- [Wherlyn] A group of inventors, designers, and tinkerers is growing
across America, encouraging active learning, and reimagining the objects and
system that surround us.
- [Dean Delgado] This is the beginning of a makers movement.
- These makers have been gaining visibility and recognition. As a group,
they embody something more than just the art of making.
- [Professor Silva-O'Neal] It's important for us to teach our students these tools
because they're going to need it for their future, and a makers lab is
a necessary tool nowadays.
- As part of its commitment to innovation and technology, Miami Dade College
launched the Makers Lab at the Wolfson Campus, a hub for creative collaboration,
innovation, and problem-solving. The new space is equipped to help students
and faculty make just about anything.
- [Ralph] It can be utilized as a studio, as a lab, as a shop.
- [Alban] The Makers Lab offers not only the resources but also the tools that are
needed to accomplish such a project. Basically, anything that we design or
think of, we can create it in this space.
- Those tools include a number of industry-standard equipment,
everything from laser cutters, 3D printers, metalworking, and more.
There's also on-site assistance from MDC staff and student specialists.
So you don't have to be an engineer to take advantage of this place.
- The Makers Lab is an open space for our students to come and be creative.
So students from any field, any background can come here and then use this space
to collaborate.
- [Gabriel] You know, we have engineers here.
We have people in biology, like me. You have artists. You have all sorts
of people, and it's definitely a way to find connections and to find people
to help you with basically anything you need.
- Students and faculty can take advantage of the space to create something new or
to enhance existing projects or research. For Gabriel Cortez, that meant finding a
unique way to analyze his STEM summer research.
- I've been working with Dr. Candelaria in the microbiology lab here
in Wolfson Campus, and we have been developing 3D structural predictions
for proteins. I found out first about the Makers Lab through my friends.
I have a lot of friends that come here, and they were like, "Why not
printing them?" And I thought, "Wow, that's actually a good idea." That way,
we would be able to better analyze those structures and even better understand the
function of that protein and of the whole bacteria as well.
- [Dr. Heastie] They can look in the textbook and they can see the drawing,
but to actually have them create that is a different level of learning.
That's the kind of integrated learning that we would like for students to have.
- But the real value of the lab, according to the lab manager,
Ralph Provisero, is the collaborative nature of this space.
- You know, what I really want to see happen here is students from all of the
disciplines come together.
- [Mayra] The project I'm working on is the Vertical Gardens Project.
What we're hoping to do is install various vertical gardens around campus.
- A vertical garden is integrating biology, architecture, culinary.
- [Sebastian] In this project, it's really good, actually,
that we have so many different disciplines, because it stops us
from just looking at problems in one way, in one solution.
- It also gives you different, I guess, skill sets that I probably wouldn't have.
- Faculty are also welcome to utilize this space and can reach out to the lab if
there's a specific program they want to see included. Workshops, training,
and more are also available to allow faculty to explore ways of incorporating
the lab into the coursework.
- Getting the training through the lab has been very, very helpful in helping me
to see how I can actually accomplish in the classroom the kinds of things that I
would like for the students to experience, so as they move on from here and move
into the upper echelons of their learning, it becomes
much more real and fascinating for them.
- As students and faculty continue working in the space, the hope is to see their
work on display at next year's Maker Faire Miami, returning to
Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus, in April 2018.
- It's kind of just really fun. Like, it almost doesn't feel like we're doing
things that are going to be applicable to the real world, which makes it even more
crazy that they are.
To any students that would be interested,
this is just such an amazing opportunity, and there's so many resources being
offered to us. I would say just come any day you want, see who's around,
and see what you might be able to start working on.
- No idea is too small. Whatever it is that they're thinking,
it's definitely possible to make it a reality.
- We don't want to put ideas in a box.
We don't want to tell them what to do or how to do it.
We want them to be creative, and we want them to be...like, the sky's
the limit, that they can do whatever they want, and that's how we will see new
projects coming and excellent makers at the end, as an outcome from this space.
- Whether you have an idea for the next big thing or want to join some of the
innovative projects already taking shape, you should stop by the Makers Lab and see
what's available. The outcome, we're sure, will be an exciting one.
For MDC in Focus, I'm Wherlyn Best.