The new Maker Lab in the Brown Library will conduct a come-and-go Homecoming open house after today’s Chapel for students, alumni and visitors. The lab, which is behind Starbucks in the library, will be open from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lyndell Lee, educational technology specialist, said the open house will be an opportunity for people to see what’s being done in the lab and get connected.
“Over the next few weeks, months, years, this is really going to be an incredible place,” Lee said.
The first 50 visitors will receive a wooden iPhone case branded with the Maker Lab’s logo, a product straight from the lab.
The Maker Lab is interactive, so the open house will be centered around creating things. Visitors will be able to play around with several pieces of equipment and the showcased projects will inspire anyone who walks in the doors, Lee said.
The Maker Lab houses a wide array of project teams, many of which will be present at the open house to share what they are making with the visitors.
Nil Santana, instructor of art and design, and several students are working on building a bicycle made of “unconventional material.” Physics and Engineering students have taken an old golf cart from the admissions department and plan to restore and improve it. Dallas artist and ACU alum Rolando Diaz is collaborating with the Maker Lab on a piece for a future show, and Dallas-based company Structured Dimensions will be present to introduce visitors to the business of large-scale, 3-D printing.
This movement toward “making” was brought on by several questions posed to ACU faculty and staff.
“For folks who have a knack for the digital world, how do we go from the virtual creation of things to the actual making of things?” Lee said. “How do we foster a community of people who want to make stuff, regardless of what their major is?”
The Maker Lab not only answers these questions, but gives students, faculty and alumni a place to create, explore and dive further into the world of making beginning today, he said.
“Starting that day forward, we will be inviting people in to just make stuff,” Lee said.
