During this year’s MangoHacks hackathon, the Honors College Edge Lab hosted a vinyl cutting workshop in which participants of the hackathon were able to come into the Lab space, design and cut their own sticker.
The Honors College Edge Lab is Florida International University’s only makerspace open to the entire university community. The lab offers a design and fabrication space for prototyping and manufacturing, wood working, printmaking, sewing, and laser and vinyl cutting. Visitors can repair computers, hand craft jewelry, work with electronics and robotics, and produce various types of multimedia content, such virtual-reality, and video and audio production, in this space. The Edge Lab has developed schedule of student programming that has included workshops in game design, soldering, 3D design and printing. In the summer of 2018, the Lab moved to a renovated office space in Owa Ehan (OE) 165 which resulted in an increased work area of 900 square feet. Many Honors courses and undergraduate research projects are using the makerspace’s design and production resources. The space is taking the lead in working with new technologies and sustainable practices, like aquaponics and upcycling. The Edge Lab is also establishing a maker network with the university and external educational organizations to help develop “making” programming that targets different learning populations.
In addition to hosting the vinyl cutting workshop, the Edge Lab also designed and 3D printed the winning trophy for the competition. This is a great example of the many innovative activities the Lab has to offer.
