ABOUT IU MAKES

IU Makes is a network of makerspaces across the Bloomington campus designed to support the creativity and innovation of the IUB community. These spaces provide access to tools and materials that enable students and faculty to bring their ideas to life.

SPACES

The Make, Innovate, Learn Lab (MILL) Makerspace (Room 2260 in the School of Education) is a space for interested educators, curious tinkerers, and inspired inventors who are looking for a place where they can learn skills and access tools and guidance to turn their ideas into reality. Our goal is for the MILL to be a space where IUB students and faculty can pursue teaching, learning and research on making that bridge across multiple disciplines.

Main contact: millsoe@indiana.edu

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The MAD LABS (Makerspace for Art + Design) are the digital fabrication labs for the School of Art, Architecture + Design. The facilities support the curricular needs of all units in the school, but are also available to students, staff, and faculty members from across the university. Services are billed to bursar, research, or departmental accounts, and cost roughly 1/4 of equivalent commercial services.

Main contact: madlabs@indiana.edu

LEARN MORE ABOUT MAD LABS

The Wells Library Makerspace is a creative space to share ideas and equipment. Located in room 106 of the Learning Commons (1st Floor, West Tower), the Makerspace is home to a variety of tools, including a desktop vinyl cutter, 3D printer, littleBits synthesizer kits, sewing machine, and more. All are welcome and no previous experience is needed.

Main contact: libmaker@indiana.edu

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WELLS LIBRARY MAKERSPACE

The 3D Fabrication and Design Inquiry Labs at Luddy empower you to learn, collaborate, and create through hands-on activities.

Main contact: makehelp@iu.edu

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Loaded with a full suite of maker tools (including 3D printers, laser cutters, Cricut machines, sewing machines, CNC routers and electronics, as well as hand tools, crafting and carpentry tools) the Uplands Maker Mobile brings making to schools and organizations through workshops with children or adults, development and training for professionals or teachers, or assisting with events and projects.

Main Contact: anjawood@iu.edu

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MAKERSPACES IN ACTION

3D Printing PPE Faculty at IU are 3D printing face shields and other protective equipment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the story.
Prosthetic Fabrication at the MAD Labs Senior Lecturer of Design in the School of Art, Architecture + Design, Jon Racek, partnered with a local girl, Violet Hall, who was born missing a portion of one arm to design and fabricate an affordable, customized prosthesis at a fraction of the cost of a commercially available model, customized to Violet's specifications. See Violet Hall and Jon Racek talk about their design process.
Mastodon Mandible from the UITS 3D Printing Lab Polly Sturgeon of the Indiana Geological Survey team was no stranger to UITS' 3D print services when she jokingly mentioned to their team, "maybe we can print a massive mandible." After explaining the expertise available from the UITS 3D Print staff and our interest in experimenting with workflows that could become service models, the team agreed to tackle the challenge of recreating the ancient Mastodon mandible. The UITS team tasked themselves with an entire, more traditional, workflow: concept and planning, design, print and print cleanup, and all things related to post-processing.
Designing New Education Landscapes at the MILL Makerspace The IU School of Education's Make Innovate and Learn Lab (the MILL) is a space for students to work with laser cutters, 3D printers, electronic circuits, and common materials like cardboard, rubber bands or Legos with the goal of designing new learning models for K-12 students. See the MILL and its student-teachers in action.
Toyhacking at the MILL Makerspace In an early literacy class, IU School of Education teacher education students used the makerspace to first do some toyhacking (changing the stereotypical messages in a popular toy) and then use the hacked toys as characters in student-made films. In the second phase of the project, the university students took these characters to field experiences where they helped children create films with these or similar toys.  
Robotics at SICE Makerspaces Robotics is a burgeoning part of 21st century life and infrastructure. In Intelligent Systems Engineering at the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering students explore how to program robots to interact with the environment through sensors and then to act upon that sensory information. The robots may leverage a variety of sensors such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, GPS signals, magnetic fields, buttons, distance, or even human brain activity. Using Brain Control Interfaces (BCI) students learn to control a robot on wheels using human brain activity as well as perform analysis of BCI interactions on parallel processing supercomputers.  
Fabrication at SICE Makerspaces One of the mysteries of digital fabrication lies in the machines themselves. From 3D printers and CNC mills to laser cutters they take our designs and print objects in three dimensions, cut forms out of blocks of aluminum, or etch images onto plastic all through a process that can seem somehow magical. Students demystify and come to understand the magic that makes CNC machines work by constructing and programming them. The CNC drawing machines that students build and program are able to transfer digital images, or text onto a drawing surface. Through this project they learn the beginning aspects of how to design in a computer aided design (CAD) program, how to power and program stepper motors, and how to assemble the G-code to operate CNC machines to fabricate artifacts they have designed for production.  
Sentient Architecture at SICE Makerspaces As the built environment becomes increasingly more complex and integrated with new technologies—including the emerging Internet of Things (IoT)—there is an urgent need to understand how embedded technologies affect the experience of individuals that inhabit these spaces. Students constructed “Dendrite” sculptures, which is a piece of living architecture that comprises one light sensor (the eye) and three lights and vibration motor together with hardware and software required to control the sensor and actuators.  
Maker Mondays at Herman B Wells Library At the Herman B Wells Library, students, faculty, and staff across disciplines are invited to engage in hands-on learning through the Maker Mondays workshop series. Workshop topics range from logo design and screenprinting to electronics and e-textiles. These activities encourage making over consuming and invite participants to take an active role as creators and collaborators. In a recent workshop, participants explored analog sound using littleBits synth kits. Register for an upcoming workshop  

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