The space is fully equipped to support faculty in integrating design and making into courses, and students who want to expand their extracurriculars to include printing, photography, sewing, soldering and even knitting.
OAKLAND — A 3D printer creates tangible objects from digital designs by layering materials like resin, metal or plastic.
So when students in Leila Keyvani’s Cornerstone of Engineering class needed parts for the robots they were building, they just walked next door to the new makerspace and printed them out.
And if they needed to change a part? Problem solved with a return trip.
“Having the makerspace so close also supports a more iterative design process, as students can quickly test ideas, gather feedback and make adjustments — all within the same class period,” says Keyvani, an associate teaching professor in the College of Engineering on Northeastern University’s Oakland campus.
The makerspace — made up of a woodshop, metal shop, photography lab, analog printing studio, ceramics studio and classroom equipped with digital tools — opened at the beginning of fall semester.
It’s been a game changer for academics and research, Keyvani says.
The fully equipped facility embraces experiential learning, enabling students to repeatedly practice using unfamiliar tools until they feel confident.
“Students explore tools and techniques in the woodshop, maker classroom, and makerspace,” Keyvani says. “The goal is to give them practical experience and a clearer understanding of which tools to use and when — an area they often found challenging in the past.”
Faculty say that the benefits of easy access to design and construction tools is clear in students’ work. Engineering, art and architecture faculty have become “super users” of the new facilities.
“Iteration thrives on proximity and the speed of getting quick ideas out of one’s head and into a form,” says associate professor Sarah Hirschman, who is teaching an architecture studio course and an art and design fundamentals course this semester.
Her architecture students will design a new branch library for the Uptown neighborhood in Oakland, making use of the Makerspace over the semester to build iterative models of their designs, as well as models of relevant precedents that they’ll study.
Students in a course on architectonic systems will use tools in the makerspace to do all the jobs on a construction site in miniature form, Hirschman says. After mixing and pouring concrete, students will use the laser cutter to cut things that would normally require a band or table saw and 3D print steel caps for the tops of beams to construct models designed to withstand tectonic plate shifts.
The makerspace is fully equipped to support faculty interested in integrating design and making into courses and students who want to expand their extracurriculars to include printing, photography, sewing, soldering and even knitting.
In the center of the large print media design studio sit three Vandercook letterpresses for printing blocks of type or images. The etching press rolls ink over etched plates and was used recently to make tote bags emblazoned with round red Husky images. The Husky was carved on acrylic using the laser cutter in the makerspace.
Before students can use the facilities they have to complete a safety training for each piece of equipment they plan to use. Hirschman says the instruction helps students zero in on their specific projects and how they can use the tools.
Her art and design fundamentals course emphasizes the generative ideation process. Students begin making forms with lines using wire, rope and string. They move on to paper, wood, cardboard, plastic and fabric and finish the semester making 3D compositions.
“This absolutely benefits from taking place in the makerspace because we can do hands-on demos where I show cutting techniques or assembly practices,” she says. “The students also benefit from having a tools course explicitly for their cohort where they receive detailed makerspace training that they’re able to put immediately into practice in their classwork.”
For engineering, art and architecture students, iteration is at the core of their work. But so is having the tools they need nearby
“Access is everything,” Hirschman says. “Embedding these courses in a makerspace signals to the students that they belong in such a lab. Having freshmen feel proficient in making models in the woodshop and iterating with the 3D printer means we’ll have juniors and seniors with autonomy and direction in the making of things.”