Libraries, Engineering Collaborate on New Makerspace
The department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the MD Anderson Library at the University of Houston are partnering to develop an exciting new makerspace. The goals of this collaboration are to advance student success, foster entrepreneurial spirit, and rekindle the culture of learning through tinkering and invention.
Microcontroller board
The makerspace, to be centrally located on the first floor of the MD Anderson Library within the Learning Commons, will offer a highly accessible and specially equipped area for building objects and devices combined with a social culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration. All students on the UH campus, regardless of their college or department, are encouraged to explore the space and all that it offers.
Oscilloscope
Low-power electronics, embedded computing, signal processing, sensors and low-power actuators, and the emerging field called the Internet of Things will be the focus of the MD Anderson Library makerspace. While electronic devices and computers pervade our world, the science and engineering behind them tend to hide in plain sight of their users; particularly K-12 students, their parents, and national policy makers. Electronics and computers have been miniaturized down to the nanoscale, commoditized, deeply embedded, and hidden within a wide range of consumer products. Smartphones pack an unprecedented suite of sensing, imaging, computing, and communication capabilities that were unthinkable not long ago. Yet, the younger generation is at risk of growing up oblivious to the sciences of the digital world even as they remain the most ardent users. Electronics and computing form the valuable science behind our modern world and must be made visible to the next generation of inventors.
Kits consisting of electronic and small mechanical parts, cables, books, and electronic learning materials to help students build meaningful projects will be available through the makerspace. Students will be able to experiment with these kits in the library makerspace or check them out for use elsewhere. The library will also provide a set of basic electronics test and measurement tools, for example, oscilloscopes, digital multi-testers, function generators, logic analyzers, and controlled power supplies, along with instruction manuals.
The new makerspace will open in the MD Anderson Library Learning Commons in the Fall 2016 semester.