A mechanical engineering rite of passage at MIT
It's hard to ignore the fact that a worldwide maker movement is well underway. Over the past 10 or so years, community Maker Faires have become all the rage; fabrication shops have popped up around the...
View ArticleMolecule makers
Chemical engineering does not typically start out as a “hands-on” field of study. Thanks to Bradley Olsen and his new course for MIT freshmen, 10.00 (Molecule Builders), that will change starting in...
View Article3 Questions: Martin Culpepper on making the future makers
During the summer of 2015, Martin Culpepper surveyed all undergraduate and graduate students at MIT about their activities and interests in “making.” “MIT has a strong history and culture of hands-on...
View Article3 Questions: Neil Gershenfeld and the spread of Fab Labs
Ten years ago Neil Gershenfeld, professor of media arts and sciences and the founder and director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), began an outreach project that has grown into a global...
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Mobius App released to empower MIT maker community
With over 130,000 square feet of hands-on makerspaces, MIT has more of these facilities on its campus than anywhere in the world. Yet, according to findings from a student-wide survey conducted last...
View ArticleMaking it real
The maker movement is on the rise.From electronics to robotics, metalworking to woodworking, jewelry making to composting, popular fascination with the maker culture is quickly spreading and inspiring...
View ArticleMIT announces new Makerspace with support from Victor and William Fung...
MIT has announced the creation of a makerspace that will facilitate connections between the MIT campus and the global community and meet the increasing demand for hands-on learning opportunities at the...
View ArticleMens et manus in the MIT History workshop
A group of MIT students briefly put away their cellphones this spring to concentrate on a much older information storage and retrieval device: the book.In a hands-on humanities class — 21H.343 (Making...
View ArticleFeatured video: Making makers at MIT
"MIT has more than 130,000 square feet of hands-on workshops and makerspaces across the campus (with even more to come). We design, prototype, and invent the future of technology one project at a time....
View ArticleMIT participates in the White House's National Week of Making
MIT joined maker communities across the country to inspire Americans of all backgrounds to create, tinker, and innovate in honor of the National Week of Making, June 17-23. The week is part of the...
View ArticleA makerspace for students, by students
If there is one word that embodies the spirit of MIT MakerWorks, the all-access Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) makerspace, it would have to be “students.” Not “maker,” although of course...
View Article“It’s okay if it breaks and blows up”
A robot that can throw fire and saws into its opponents with a spinning blade; a 250-pound bot that can damage and throw competitors with a steel drum powered by its 100-horsepower motor; and a robot...
View ArticleFeatured video: Building a really big brain
When MIT moved its campus from a muddle of buildings in Boston’s Copley Square to its new waterfront location in Cambridge 100 years ago, it was an “impressive goodbye,” according to the Boston Daily...
View ArticleHow MIT gave "Ghostbusters" its "geek cred"
The energetic researchers who grounded the new “Ghostbusters” in hard science — giving it “geek cred” — are using a flurry of media attention to alter public perceptions.Janet Conrad and Lindley...
View ArticleBasic training
A sign above the door says it all: MakerLodge. Here MIT students build things: a four-legged robot, a zoetrope, a gumball machine, an alpha particle spark detector. In fact, a group of them helped...
View ArticleAdvancing manufacturing innovation on campus and online
MIT researchers and educators have been living up to the university motto of "mens et manus," mind and hand, with a rapidly expanding effort on advanced manufacturing innovation. Several of MIT’s...
View ArticleHarder, better, faster, stronger
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...
View ArticleA community of making
Making an academic makerspace isn’t easy. There’s no easy formula for setting up and operating safe, effective, readily available university environments where students can come together, make plans,...
View Article3Q: Charles Sodini on MIT’s Hong Kong Innovation Node
Last November, MIT announced the launch of its Hong Kong Innovation Node, a collaborative space that aims to connect the MIT community with resources — including advanced manufacturing capabilities —...
View ArticleAt home in Hong Kong
It’s nearly 8,000 miles from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Hong Kong, but the ties between MIT and this vibrant city are strong.“The alumni scene in Hong Kong is thriving,” says Julian Lee ’97, former...
View ArticleAdding hands-on practice to science and engineering classes
On a cold, drizzly December afternoon, a few dozen freshmen assembled in a large classroom in Building 34 to demonstrate their final projects for the semester. There was a levitating droplet fountain,...
View ArticleMIT Libraries and MIT MakerWorkshop launch Equipment to Go
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...
View ArticleFeatured video: Celebrating the Edgerton Center, an original MIT makerspace
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...
View ArticleMaking 3-D printing as simple as printing on paper
If you haven’t used a 3-D printer yet, you may be surprised to learn that it isn’t fully automated the way your office’s inkjet is.With paper printers, users queue documents from a computer, and each...
View ArticleFeatured video: Making medallions
Each year, the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) presents its new graduates — roughly 100 undergraduate and graduate students — with a bronze medallion of the MIT seal. These...
View ArticleTaking The Engine for a test drive
Innovators, investors, and entrepreneurs worldwide are waiting on news of the first companies chosen to be part of The Engine. Founded by MIT, The Engine is a combination of long-term investment,...
View ArticleMIT Hong Kong Innovation Node finds permanent home
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...
View ArticleJerry Akinsulire: The making of a maker mentor
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...
View ArticleHow to turn clinicians into makers
In hospitals in North and South America, nurses are hacking medical equipment to improve patient care. Using off-the-shelf materials, they’ve created prescription bottles for the visually impaired,...
View ArticleMIT Teaching Systems Lab to address assessments in maker education
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...
View ArticleStartup aims to democratize synthetic biology
MIT Media Lab spinout Amino Labs aims to bring synthetic biology to the world, with an all-in-one mini-lab kit that can be used in labs and classrooms, and even right at home.Synthetic biology —...
View ArticleMaker Break: A celebration of making at MIT
The sharp sound of steel welding, the chilling taste of liquid nitrogen ice cream, and the colorful sight of paper airplanes flying through the air, are just some of the senses that were brought to...
View ArticleMet Warehouse renovation planning takes an exciting next step
MIT’s campus is like a living organism, as changing programmatic needs and new opportunities make for a vibrantly evolving landscape.One exciting new feature of this condition is the adaptive reuse of...
View ArticleWelcome to The Deep
Hidden away in the basement of Building 37, two small rooms are filled with band saws, hacksaws, 3-D printers, laser cutting printers, and a variety of other tools large and small. A painted mural of a...
View ArticleFor the women of McCormick, a new space in which to create
Outdated wall art has been replaced with a whiteboard for ideas, couches with an ergonomic work bench, and an old coffee table has made way for a 3-D printer. This is the new craft studio at McCormick...
View ArticleScientists look to synthetic biology and 3-D printing for life support in space
As NASA gears up to send humans back to the moon or even to Mars, they'll need to figure out how to keep these humans healthy and safe, far away from the resource-abundant Earth.It won't be feasible to...
View ArticleEdgerton Center celebrates reopening of its student shop in Building 6C
It was once an echo-filled empty space with 28-foot high ceilings located just off the Infinite Corridor. Now, less than a year later, 6C-006A is the new home of the Edgerton Student Shop. Its former...
View Article3 Questions: The risks of using 3D printing to make personal protective...
As the number of hospitalizations due to Covid-19 continues to rise across the U.S., addressing the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers has become increasingly...
View ArticleScene at MIT: Donations of personal protective equipment ready for local...
While much of the MIT campus is quiet, Mail Services has seen a steady stream of activity this week as it acts as the staging and sorting area for thousands of donated Personal Protective Equipment...
View ArticleMIT initiates mass manufacture of disposable face shields for Covid-19 response
Update: Verified health care providers, EMS, urgent care clinics, or other entities that require face shields for Covid-19-related use can fill out this request form. The manufacturer will then call to...
View ArticleBuilding a framework for remote making
Making is central to MIT’s identity. It is the embodiment of MIT’s motto, "mens et manus" — "mind and hand." For many students, making is more than designing, engineering, arts, and crafts; it is an...
View ArticleFrom “cheetah-noids” to humanoids
In November 2018, MIT Professor Sangbae Kim brought his mini cheetah robot onto “The Tonight Show’s” Tonight Show-botics segment. Much to the delight of host Jimmy Fallon, the mini cheetah did some...
View ArticleInside two MIT students’ historic BattleBots runs
First, there was music. Then lights began sweeping the smokey arena. The cage came alive with rotating steel blades and fire pits. The crowd grew hysterical in anticipation of the coming...
View Article3D-printed revolving devices can sense how they are moving
Integrating sensors into rotational mechanisms could make it possible for engineers to build smart hinges that know when a door has been opened, or gears inside a motor that tell a mechanic how fast...
View Article“In everything I do, I’m a creator”
Hannah Gazdus has always been crafty. She started off simple, making things with cardboard and clay. As a kid growing up in the Red Bank area of New Jersey, she would sell bracelets on the beach to...
View ArticleHow MIT’s fab labs scaled around the world
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...
View Article“We don’t give assignments here”
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...
View ArticleAI-driven tool makes it easy to personalize 3D-printable models
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,...
View ArticleMakerLodge: A launchpad for hands-on learning
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...
View ArticleBreakerspace illuminates the mysteries of materials
Days before the opening of the Breakerspace, a new laboratory and lounge at MIT, actor and rapper Jaden Smith tried out the facility’s capabilities, putting his bracelet under a digital optical...
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