Six weeks have passed since I’ve started my journey of becoming a maker, and I can honestly say that this one was probably the best so far. Our trip to the CU Fab Lab was our first outside of our classroom setting – and I’d like to say the change of scenery was inspiring. Walking to class last Monday, I must have passed the Fab Lab at least two times; it’s housed in one of the oldest buildings on campus, and to be honest looks quite unimpressive… until you open the door.

For the first part of class, we were introduced to the volunteers and were given a tour of the facility’s three main parts: fabrications, electronics, and design. I was then fortunate enough to be placed in Colten’s group, working on Arduino’s. I have some coding experience, but I’ve never had the chance to interface code with actual equipment. It was really cool to play with the code and see how the Arduino, LED, and motor would react.

The best part of class though was when I figured out exactly what I was going to do for my semester project, and it was all an accident! Vishal and Colten were talking about the uses of conductive PLA (one of the types of plastic used in 3DP) and an idea was ignited in my head. I’m not going to talk too much about it here, for the moment, but I can tell you that this idea takes Arielle’s printed racing glove and makes it “smart”. I’m hoping to use it as a training tool, where we can gather data. Shout out to Toheeb and Pri for taking on this with me!

The Fab Lab has a relaxed atmosphere and a great making vibe, and I would say it’s almost impossible to not come up with something cool to work on when you’re there.