Across the street from a liquor store and a few doors down from a tire shop, Ventura’s only makerspace was a hive of activity last week.
The Ventura Avenue workshop, which features 3D printers, a metal-slicing waterjet, two different kinds of computer-controlled laser, a T-shirt printing station and a small woodshop, has just one full-time staff member. Just about everything else, from machine maintenance to class instruction, is run by student volunteers.
On Oct. 17, high schoolers calibrating a home-built computer-guided wood router bumped elbows with members of a student entrepreneurship program. Sixth graders from nearby De Anza Academy of Technology and the Arts shuffled into the shop for a 3D printing class after school ended.
The Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship and Art or IDEA Center, a long-planned project of Ventura nonprofit STEMbassadors, aims to give Ventura…
