Symposium Topics
ISAM is the preeminent annual meeting for the academic makerspace community and as such encourages submissions that make contributions towards advancing practices, advancing equity, and expanding educational themes around such makerspace communities. Such contributions can take on the form of hypothesis-driven experiments, surveys and interviews, quantitative assessments, novel models, experimental pedagogies, new materials, machines, and making practices as well as makerspace equity, access, operations, and interdisciplinary and co-curricular collaborations.
Authors are invited to submit work in one of three formats:
1. Papers which are usually 4 to 6 pages long and published in the conference proceedings as well as presented during the conference as an oral presentation.
2. Posters which are submitted in a short abstract format, and upon acceptance are provided space within a dedicated poster session to showcase the work as well as the abstract and poster being published in the conference proceedings.
3. Finally, a new format this year for ISAM is Demonstrations. Authors submit demonstrations with a 1 to 2 page abstract, and upon acceptance are invited to showcase a live demonstration of the research tools, methods, materials, etc., during a dedicated session at the conference. Demonstration abstracts are published in the conference proceedings.
Below is a partial list of submission topics for ISAM 2025.
| Topics | Example Submissions (not exclusive) |
| defining success | qualitative and quantitative studies of making, literature review of academic makerspaces |
| curricular integration | staff vs faculty director, pedagogy driven approaches, teaching in the space vs using the space for building |
| industrial arts and design | art, architecture, jewelry, fashion |
| interdisciplinary making outcomes | students from multiple departments, student organizations, cross-campus collaborations |
| equality, diversity and inclusion | having access be inclusive, student projects of assistive devices, nonvisible disabilities, student voices |
| innovation and entrepreneurship | facilitating startup companies, industry partnership |
| library and community makerspaces | social makerspaces, media focused, not engineering only, cross-departmental collaborations |
| emerging trends in makerspaces | what’s next? (bio-makerspaces, new and emerging hardware/software tools), architecture layout / flow |
| students’ entry experiences | required/optional courses, videos and quizzes, training and safety |
| outreach and community engagements | access for non-university members, inter-university exchange programs |
| co- and extra-curricular practices | changes in usage resulting from new practices, partnership with campus programs |
| sustainability and environmental impact of makerspaces | quantifying carbon impact, recycling, engagement with sustainable materials and practices |
| career support and training | fostering employability skills through industry collaborations |
| AI + making | novel and thoughtful applications of AI within the making process and makerspaces |
| new ideas | we invite new positions, experiments, formats, and directions of interest that ISAM should be engaging with as a community |
Important Dates
Authors of a Paper, Poster, or Demo will follow the deadlines listed below. In order for submissions to be in the Symposium Program and recorded in the Symposium Proceedings, at least one presenting author will need to register by the date listed. Deadlines are specified as Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time.
| Papers | Posters / Demos | |
|---|---|---|
| Paper Submission Deadline | 25 April | |
| Notifications to Paper Authors | 12 May | |
| Conditional Accept Resubmissions Due | 23 May | |
| Poster and Demo 2-Page Abstracts Due | 23 May | |
| Final Notification to all Authors (Paper + Poster + Demos) | 6 June | 6 June |
| Early Registration Deadline | 15 June | 15 June |
| Final Camera Ready version for all Publications Due | 11 July | 11 July |
| ISAM 2025 | 6–8 August | |
Papers
Paper authors should submit an initial draft paper ranging from 4-6 pages in length (using the provided template) by 25 April. These initial drafts should clearly state the contribution, methods, cite relevant literature, and any include results and analysis obtained thus far. Where work is ongoing, authors should clearly describe what steps they plan to complete.
Please review the example topics section for inspiration and ideas, and the IJAMM symposia archive for accepted ISAM papers.
The ISAM Program Committee will review initial submissions and notify authors with one of three decisions: accept; revise and resubmit, or reject. Papers that were not accepted during the review process are encouraged to consider submitting to the Poster or Demo track which have a deadline of 23 May. Authors invited to revise and resubmit papers must submit a revision that addresses the comments of the reviewers in their final draft paper, which is submitted by 23 May. Final publication versions are due 11 July. Accepted papers will be presented in person at the ISAM conference.
Posters
Presenting a poster at ISAM is a way to share your findings, best practices, or ideas with your fellow practitioners. Consider a poster (versus a paper or demo) if your work is best explained through visual examples, you are sharing preliminary findings, or your ideas are best shared via in-person discussion.
A poster should invite viewers to explore your process and/or findings and spark conversations or debate about potential applications in their own space. Combining images, diagrams, and carefully selected text, a poster can stand alone but its impact is bolstered by your presence.
Get inspired from previous accepted posters on the IJAMM website (years 2022 and prior).
We have created a poster proposal template (see below) with two main sections:
1. What do you want to share?
Explain the core concept you want to explore in a short abstract (~300 words). You could share:
- An innovative idea or observation
- Key takeaways from an experiment or study
- A learning experience
- A making-related discovery
- A cool thing worth sharing
Focus on what makes your work specifically relevant and compelling to the makerspace community. Make it clear for the committee how your poster might inform, inspire, or otherwise influence your peer institutions. If accepted, the text of your abstract—along with your final poster—will be published as part of the conference proceedings.
2. How will you show it?
The best posters show more than they tell. Help the committee understand how you intend to visually communicate your ideas. While we realize this is not your final poster, you must include enough information to communicate the work and make it legible to reviewers. These initial drafts should clearly state the contribution and methods, cite any relevant literature you are aware of, and include any results and analysis obtained thus far. Feel free to use any of the following:
- Rough sketches
- A text-based description of your intended approach
- Sample graphs or charts
- Layout wireframes
- Image mockups
When considering your approach, remember that viewers should be able to grasp your main points quickly and visually. Your response to this question will not be published; it is purely to help the committee understand why a poster is the ideal format for sharing your work.
Once you have filled out the template, please save as a PDF and submit via Ex Ordo by May 23, 2025. For accepted exhibitors, final digital publication files are due July 11, 2025.
Notes:
- Posters will be reviewed and selected for acceptance by a committee led by the Poster Chairs. Submissions will not be anonymized for review.
- Authors must bring their own physical poster for the poster session.
- At least one author for each accepted poster is required to register to attend ISAM and present their poster at the conference in Berkeley, CA over August 6-8, 2025. Any authors that wish to co-present and/or attend must also be registered.
- Acceptable poster sizes: A0 (841 × 1189 mm) or quad poster (40 × 30 in.), either landscape or portrait.
Poster proposal template options: .docx download or Google docs.
Demonstrations
Demonstrations is a new track at ISAM for 2025. This allows authors to bring physical prototypes and demonstrations of technologies, materials, and methods to ISAM and showcase them directly within the conference format. Demos may take the form of a manufacturing technique, a makerspace efficiency or management tool, an interactive art installation, a design provocation, or other form.
Demos will be an exciting addition to ISAM and physical space and time will be dedicated to allow ISAM attendees to interact directly with demos during a dedicated Demo session.
Demo authors should submit an extended abstract ranging from 1-2 pages in length (using the template) by 23 May. These initial drafts should highlight the value of the work within the context of ISAM as well as detail its intended interactivity. It should be clear that the work functions as a demonstration over simply a paper or poster format. There may be some small budget available to assist with transport and/or insulation and operation of demonstration as deemed reasonable by the ISAM committee.
The Demos Committee will review initial submissions and provide authors with feedback. For accepted demos authors, final digital publication versions are due 11 July. Authors must bring their own demonstration and be present for the demonstration session. The demonstration abstract will be included in the symposium proceedings.