Skidmore Scope Magazine Annual Edition for 2017

17 SKIDMORE COLLEGE the whole campus.” As Linz explains, Skidmore has a strong tradition of makerspaces, such as a digital music studio, scenery and costume shops, physics machine shop, and of course several studios in Saisselin Art Center, and now the mini- course aims to add an integrated facility to help all majors collaborate together. She says “Inventors might want to build a prototype, artists might want to incorporate IT in their works, or scientists might seek guidance on the use of art materials. The Idea Lab will help fill these needs, and the space created in this course may continue as a comple- ment to it.” For the time being, the makerspace makers hope to open “the Hub,” housed in a large office-trailer near the Wilm- arth residence hall, to all comers this year. After readings, field trips, team research, and campus surveys (Frederick: “It was exciting to see the outpouring of interest from the college community”) throughout the spring semester (Cohen: “The students invested more work than is typical for a one-credit course”), the class identified art, textiles, electronics, and woodworking as key focuses (Linz: “The students were so dedicated, submitting full-blown propos- als with cost studies and budgets!”). Haselmann, having worked at the Center for Social Innovation and Harvard’s i-Lab in Boston and at the Impact Hub in Vienna, Austria, was pleased with the Skidmore Hub’s comprehensive vision for idea generation and skill-sharing in addition to materials and making. With their mission blueprinted, the class set about procuring 3-D printers, sewing machines and conductive thread, computer workstations, art and hardware supplies, lasers for etching and cutting, and hand tools from pliers and wrenches to hammers and screwdrivers to saws and snips. To stretch the budget, the theater and art depart- ments provided scrap lumber and more, Linz and Fred- erick brought in their spare laboratory gear, and several alumni entrepreneurs made gifts to buy other equipment. At its public unveiling in May, the Hub showed off its electronics room, textiles room, and other spaces ap- proaching completion, a sink, a central lounge space, wall art from a collaborative Earth Day project, and whiteboards galore. Ryan Morrison ’17 was building a small drone; other students were leading visitors on tours of the facility. Beatriz Chavez ’18, who had registered for the minicourse “on a whim, because I needed a fun elective to balance my schedule,” ended up working at the Hub for the summer. Along with finishing up the organization and outfitting, she says, “I also gave a few tours to alumni and to the precol- lege students.” She and others each “adopted” a particular machine or resource, learning to use it and writing a basic how-to manual to keep nearby. The co-teaching professors hope the Hub can evolve into a club, run by students as a campus organization. Whether it’s a provisional space until the CIS’s Idea Lab is built or it remains a partner space under student manage- ment, whether it’s funded by membership dues or usage fees or other revenues, the experience of creating it was “in- credibly gratifying,” Frederick reports. In the landscape of college makerspaces, she says, “Skidmore took the creativ- ity up a notch by having students make the makerspace.” ALUMNI IDEAS ON THE IDEA LAB As a student, Owen Osborn ’98 used the physics shop to build an innovative banjo, and now he partners with Chris Kucinski ’98 in their very innovative music firm. Ku- cinski says, “It makes sense that Skidmore is encourag- ing cross-pollination of ideas and practices among fields like computer science, the arts, and business. Our work designing, building, and selling musical instruments, as Critter & Guitari, puts us at the intersection of these disciplines. I hope the Idea Lab will prepare students to step out on their own entrepreneurial paths.” In Philadelphia, Nicole Haddad ’03 and her brother moved their clothing line Lobo Mau into a budding makerspace in an empty high school, and as more businesses moved into the old classrooms, she says, “we started to understand the immense possibilities for collaboration that were at our fingertips. Need a 3-D printer, furniture builder, jewelry designer, physicist? Everything is available.” For her, “This is how you grow knowledge and community.” Predicting that this approach will shape the future of commerce, she’s excited about Skidmore’s “preparing students for a world that is constantly expanding and contracting. The Idea Lab will allow students to begin thinking big while allowing them to go deep within themselves to hone their interests on a personal level.” ATTENTION, SCIENCE ALUMS Skidmore is pleased to an- nounce the Fred L. Emerson Founda- tion Challenge, an opportunity to raise $1 million for the new Center for Integrated Sci- ences. From now through November only, thanks to the Emerson Founda- tion, all gifts and pledges by nursing and science alumni will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $500,000. The CIS will greatly strengthen the college’s long tradition of creativ- ity in the physical and life sciences, expand science literacy across campus, and pre- pare new innova- tion leaders. Only those alum- ni who majored in nursing, biology, chemistry, computer science or math- ematics, neurosci- ence, psychology, exercise science, environmental stud- ies and sciences, geosciences, or physics are eligible for the challenge, which ends Novem- ber 30, 2017. To double your gift’s impact and help make the CIS a reality, visit skidmore.edu/ emersonchallenge, email kverstan@ skidmore.edu, or call 518-580-5660. Elevator duo: Eric Jenks ’08; Haddad: Matt Romano Top: Chris Kucinski and Owen Osborn prep their elevator-music show at Skidmore’s Tang Museum last year. Bottom: Nicole Had- dad works on her apparel line at a Philadelphia makerspace.