Thought leaders and practitioners from the Higher Education Makerspace Initiative will cover fundamental principles of successful makerspaces such as:

• Understanding the general types and their particular strengths
• The importance of culture and community
• Staffing and training models
• Optimizing access while minimizing boundaries
• Creating effective safety systems and commensurate policies
• Using data to assess impact and justify decisions
• Q&A session open to audience inquiries on applying the presented information to unique circumstances

Includes breakfast for registered attendees.

This workshop will consist of two main sections: an in-depth tour of fabrication equipment and hands-on project experience in an educational environment.

In-Depth Tour:  Participants will be guided on an in-depth tour of the Jacobs Makerspace, where they will learn about approaches to running and equipping a campus-wide makerspace. Participants will be broken into small groups that will rotate amongst equipment categories (e.g., 3d printing, laser cutting-engraving, wood working, metal machining, etc.) to learn the capabilities, pros versus cons, common applications, and user access.

Hands-on Prototyping and Pedagogy: Participants will work in groups to build an interactive hands-on project demonstrating advanced makerspace methods and approaches to teaching those techniques. Workshop contents include:

• Advanced design for 3D printer and laser cutter fabrication
• Lasercut joinery techniques with and without fasteners
• Simple electronics assembly tips and tricks, including various electronic connectors, cable management, and panel-mount components
• Designing for motion (simple kinematics, gears, cams, torque)
• Free and open source software options for electronic and mechanical design
• Prototyping techniques: iteration, unit testing, debugging, physical prototyping for finding tolerances, etc.
• Pedagogical approaches to teaching all of the above
• Getting to know other workshop participants through team project building

Includes lunch for registered attendees.