April 2022
Guest Editor Letter
The Changing Face of Makerspaces
By: Badri Roysam, University of Houston
Dear ECEDHA Members, Industry Partners, and Colleagues,
The Makerspace movement continues to thrive and grow in ECE departments throughout North America.
Makerspaces appear to be transitioning from a “fun, games, culture, and hobbies” facility, typically supporting our IEEE/HKN Student chapters, into a serious pedagogic resource for ECE departments. They are transitioning from purely mechanical fabrication facilities into spaces that have a growing electronics content. Increasingly, they are connected with other regional “sister maker spaces,” and thereby able to offer a richer palette of capabilities to students. Naturally, they are also growing into hubs for entrepreneurial activities on many campuses. It is also abundantly clear that ECE makerspaces are attracting men and women students alike. The most interesting Maker projects require electronic sensing and/or control, so they play naturally into the ECE domain.
This issue is dedicated to makerspaces:
- Shawn Jordan (Arizona State University) and his colleagues organized a superb session on the makerspace movement in the context of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It was attended by more than 50 department chairs, associate chairs, faculty members, instructors, and lab staff from diverse universities and community colleges, and representatives from nonprofit organizations and industry. His report from the conference session is featured below.
- Ilya Mikhelson at Northwestern University describes their Makerspace initiatives.
- Matthew Tierney at the University of Toronto describes how their hardware design course taps into the maker culture.
Does your department have a makerspace, and do you have some lessons to share? Please contact us. Let us have some fun building the future, starting with better makerspaces for our students.
After all, the Future is What We Do!
Badri Roysam, D.Sc., Fellow IEEE, Fellow AIMBE
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor
Chair, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
University of Houston
Houston, Texas 77204-4005
Phone: 713-743-1773
Email: broysam@uh.edu