1. Hackerspaces
and
Engineering
Education
C. K. Harnett
T. R. Tretter
University of Louisville
S. B. Philipp
Miami University of Ohio
2. Louisville’s
engineering students need more
hands-on experiences.
2008 survey: What is missing from the ECE curriculum?
The most popular student answer was “soldering.” What does it mean?
In late 2009, the LVL1
hackerspace started up
in Louisville, Kentucky.
http://lvl1.org
In 2011-2013 we
supported 9
undergraduates in the
engineering department
as full-time interns
working on their own
projects at LVL1.
An electronics workshop at LVL1
3. LVL1 at a Tuesday night meeting
LVL1 Main meetings are
tuesdays @ 8pm
How can we bring engineering
students to this space?
4. We focused on an existing
semester internship, the “Co-op”
Speed School students reported being very
interested in LVL1, but that they had no time
or money for another activity.
The Co-op program is already a requirement.
Students do three semester-long internships in
14 semesters.
5. We presented a LVL1
‘makership’ opportunity to the
Intro to Co-op class
Do I need to know all
about LVL1, Maker Faire,
Arduino, etc already? (No)
Do I need to be an ECE
major? (No)
What kinds of projects can
I do for the makerspace
co-op????
6. “What kinds of projects
can I do there?”
• Whitestar Transatlantic Balloon
• Renewable Energy
• Rocketeers
• Sumobots
• Power Wheels Racing
• Soundbuilders
• Make Food not War (food flinging hackathon)
• Game development group
• Louisville Smarter Cities
• Mind over Melon
7. Students proposed their own
project ideas:
A system to recycle broken
solar cells into large solar arrays
A multi-player strategy
computer game
A low-cost method to make
waterproof housings for
environmental sensors
An energy-efficient electric
bicycle
A wearable game controller
A strain monitoring system for
sewer pipes
A device to put a tool into the
user’s hand at the flick of a wrist
An electronic chess set aware
of its own configuration
An electric generator that was
powered by body heat
8. Co-ops came from nearly all of
the engineering departments
Mech Eng:
“Pizza oven”
shrink wraps
broken solar cell
pieces into
working cells
Bioengineering: Wearable
thermal energy harvester
• Most students used some
aspect of electrical
engineering. This was probably
due to the nature of projects
at the hackerspace
• And weekly meetings with a
mentor from ECE
9. What was the effect on co-ops’
self efficacy, innovation, and
attitudes towards engineering?
We interviewed the participants to find out more.
One tech mentor (me) and two education
experts (Dr. Tretter and postdoc Stephanie
Philipp).
We asked students what they planned to learn,
and at the end, what they did learn. We asked
open-ended questions about their attitudes.
The education team also recorded their own
impressions. Labels, documentation all over the
space, and the “failure board” made impressions
about what LVL1 offered.
10. What was the effect on co-ops’
persistence, innovation, and
attitudes towards engineering?
We interviewed the
participants to find out more. I
was usually their tech mentor,
my Co-PI and postdoc did
interviews and I learned from
them
The co-PIs recorded their own
impressions, the text and the
“failure board”
We asked students what they
planned to learn, and at the
end, what they did learn
12. Projects at LVL1 typically use
modular design
Typical projects at LVL1 are
made from modules (for
example, Arduino boards)
There are open source
hardware modules and code
libraries to do small tasks. You
don’t have to reinvent!
These modules enabled
students to make fast progress
on prototypes
But cutting/pasting is forbidden
in class. Students were
sometimes surprised that it was
OK to use modules.
Programmable Arduino board
CrispyTronics
Voltage Booster
PING Distance
Sensor Module
13. Common theme: The internship
helped develop a learning
orientation via failed prototypes
All students produced some kind of prototype
or initial design that was scrapped
A scrapped object is a learning opportunity
Students reported that if they could do it again,
they would plan more and build sooner.
Early, leaky sensor housings, and sealed ones made by a new process
14. Common theme: increased
self-efficacy after the co-op
“If I can not get one thing done, I can find a
couple of other ways.”
“I have valuable experience at figuring out
how to answer my own questions.”
“I am more innovative now, and I can go to
Plan B. I’m good at researching and asking
the right questions.”
“I gained confidence in my own judgments
about how to solve problems on my own.”
Students credited “independence” and the
support of LVL1 members for these gains
15. Common theme: Co-ops at all
levels were testing
themselves
Early stage co-ops were also
testing whether they picked
the right field of study.
“My strengths now are that I can drive myself to
find a solution. I was worried about the lack of a
straight path to a solution. It was not easy, but I
now know I can do it.”
“Having my own project can help me decide if I
really want to be an engineer.”
“[It’s] a chance to experience engineering to
decide if I like it.”
16. Next directions for this program
Some students can not pass up
higher paying private company co-ops
to work in the makerspace. Ask
companies to sponsor their co-ops
in makerspace projects?
Make the spaces more welcoming
to women/minorities
Use more existing spaces. Do you
have a space at your university? At
a library? In your town? Check the
Hackerspace Wiki. > 1000 active
spaces
Expand to business and design
departments; use makerspace co-ops
to bring design thinking and
FirstBuild GE spinoff maker-space
entrepreneurship to the engineering
curriculum
by Louisville campus
Find your local space
at hackerspaces.org
17. Acknowledgments
LVL1.org
U of L Co-op office
Project mentors Thad
Druffel & Mark McGinley
Everyone who’s keeping
an eye on our kids,
classes, pets, houseplants
this week
This material is based
upon work supported by
the National Science
Foundation under Grant
No. 1136708.
Soldering was pushed out of the curriculum long ago in favor of theory. Here is a place off campus where you can indulge in your soldering habit (picture of a class at LVL1).
Students felt strongly enough that we saw them self-organizing their own workshops on soldering, robotics and model rockets.
Great! Let’s support this more officially. Student-run things often disappear when key members graduate
I helped start LVL1, was at the 4th meeting in a coffeeshop in 2009. The organization is unaffiliated with the university or a company, it’s a member-owned nonprofit
Now U of L is getting involved more officially by sending students. Here comes the square community
LVL1 moved to a new space in Aug 2014, this was when it was smaller. It has been a continuously growing, active space.
“Tuesday night” is a common hackerspace meeting pattern
Co-op is widespread in US midwestern engineering schools, Louisville is on the border of Midwest and South
We have about 550 co-op internships going on per year
The coops were paid 12-14 US $ per hour, 8 hours per day, depending on whether it was their first, second, or third co-op
The students had to budget a $400 materials stipend, and were members of LVL1 for a year.
The word “hackerspace” can be intimidating.
Classroom image from vzroom.com
The point is that we showed it to hundreds of students preparing for co-ops
These are the kind of things I would show the prospective co-ops
It was a 3 page proposal, with short essay-style questions
Students generated Ill structured problems: The best solution is unclear. We have a general goal, but not one right answer or way to get it.
Note to future students: Pick EITHER hardware or software for a 1 semester, 1 student project. NOT BOTH
Good candidates for these projects: Weighted toward hardware or software, has visual interestingness, has a measurement (is it fun, does it leak, etc)
We missed out on chem engineering, the solar cell project had a mentor there though.
We knew this could help the co-ops develop a learning orientation
Most had a project orientation.
Failure board picture next slide
Failure board picture
Few of our undergraduate labs look like this. There may be one prof that lets it get messy but usually there aren’t any labels like this.
It’s a bit of a rollercoaster compared to an average co-op
It’s a hackerspace, you can hack existing things, you don’t have to start from scratch if you don’t want to.
Modules were placeholders that let students work out other parts of the design.
Photo from http://www.forty8.com/index.php?mainId=7&starId=73
Most of the students discovered they were a tough boss to work for
Photo from Evolution Fitness Now @ YouTube
I thought by senior year they would be certain about their field of study, or have dropped out. But they know the practice of engineering will be far different from being a student.
Incentive for companies to develop loyalty in high-GPA students so they can recruit them upon graduation. They pay a lot but sometimes do not expect much from the co-ops.
The program is generating the outcomes we want, it fits into the curriculum well, but we need a recurring mentor, stipends, and materials/supplies.
Locally we have LVL1, FirstBuild, a lot of occasional meetups and hackathons and a mobile hackerspace in a van
