Of Pear Bowls and Stainless Steel Sinks

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This is Tom, and he recently finished installing our magnificent sink.

Wood Turner Turned Plumber

Tom is a wood turner, and after spending some time in the space and seeing the capabilities of the laser, thought he might like to try to engrave some of his work. He brought in a pear bowl he had recently turned, and Rebekah (student and Innovation Center student employee) and I figured out how to use the auto-focus feature of the laser – we don’t use this much, and perhaps the only other time it’s come into play was when we tattooed a pumpkin back in October – to successfully engrave his signature on the bottom of said bowl.

Signature Bowl

The sink, by the way, has a built in eye wash, something that we we’re happy to have for safety reasons…

Sink and Eyewash in all their Glorw

…and for friendship! 🙂

Tramp and the Tramp

Ion Drive!

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Behold the Ion Drive!

Ion Drive MK 04

Students Andrew Canafe, Tristan Chutka, and David Taylor created the project for their Physics 421 course, and used the Innovation Center’s laser cutter to produce the final parts. Here’s a video of its majesty. Note the safety key and prominent warning sticker. Try this at home, kids, but do it safely!

T-Shirt Pressin’

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Inspired by a DIY conference t-shirt making activity at the reMAKE Education conference a few years back, we recently ordered a t-shirt press and heat transfer vinyl, and they arrived this week.

T-Shirt Press

Innovation Center staff quickly worked out a production process, cutting some designs on the vinyl cutter and improving my shop apron by adding a Chibi and Chu Totoro!

Totoro Apron

And The Kitchen Sink

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Behold this beautiful sink!

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a great deal of work, and the heroic efforts of a lot of people, the Innovation Center is finally getting a sink. The custom sink above – custom because of some unique functional requirements, including a deep basin sink, ADA sink, and stainless steel work surface, and all in very specific footprint – is being installed this week. There is currently no water inside the Innovation Center, but it so happens that a drain line (buried beneath a not insignificant amount of concrete) and water line are just outside (in the backyard), so LRCCD Facilities Management folks began working yesterday to get all that sorted.

Sink Preparation

We find ourselves wishing for water surprisingly often when working on various projects, including aquaponics and cyanotypes, and ready access to a sink will enable us to expand the range of processes and projects we’re able to explore, including biohacking!

Laser Kumiko

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I’ve been working off and on for months on a furniture project, a set of cabinet door panels inspired by the Japanese woodworking art of kumiko. Today I was finally able to laser cut a full-scale prototype of the project.

Kumiko Laser Panel

Here’s a look at the Illustrator file, a painstakingly assembled collection of hexagons, based on three archetypes:

Kumiko Screenshot

Here’s what was left in the laser:

Kumiko Negative

I couldn’t be happier with the result, and it’s particularly thrilling to hold in my hand something that has lived for so long inside my head and on a computer screen.

Update – Amazing when backlit!

University Innovation Fellows Meetup 2017

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Rebekah and Nathaniel (students, Innovation Center employees, the finest people you’d ever want to meet) completed the University Innovation Fellows program:

The University Innovation Fellows is a program of Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). The program was created as part of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter), a five-year National Science Foundation grant.

The three of us recently attended the multi-day UIF Meetup culminating event. On day one, at the hotel in Sunnyvale, we boarded buses and headed to Google for a day of tours, guest speakers, and design thinking challenges. Highlights included a tour of the The Garage, Google’s in-house makerspace, and a thought-provoking talk from none other than Ray Kurzweil.

Day 1 photo gallery:

University Innovation Fellows Meetup 2017 Day 1

Days two and three were held at the d.school at Stanford. Of particular interest to our work in the Innovation Center were discussions by d.school students and faculty about the way that the physical space communicates expectations, and in particular the design considerations employed to make the d.school a flexible environment for all kinds of activity, from meetings to design thinking to prototyping. I took a lot of pictures of signage and furniture!

Day 2 photo gallery:

University Innovation Fellows Meetup 2017 Day 2

Day three began with taiko drumming, and a brilliant presentation by Ge Wang, electronic musician, inventor, and creator of the ChucK programming language.  The rest of the day was spent working through a design challenge, with technology and music industry experts, including August de los Reyes (designer of the X-Box and lead designer at Pinterest), and representatives from the Common Ground Foundation and Pandora circulating and interacting with students.

Day 3 photo gallery:

University Innovation Fellows Meetup 2017 Day 3

An intense experience to be sure, and Rebekah and Nathaniel and I left with a deeper understanding of Design Thinking, and of the many ways that the physical environment can be used to facilitate communication and problem solving, lessons that we’ll employ as we continue to build out Innovation Center offerings.

Girl Scouts STEM Center + MakerSpace

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The Girl Scouts Heart of Central California recently held a grand opening for their STEM center and makerspace in Sacramento.  The space is well thought out, with flexibility in terms of furnishings and space configurations, a display highlighting the work of Dr. Pamela Marrone, and lots of opportunities for prototyping and low- and high-res making.

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Hoping to find ways to collaborate with the Girl Scouts Heart of Central California.  Read more about the STEM Center + MakerSpace: https://www.girlscoutshcc.org/en/our-council/STEMCenter.html

Analog Fabrication

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One of the most important outcomes for our Making Social Change is that students leave the class empowered to use a variety of tools.  While our focus so far has been on digital fabrication tools – for instance, using the laser cutter to create stencils – we also want students to leave the class with proficiency in more traditional ways of making, including electric and hand tools.

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After some background and safety information, including the use of PPE, we took students out in back of the Innovation Center, where they each had the opportunity to work with a miter saw, band saw, drill press, sanding station, driver/drill, radial saw, Dremel, jigsaw, reciprocating saw, and a variety of hand tools.

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Some students were already proficient in using one or more tools, and they provided support and guidance for their less experienced classmates.

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Students left class with basic proficiency in additional ways of making that they can employ in their final group projects, and in their collaborative class project, a prototype of a large scale, interactive public installation that will represent the social movements we’ve learned about.

Extra Credit Chemistry Coins!

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Chemistry Extra Credit Chips

Dominic Green (Chemistry) and I collaborated on these General Chemistry extra credit coins, and used the laser cutter to etch and cut them.   Dominic will distribute them to students who earn extra credit in class, and then collect and tally them at the end of the semester.

Sewing Social Change

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Inspired by our class visit to the Rocklin Mini Maker Faire, where the bulk of our time was spent in the open sewing lab, we spent a recent session of Making Social Change creating applique quilt squares for a collective class quilt.  The Theater Arts Department loaned us seven machines to add to the one we have in the Innovation Center, and were able to borrow a few others from students and faculty so that each student would have one to work with.  Students started by selecting fabric from a beautiful trove of fabric samples (generously provided by our faculty researcher Jill Bradshaw) and used the laser cutter to cut out 12″ background pieces.

Sewing for Social Justice

We set up two ironing stations so that students could apply Mistyfuse backing, after which they cut applique shapes and words using the laser cutter (and sometimes good old fashioned scissors).

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T is for Transgender

We had a few folks with sewing experience, and some with none, but students helped each other, and Diane was around to provide guidance and pointers.

U Is For Uterus

Overall a very empowering and dynamic class session! Here’s a gallery of Diane Carlson’s (Sociology) photos from the day:

MSC Soc379 10.23.17