Maker Fest

On Thursday, Mar. 24, Exeter held its first Maker Fest, a program engineered to introduce students to design thinking and innovation through hands-on learning. Regardless of their background in engineering, students came to the Phelps Science Center for three days to partake in the intensive program.

"The whole purpose of Rajesh’s work is to unleash this potential in us as learners and give us more confidence in our own problem solving."

The Maker Fest program was an event facilitated by Rajesh Nair, who teaches innovation and entrepreneurship at MIT and the Asian School of Business in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He originally noticed that most students believed that designing and developing products belonged in the world of engineering. “I strongly believe that every academic institution under-utilizes their students, in the sense that they don’t challenge them to go beyond the academic things,” he said. However, Nair was convinced that if students without any prior experience were exposed to engineering and innovation at an earlier age, their perspective on the world around them would change.“I found that everyone has the same capabilities, but how we teach them will completely change the way they think and approach life and what they do in the future,” he said.The program began with Nair’s lecture on how to identify problems, ideate products and architect a product that addresses a problem that Exonians face. Three hours into the event, students had already learned how to code arduino and use CAD software to make products move and light up. Then, they were asked to think of a problem faced by other students, to analyze the problem and to come up with a product idea that would solve the problem. Nair explained the many aspects to consider when engineering a product. “The students must think about the user experience—the experience they want a fellow student to have when they use their product,” he said.Students were able to use many different tools available in the school’s new maker lab in the physics wing of the Phelps Science Center. Senior Matthew Hambacher was impressed by the new tools in the lab. “We learned a lot of stuff; we used the new maker lab in the physics wing, which is a place with a bunch of tools like the laser cutter and 3d printers,” he said.Utilizing the advanced technology of the maker lab, the students were able to create a variety of products. Seniors Mel Duenas and Melissa Lu noticed that many Exonians struggled with constantly losing their stationery, so in order to address this issue, they decided to create a simplified version of a smart pencil case that keeps track of the number of pencils.Seniors Tony Zhu and Matt Hambacher designed a product they believed would help students stay organized with paperwork. Together, they hooked up two motors to switches using an arduino kit. When a paper was put on the motors, the paper would either go into a box to the left or the right, depending on which switch was pushed. One box was secure, requiring a key card to open, while the other had no security. They saw this as a useful safe for papers one would want to keep confidential, i.e. a bad grade or a W4-form.Senior Peter Chinburg, one of the organizers of the event, shared his thoughts on its success. “I think that this has already had a great impact on the students who attended by showing everyone that no matter your educational background, we have much more creative and problem-solving potential than we are aware of. The whole purpose of Rajesh’s work is to unleash this potential in us as learners and give us more confidence in our own problem solving,” Chinburg said.