From the furniture in a campus café and a replica of a Baroque marble statue, the University of Maryland community can go forth to every corner of campus to take its futuristic ideas and make them into a finely wrought plastic, wood or metal reality.
Seventeen “makerspaces” across UMD feature cutting-edge design software and technology like 3D printers and laser cutters to quickly and efficiently build new objects—facilities that Make: magazine recently highlighted in naming the university one of the nation’s “best maker schools.”
While makerspaces are a necessary resource for students completing assignments and building resumes in some STEM disciplines, every Terp can benefit from taking a “thing you’ve dreamed up on the computer to something that’s in the real world,” said Jim Zahniser, assistant dean for strategic operations and information…
