Spring 2016 / How we learn

Made Here

Inside the Hobby Shop

MIT’s campus contains more than 130,000 square feet of maker spaces, from student-run shops that promote creative tinkering to high-tech prototyping spaces, and everything in between.

And as the Institute reimagines its campus for 21st-century education, innovation, and research, the range of available maker spaces will increase and weave more tightly than ever into life at MIT.
 
Mobius, a new app released in March, will help members of the MIT community navigate this profusion of resources and quickly gain the access and training they need. Project Manus, led by MIT Maker Czar Martin Culpepper SM ’97, PhD ’00, developed Mobius in partnership with students, shop managers, alumni, and MIT’s Information Systems and Technology office. The first of its kind, the app was realized through the support of the Lord Foundation of Massachusetts and MIT alumni Colin Angle ’89, SM ’91 and Erika Angle ’04. The goal: make it easier for MIT students to make what is on their minds—whether they’re unwinding with a hobby, completing a class project, or pursuing entrepreneurial inspiration.
 
This semester, Spectrum visited the Hobby Shop, one of MIT’s longtime maker spaces open to the entire community, for a glimpse of what students there are building and what tools they’ve learned to use, or would like to.
 

1. Hilary Zelson

Visiting student: MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
Working on: rooster sculpture for local preschool
Recently learned: CNC router

2. Julian Delerme ’18

Undergraduate: Course 6 (computer science)
Working on: coffee table and shelves for dorm room
Wants to learn: 3-D printing

3. Amy (Xiaoyu) Zhao SM ’15

Graduate student: Course 6 (computer science)
Working on: personal art project
Wants to learn: laser cutter, CNC lathe

4. Akwasi Owusu-Akyaw ’17

Undergraduate: Course 2 (mechanical engineering)
Working on: motorized skateboard
Wants to learn: TIG welding