MakerLodge is an extracurricular training program open to all MIT first-year undergraduate students that teaches making skills. It’s a great way to discover MIT shops and makerspaces, use manual and digital tools, socialize, and appreciate the power of making for experiential learning. By making a couple of small objects using a range of equipment such as a drill press, a laser cutter, or a 3D printer, students receive orientation and safety training. It’s an exciting first step to explore the many possibilities within the MIT making and design community. Making and prototyping shape the way i ..read more

As 3D printers have become cheaper and more widely accessible, a rapidly growing community of novice makers are fabricating their own objects. To do this, many of these amateur artisans access free, open-source repositories of user-generated 3D models that they download and fabricate on their 3D printer. But adding custom design elements to these models poses a steep challenge for many makers, since it requires the use of complex and expensive computer-aided design (CAD) software, and is especially difficult if the original representation of the model is not available online. Plus, even if a u ..read more

For 85 years, MIT’s Hobby Shop has provided a space for MIT’s community members to build their passion projects. For the last 65 of those years, that work has taken place in a low-ceilinged, windowless room in the basement of Building W31. Now the Hobby Shop is opening in a new location on Massachusetts Avenue that’s sure to increase its visibility — not to mention the sun exposure of its users. The new MIT Hobby Shop, which officially opens tomorrow in Building N51, features new and upgraded machinery as well as an additional 1,000 square feet of workspace. In fact, if not for some durable eq ..read more

The MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node yesterday announced the opening of its permanent, 5,000-square-foot facility, which will serve as a hub for collaborative innovation and entrepreneurship for MIT students, professors, and alumni, as well as others working in Hong Kong. The opening ceremony at the facility was attended by Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam, as well as alumni and friends of MIT, Innovation Node leaders, students, and startups, and MIT professors who helped launch and guide the Innovation Node’s development. Located in Kowloon Tong, in an area closely linked to major Hong Ko ..read more

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded an early-concept grant for exploratory research to the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT . MIT will partner with Maker Ed, a national nonprofit, to develop and evaluate practices of embedded assessment in maker-centered learning. The two-year grant, Beyond Rubrics: Moving Towards Embedded Assessment in Maker Education, will support design-based research in middle school science and engineering classrooms. The San Mateo County Office of Education in Northern California and the Albemarle County Public Schools in Charlottesville, Virginia ..read more

Although he has operated MIT’s nuclear research reactor and worked as an intern for a national energy laboratory, senior Olorunsola “Jerry” Akinsulire never seems happier than when he's demonstrating the use of machine tools to fellow students, soldering iron in hand. “It’s very exciting helping others develop their projects and being someone people can look up to,” says Akinsulire, a double major in nuclear science and engineering and physics. As a leader in the development and soon, operation, of a new “makerspace” for the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NS ..read more

The MIT Libraries and MIT MakerWorkshop, a student-run makerspace and community, are partnering on a pilot project to provide access to tools and other equipment often used in makerspaces. A range of kits containing equipment such as hand tools, cameras, electronics, and sensors, are now available to check out from the libraries, allowing MIT students, faculty, and staff to work on projects at their own convenience. Michael Buchman, MakerWorkshop vice president and a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering, spearheaded the project, called Equipment to Go. He saw an opportunity to improve the w ..read more

In 1992, the Edgerton Center — one of MIT's original makerspaces — opened in Building 4. At its 25th anniversary gala on April 13, alumni, faculty, and relatives of Harold "Doc" Edgerton gathered to celebrate what the center has grown into: a home to students who build rockets, robots, and more, as well as an invaluable resource for high-speed photography and K-12 outreach. Edgerton, an MIT professor of electrical engineering, was renowned for his work in high-speed imaging as well as sonar and deep-sea photography; he and his equipment accompanied oceanographer Jacques Cousteau in s ..read more

Imagine if you and a group of students were tasked with designing, building, testing, and driving a Formula-style electric race car from the ground up. Every year. For students who are members of MIT Motorsports — a.k.a. the MIT Formula SAE (FSAE) team, originally founded in 2001 — that task determines how they spend their free time, on weekends, evenings, and often, January Independent Activities Period as well as summer. On a recent Saturday in the Edgerton Center’s Area 51 Student Shop (Room N51), about two dozen students on the FSAE team were sitting at large work tables, huddled over thei ..read more

What do a student tinkerer in Bhutan, a design professional in Nairobi, and an artist in Brazil have in common? They’re part of a global community of makers benefiting from the fab lab network, which provides the space, equipment, and training to make (almost) anything. Today the fab lab network includes more than 2,500 centers across 125 countries, including places as remote as northern Norway and as populated as the city centers of Cairo and Barcelona. Each lab provides community access to equipment such as laser cutters, computer-controlled milling machines, and 3D printers, along with trai ..read more