by Elizabeth Uehling
What do Silicon Valley, California; Florence Italy; Athens, Greece and Vienna, Austria, have in common?
They are — or were — hotbeds of innovation.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln Professor Shane Farritor believes Lincoln, Nebraska, could become the next hotbed of innovation.
“I think this is a place where we can become world leaders. We can be a hot point of hardware-based innovation,” Farritor said. He’s talking about Nebraska Innovation Studio, a “maker space” on the UNL Nebraska Innovation Campus.
An inventor himself, Farritor grew up in Ravenna, Nebraska, planning on a medical career until a high school teacher suggested he consider engineering. It turned out to be a good fit, he said.
Farritor earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UNL, followed by a master’ degree and a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He returned to UNL in 1998 as a professor of mechanical and materials engineering.
Farritor introduced the idea of Nebraska Innovation Studio, to include specialized spaces and equipment ranging from woodworking and weaving to computers for software development and 3-D printing. He generated the idea for the space through his past experiences with other maker spaces and the collaborative nature of their environments.
“I think it’s transformative. I think Nebraska Innovation Studio is a new way to educate students,” he said. “They’re passionate about what they want to accomplish there, and that is an important ingredient in innovation and invention. The fire has to come from within,” he added. The unstructured nature of a maker space allows an inventor to explore, tinker and think in a different way about the way things work.
“The best engineering schools have facilities where students can go build things. I think that’s not a coincidence,” Farritor said. “There’s a ‘geography to genius’ concept that we need to try to facilitate, to make special places where we can create a lot of inventions,” he added. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle knew each other in ancient Greece, as did daVinci and Michelangelo in Florence, Italy, in the 1550s. Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn all knew each other in Vienna, Austria, in the 1700s, too, Farritor said.
“I hope Nebraska Innovation Studio will be like that. I hope we’ll do a couple of startup companies a year with students or members with new, great ideas.”
People have problems in their personal lives and try to find solutions in maker spaces like this, he said. For example, a student recently invented a stirring robot so he wouldn’t have to constantly stir his spaghetti sauce, Farritor said. A UNL art student created a printer to print out her text messages, requiring her to work with electrical engineers. Another student, proclaiming himself the best foosball player of all time, got a camera to track the motion of the ball and then activated the goalie so a player could never score against the computer.
“It’s a numbers game,” Farritor said. “We’re going to get enough of these interesting projects going, and we’ll have new inventions that are valuable to people.”
Maker spaces — a growing trend
Maker spaces are a growing trend in the United States and around the world, but Farritor believes Nebraska Innovation Studio has the potential to be unique. He said the focus of the space is to create an environment where diversity in people and interests thrive, while bringing in as many people to the space as possible — what Farritor calls “density.”
“You can look at the history of innovation and you will find you need certain characteristics. We want to build a culture and environment where we get artists talking to English majors talking to engineers about stuff they’re passionate about. We’re trying to make diversity and density critical elements of our goals, and I think that sets us apart,” Farritor said.
Cost for using the space ranges from a $10 day pass to a $660 yearlong community membership, Farritor said. Students pay the lowest rates, he added, to encourage participation.
While the space is available to everyone, safety courses are required for first-time users. “Table saws, drill presses and metal lathes are things you can hurt yourself with,” Farritor said. The safety courses teach participants to use the equipment properly and safely, he said.
Aside from orientation and safety courses, Farritor said there also are skills courses offered to those seeking a new interest or specialty.
Farritor said Nebraska Innovation Studio participants not only use the space but also offer their skills to others. There are members who are teaching courses in weaving, woodcarving and computer programming.
Collaborative projects have already taken place and Farritor is hopeful Nebraska Innovation Studio will continue to curate innovation.
“It’s early but there have already been some wonderful things that have come out of this space. We have a fashion and textiles major who made a dress she could reconfigure as the night went on,” Farritor said. “The dress had electronic elements, which allowed it to change shape so it would fit differently as the night went on.”
No matter what the project, Farritor believes these ideas are created because someone saw a problem and wanted to fix it, much like inventors from the past.
Farritor noted that 100 years ago, the richest man in the world didn’t have access to something as simple as air conditioning. “I think there are certain problems that can be fixed,” Farritor said. He is confident such inventions can be created through Nebraska Innovation Studio and is hopeful about what the space’s future holds.
Farritor’s partnership contributions
NASA Mars Rovers, surgical robotic arms and railroad tracks are just a few things Farritor has worked on over the years.
While Farritor has high hopes for such inventions to be produced through partnerships at Nebraska Innovation Studio, he is an inventor himself and one who is advancing the medical field. Read about Virtual Incision Corporation in Virtual Incision Corporation: partnering engineering with medicine in this publication. [ innovationstudio.unl.edu ]