UAT becomes First University in Arizona to open on campus Digital Makers Fab Lab

 

UAT Digital Makers Fab Lab

The University of Advancing Technology (UAT) becomes first University in Arizona to launch a digital maker fabrication lab on campus: the UAT Makers Fab Lab.

On the heels of the lab opening mid-October 2013, University officials are enrolling students into the nation’s first fully accredited Bachelor of Science degree in digital making and fabrication. The new degree will combine the curriculums and capability of UAT’s existing and respected degrees in Robotics and Embedded Systems, Artificial Life Programming, Advancing Computer Science, Virtual Modeling and Design and Human-Computer Interaction. 

Located on the technology University’s campus in Tempe, the UAT Makers Fab Lab is equipped with the latest 3D printers, maker bots, CNC cutters and the software and knowledge guidance that students need to bring innovative ideas to life. Modeled from the design of MIT’s first Fab Lab community, UAT plans to join together the student communities already leveraging the new lab from many other UAT disciplines to start the first student facilitated and University-sponsored Digital Makers Lab organization. The Digital Makers Lab is designed to foster creativity and challenge student innovators with a 24/7 environment for those who seek to lead the new industrial revolution driven by the convergence of advancing technologies

A groundswell that’s sweeping across the industry according to industry analysts, the Maker Revolution is a new way to think, design, conceive, prototype, test, manufacture and bring innovation to market. It is 3D printers, 4D fabricating, maker bots, robotics and embedded systems, engineering and hardware creation, digital design and animation, laser cutters, open-hardware and software, and desktop fabrication all combined and now taken to the industrial and consumer levels. This is an entire shift in the way we innovate and will change the way products and services are produced, distributed and used in everyday life.

“Anything that can transform the process of making stuff has tremendous leverage in moving the global economy. That’s the making of a real revolution,” states Chris Anderson in his recent book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution.

Already, UAT graduates are innovating and quietly setting the tone in the Makers Revolution. Since 2008, UAT has offered a bachelor’s of science in Robotics and Embedded Systems. The Robotics program is more focused on hardware development versus a balance of hardware and software design methods that are forming together to create the Makers Movement.

The UAT Makers Fab Lab, the development of a BS degree program with a major in the area of digital making and fabrication join the technology University’s series of firsts in advancing technology offerings.