University-Based Makerspaces: a Source of Innovation

Technology and Innovation, Vol. 19, pp. 389-395, 2017 ISSN 1949-8241 • E-ISSN 1949-825X Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.21300/19.1.2017.389 Copyright © 2017 National Academy of Inventors. www.technologyandinnovation.org

UNIVERSITY-BASED MAKERSPACES: A SOURCE OF INNOVATION

Shane Farritor

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA

Makerspaces are becoming more common on university campuses, but there is great variation in what constitutes a makerspace. On some campuses, many departmental classroom laboratories are being renamed or repurposed as makerspaces. Alternatively, other colleges are creating college-wide makerspaces for their students, and a few universities are even creating makerspaces for their entire campuses or their entire communities. This paper presents the idea that university makerspaces can be a great source of innovation if they are properly conceived. Makerspaces that seek to create innovation should have certain characteristics. However, many of these characteristics do not come naturally to university-based makerspaces. Instead, a deliberate effort must be made to help promote innovation from a makerspace. In fact, many makerspace models inadvertently and explicitly exclude characteristics that are important to innovation. For example, a makerspace that is created by an engineering college might be more innovative if it allowed the use of the space by students outside of engineering (e.g., art, history, business). Making this happen might require a different funding structure or a different physical location for the makerspace. Of course, no direct recipe or checklist exists that will ensure innovation. However, this paper lists characteristics that should be considered when designing or operating a makerspace. It is suggested that these characteristics will lead to increased makerspace innovation. The goal of this paper is to make makerspace administrators and participants aware of characteristics of the space that may lead to increased innovation.

Key words: Makerspace; Making; Innovation; Hardware; Entrepreneurship

BACKGROUND often focus on encouraging creativity, interdis- Makerspaces are a growing trend across the world ciplinary collaboration, entrepreneurship, and/or and are increasingly appearing on university cam- experiential education. There are many types of uni- puses (1-5). The White House under President Obama versity makerspaces (3), ranging from teaching labs established an initiative to encourage more making renamed as makerspaces to large multidisciplinary opportunities for university students (6). A maker- makerspaces, with Case Western’s Sears think[box] space (sometimes referred to as a fab lab, hobby shop, being an excellent example of the latter (7). This paper or hackerspace) is a physical space where individuals will focus on issues to be considered if the goal of the can build and create. University-based makerspaces university makerspace is to promote innovation. ______

Accepted April 15, 2017. Address correspondence to Shane Farritor, David & Nancy Lederer Professor, W358 Nebraska Hall, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0656, USA. Tel: +1 (402) 472-5805; Fax +1 (402) 472-1465. Email: [email protected]

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A good makerspace has both a physical space and students participate in makerspaces to gain access a community. The physical space contains specialized to specialized equipment, collaborate with students tools and equipment (e.g., 3D printers, laser cutters, with similar creative interests, and take non-degree computer controlled embroidery machines, machin- classes. ing centers) that allow students to create projects that This paper presents the idea that certain character- they are passionate about. There are many models for istics of a makerspace can promote innovation. The governing access to the physical space, most of which following sections describe those characteristics. The are based on a membership. Typically, membership premise is twofold: Makerspaces can be strong sources requires some safety training and a contribution to of innovation, and makerspaces that have more of the space (e.g., membership fee, time commitment). the characteristics outlined below will generate more Some makerspaces have formal training and a formal innovative ideas and products. staff to operate and maintain the space, while other makerspaces are completely self-organized and are IMPORTANT ELEMENTS FOR INNOVATIVE operated by members. More information is available MAKERSPACES on the functioning of makerspaces, including for- Two important basic elements that lead to more profit makerspaces (1), makerspaces in libraries (8), innovation in a makerspace are intrinsic motivation and university makerspaces (5,9). These interactive and unstructured activity, and these elements are makerspaces can also foster a community by creating distinct from much of the university experience for other modes of interaction, such as classes or activi- students. ties. Being part of such a community can expand and improve the student’s education through outside-of- Intrinsic Motivation the-classroom experiential learning. This article distinguishes makerspaces from Intrinsic motivation, as opposed to extrinsic moti- traditional classroom laboratories in that students vation, refers to behavior that is driven by internal participate in makerspaces of their own accord and rewards rather than rewards coming from another are self-directed. Traditional classes often require source. In some ways, simply attending college students to attend lab sessions to perform predeter- requires intrinsic motivation, as the student does mined work, and the students are assigned grades not need to attend college. However, in reality, the based on the outcomes of this activity. This type of day to day activities and the specific actions taken by activity is not here considered makerspace activity. students are largely driven by external requirements Here, activity in makerspaces is generally outside the and therefore are extrinsically motivated. Homework traditional academic setting. In makerspaces, students assignments, class times and attendance, and exams are self-motivated rather than motivated by grades are requirements that aren’t generated by the student. or degree requirements. Furthermore, most degree programs have a very spe- Campus recreational facilities are a better analogy cific list of required courses. These required courses for describing a makerspace than traditional class- may have some flexibility, such as an engineering room laboratories. Campus recreation is to fitness program requiring two to three humanities electives. what a makerspace can be to creativity. Students However, even these flexible electives often require can participate in a campus recreational facility and students to choose from another list of approved gain access to specialized equipment (e.g., weight courses to fulfill the requirement. The result is that room, gym, pool), collaborate with students with most of a student’s academic energy is focused on similar interests (e.g., pick-up basketball), and take satisfying the externally imposed requirements to non-degree classes (e.g., spinning classes, rock climb- obtain a degree. ing classes). All of these activities are focused on However, it has been shown that intrinsic motiva- enhancing students’ fitness. Students are not required tion is important for increased innovative thinking to participate; they only come to campus recreational (10,11). When someone originates a project and/or centers to pursue their passions and do things they is self-motivated to solve a problem, more innovative love. They go to improve themselves. In the same way, results are possible. Passion and excitement for the UNIVERSITY-BASED MAKERSPACES 391 problem will lead to different thinking. Pink points solution to a problem cannot be an innovative to several open source examples, such as Wikipedia, solution to that problem. Working on unstructured where every contribution is provided by users who are problems allows the student to challenge assumptions, almost exclusively not paid for the work and where restructure the problem, and find new paths to a intrinsic motivation has led to better and more inno- solution. This also ties to the unstructured time set vative results than a traditional approach (10). Users aside for 3M and Google employees. post on Wikipedia because they are passionate about Because unscripted thinking is central to innova- the subject they are describing. Pink also points to tive thought, university makerspaces should have a 3M’s “15% time” and then later Google’s use of “20% significant amount of time for students to work on time.” These companies allow their employees to work unstructured activity. They should not, for example, on their own projects about one day per week (i.e., focus on structured classroom laboratory activities 20% of their time). These employees pursue new proj- but should instead allow users to explore and tinker ects that they are individually passionate about, and without a defined outcome. this has been the source of several important products for these companies. Pink outlines how intrinsic ENCOURAGING INNOVATION IN A motivation is especially important for creative tasks. MAKERSPACE The research on self-motivation suggests that uni- Substantial evidence suggests that the culture versity makerspaces that are interested in producing of an environment has a significant impact on the new innovations should focus on member-generated amount of innovation that is produced (12,13). activities. They should not, for example, focus on The history of innovation shows that certain loca- supporting existing classroom activities where the tions and times—such as Florence, Italy, during the outcomes are externally assigned grades. Renaissance, ancient Greece, Scotland in the late 17th th Unstructured Activity and early 18 centuries, and Silicon Valley from the 1970s to present day—produce a significant amount A second intangible element of university mak- of innovative ideas when compared to similar popu- erspaces that are trying to produce innovation is lations and similar environments (13). The question unstructured activity (11). Again, most student then becomes why these locations at these times are activities are highly structured. Classes have lectures so much more innovative than other locations that and laboratories where all activities are scripted. The would seemingly have similar characteristics. student is given assignments to perform and then The premise of this paper is that these innova- are told in lecture the way in which the problems are tion-promoting characteristics can be identified to be solved. As an example, consider most home- and implemented (although imperfectly) so as to work assignments in engineering education. These increase the output of innovative ideas. This paper assignments are very structured. The student is told to do a few specific, well-defined problems, usually proposes five characteristics that are important for culled from a textbook, in a specified amount of time. university makerspaces to establish and develop a The problems are sorted by chapter so the student creative and innovative culture. Certainly, not all of knows which techniques to apply. Each problem will these characteristics are required, and having these generally have exactly one correct answer (e.g., P = characteristics does not lead directly to innovation. 34.1 psi). Tests, lectures, and lab assignments are Instead, it is suggested here that having more of these similarly structured. Some classes may have design characteristics tends to bring about a more creative assignments with more flexibility, but they are gen- environment. erally more defined (general subject area, time to completion, scope of the problem) than the challenges Diversity of Ideas of innovation. Encouraging a diversity of ideas is important to Innovation, by definition, is not structured. Inno- creating a makerspace that encourages innovation. vation requires new approaches to problems that are A diversity of ideas is the necessary first step in different than previous approaches. Any pre-scripted producing innovation. Many psychologists suggest 392 FARRITOR that creativity is about making new combinations of open to people outside the university. Such a policy existing ideas (11,13,14). This would suggest it is can allow new ideas and new perspectives to come important to have a large variety of ideas to increase in through the community. A variety of perspectives the number of possible combinations. It is also can also be cultivated by including older members, important to have ideas from outside the discipline younger members, or members from industry. of the problem. For example, techniques and ideas from textiles and fashion design might provide Density of Ideas new approaches to problems in the medical device The second characteristic important to an inno- industry. This is the antithesis to “groupthink,” where vative makerspace is to have a density of ideas. This everyone begins to see a problem from only one per- density has been cited as one reason why cities exist spective, often leading to a stagnation of innovation. (15). Having many people living in close proxim- This need for diversity has also been compared to ity allows for tight collaboration and for ideas to be innovation in the biological evolutionary process shared and spread. It allows for ideas to build upon (12), where genetic diversity is needed to produce other ideas and for ideas to advance. adaptations that solve new problems facing species The consequence for makerspaces is that they as ecosystems change. need to bring diverse ideas together into one loca- The first consequence of this for makerspaces is tion. Again, it is tempting to link several existing that several different disciplines should be involved in labs together under a common makerspace name. the makerspace. This is not how universities generally This is not ideal if innovation is a goal. The preferred function, as most disciplines are divided by depart- approach is to get the diverse groups together where ments and colleges and often further segregated by they must interact, thus making it more likely for buildings and geography. These existing divisions can ideas to come together to form new solutions. It is lead to difficulties in establishing diverse makerspaces. an open question as to whether this density can be For example, many of these isolated departments and emulated through virtual connections. colleges might simply rename existing laboratories as makerspaces. Also, the funding or physical space Mixing of Ideas for a makerspace may come from one department or A diversity and a density of ideas is not enough from one college. These constraints provide a strong to create innovation. These ideas must be mixed to incentive to only allow students affiliated with certain create the possibility for new connections (11-13). departments or colleges to use these spaces. The mixing of ideas is not natural since ideas (i.e., This paper suggests that university makerspaces work departments or sections) are generally divided that want to create innovation should try to increase along disciplines. In many ways, a university campus the diversity of ideas in the space. Rather than an is specifically guilty of not mixing ideas. A university engineering shop recast as a makerspace, which will campus usually contains a diverse group of ideas and likely not produce the desired range of ideas, maker- a high density of these ideas; however, they are most spaces can achieve diversity in several different ways. often divided into academic units that study specific, First, the membership of the makerspace should be non-overlapping fields. While engineering, history, diverse. Second, the physical space should be located art, medicine, business, and many other disciplines so as to encourage students from many disciplines are all researched in the small area of only a few city to use the space. Finally, the tools and equipment in blocks, academic programs often do not encourage the space should also encourage a variety of activities, a mixing of ideas among these diverse disciplines. including tools for fabric and art as well as precision The concept that diverse ideas must mix to create machining. An increase in the diversity of ideas will innovation is highlighted by the observation that, tend to produce an increase in the innovative ideas historically, major innovation hubs most often occur produced in a makerspace. at crossroads and trading centers (13). It is suggested Diversity can also come in other forms, as college here that a mixing of diverse ideas is critical to new students can be a homogeneous demographic in many innovations, and this principle should be applied to ways. For example, some university makerspaces are university makerspaces seeking to be innovative. UNIVERSITY-BASED MAKERSPACES 393

Much research points to the role of “third spaces” There are many methods and activities that can be in innovation as a place for mixing ideas (11-13). used to make connections in a makerspace. For exam- A third space is defined as a place where people ple, something as simple as a message board (physical come together that is not work and is not home. The or virtual) can be used to help members connect. traditional example of a third space is a coffee shop— Often a person working in one discipline seeks skills leading to the cliché that new inventions are created from another. The makerspace should simplify and on the back of a napkin. In the case of students, the encourage these connections. For example, a fashion laboratory or lecture hall is the student’s work space, design student who wanted to create a garment that the dorm room might be the student’s home space, could change shape using electronic actuators might and a makerspace or shop can be a student’s third need assistance from an electrical engineer. A message space even if all are on the same university campus. board could help make this connection. Makerspaces have great potential to serve as a stu- Another method to encourage such connections is dent’s third space, a space where ideas can mix. The to have design competitions that focus on interdisci- mixing of ideas is one of the great advantages mak- plinary design problems. This can also be used to get erspaces offer students, who may rarely encounter outside groups involved in the space. For example, a students from other fields in their discipline-specific research university might bring professionals from the work spaces or home spaces. clinical health field to talk about problems in clinical The mixing of ideas can be encouraged in mak- medicine. This could be the source of design prob- erspaces in several ways. First, the architecture of lems that are then tackled by interdisciplinary design the makerspace can be used to promote collabora- groups made up of members of the makerspace. tion. This might be accomplished by constructing a common bench space in the center of the lab to Mechanisms for Ideas to Grow encourage different members of the space to work Start-up businesses (and ideas) can face what is side by side and increase the likelihood that they referred to as the “Valley of Death” between a proof- will discuss their individual projects. The layout of of-concept for a product and profitability (16,17). A the space may also encourage mixing. For example, makerspace with the characteristics outlined above an electronics shop might be located next to an art will likely produce proof-of-concept products that studio, and these spaces may be designed so that have the potential to become innovations. Maker- work in one shop can be observed from the other. spaces that desire innovation should have mechanisms Makerspaces often have dining or social or gaming in place to help ideas to grow and cross the Valley of areas that can be a third space inside the makerspace. Death. (Note, innovation is difficult to define, and a Finally, even minor program details, such as bulletin proof-of-concept product can be viewed as an inno- idea boards, can encourage mixing in a makerspace. vation or as the result of an innovation. Either way, For example, some makerspaces have display spaces it can be an important part of the process.) where members can show the work they have created In a research environment, seed grants are often in the space. These displays encourage mixing when used to help ideas grow and to solidify the connection other members observe the display space and are of diverse ideas (18). Sometimes the desired goal of a exposed to other ideas. seed grant is to get the researchers to publish together to formally solidify the connection to a point where Mechanisms for Ideas to Connect publishable work has been done. The research is then in a place where a proposal for more substantial fund- An environment created to promote the mixing ing is possible. Similarly, seed awards can be used in of dense groups of diverse ideas still requires those makerspaces, allowing members to create a quality ideas to connect (12,13). Sometimes the connections proof-of-concept product that could then be used are obvious and automatic and sometimes subtle. It to pitch to investors and to secure more substantial is proposed that steps can be taken in a university funding. makerspace to encourage new connections of fledgling ideas. 394 FARRITOR

A more in-depth approach would be for a maker- impact the characteristics that support innovation. space to incorporate or partner with a start-up busi- Finally, mechanisms can be put in place to make ness accelerator. Start-up business accelerators can new ideas come together and grow. For example, come in many forms, but they provide education design competitions, hacker weekends, or message and assistance in areas such as market research and boards can be used to make ideas connect, while customer validation. Some business accelerators use a techniques such as seed grants or business accelera- “boot camp” period to move an idea forward quickly. tors can then help these fledgling ideas grow. A partnership between a university makerspace and a business accelerator that focuses on hardware-based ACKNOWLEDGMENTS innovation would be a strong source of innovation for The author declares no conflicts of interest. any community. One strong example of this type of collaboration is think[box] at Case Western Reserve REFERENCES University (9). 1. Hatch M. The maker movement manifesto: rules for innovation in the new world of crafters, SUMMARY: THE PROMISE OF UNIVERSITY- hackers, and tinkerers. 1st ed. New York (NY): BASED MAKERSPACES AS SOURCES FOR McGraw-Hill Education; 2013. INNOVATION 2. Miller PN. Is ‘design thinking’ the new liberal This paper presents characteristics of a makerspace arts? The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2015 that should be considered if a goal of the makerspace Mar 26. is to produce innovation. Innovation is unpredictable, 3. Byrne D, Davidson C. State of making report. and the characteristics described in the previous sec- Pittsburgh (PA): MakeSchools Higher Education tion can build upon one another. These characteristics Alliance; 2015. are in no way required to have a good makerspace, 4. Forest CR, Moore RA, Jariwala AS, Fasse BB, and they will not ensure innovation. However, it is Linsey J, Newstetter W, Ngo P, Quintero C. The proposed here that makerspaces with more of these Invention Studio: a university maker space and characteristics will tend to produce more innovation. culture. Adv Eng Educ. 4(2); 2014. First, it should be recognized that members should 5. Levy B, Morocz R, Nagel R, Newstetter W, Talley be intrinsically motivated to use the space. There K, Forest C, Linsey J. University maker spaces: should also be ample time provided in the space discovery, optimization and measurement of to allow students to build their own projects that impacts. 122nd Annual Conference & Exposi- they are passionate about. This work should also be tion of the American Society for Engineering unstructured—in that there is no formula or recipe Education, Seattle, WA, Jun 14-17, 2015. that must be followed—allowing students to tinker 6. Executive Office of the President. Building a and hack rather than being focused on completing nation of makers: universities and colleges pledge an assignment. to expand opportunities to make. Washington Second, the design of the makerspace should also (DC); 2014. support innovation. The space should contain a diver- 7. Freiman LS. Higher education: Sears Thinkbox, sity of ideas rather than ideas from just one discipline, Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland age group, or demographic. All of these ideas should Business Connects Magazine. Jun 2016. exist in the same location so there is a density of ideas 8. Colegrove T. Editorial board thoughts: libraries as well. Then, this dense and diverse group of ideas as makerspace? ITAL. 32(1):2–5; 2013. should be mixed so that new combinations of ideas 9. think[box]. Cleveland (OH): Case Western can be formed. The makerspace should have a den- Reserve University; [accessed 2016 Nov 15]. sity of diverse ideas that mix and churn. These goals http://thinkbox.case.edu/. can be accomplished with the physical design and/ 10. Pink D. Drive: the surprising truth about what or location of the space. Policies and programmatic motivates us. New York (NY): Riverhead Books; details should be examined with respect to how they 2011. UNIVERSITY-BASED MAKERSPACES 395

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