students, conversion of old spaces/equipment, introduction of new technologies, creation of new campus spaces and outreach to other schools in the form of collaboration and consulting.
Vincent Wilczynski
Vincent Wilczynski is the Deputy Dean of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science and the James S. Tyler Director of the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation & Design. As the CEID Director, he leads a university-wide effort to promote collaboration, creativity, design and manufacturing activities at Yale's academic makerspace.
Craig Forest
Craig Forest is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he also holds program faculty positions in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. He is cofounder/organizer of one of the largest undergraduate invention competitions in the U.S.—The InVenture Prize, and founder/organizer of one of the largest student-run prototyping facilities in the U.S.—The Invention Studio.
P. Zach Ali
Technical Director for Carnegie Mellon University's Integrative Design, Arts & Technology (IDeATe) Program, Zach Ali has been researching, developing, and deploying Makerspaces since 2005. Specializing in Integrative Design, his focus is directed toward improving user experience throughout the creative process by implementing flexible and customized solutions.
Aaron Hoover
Aaron Hoover is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Olin College of Engineering. He is currently leading an effort to reimagine and realign Olin's creative spaces and fabrication resources to support its unique, hands-on, project-based curriculum. He believes strongly that student ownership and empowerment are critical to the creation of viable academic makerspaces.
Location
This course takes place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.