Open to anyone in any area of study at WPI, the McDonough Makerspace and adjacent Fitzgerald Prototype Lab are available to the entire campus community. They are places to germinate ideas, test limits, refine details, and have fun.
Opened in 2018 in a glassy, industrial-feeling space on the ground floor of the Innovation Studio, the Makerspace filled in quickly with students on a recent afternoon.
Unloading freshly laser-cut pieces of wood from the nearby prototype lab onto a table, first-year student Adrian Ortiz Villagomez spread out his project and got ready for that night’s task: to create a “contraption” that makes it easier to feed a spool of vinyl for cutting. He said he hoped to complete the final piece of his puzzle that evening.
A few tables away, student workshop instructors photographed various items in a light box; they plan to compile an online library full…
