Goff is also helping to run the lab (though he will be in Bhutan for the spring semester) and is a big proponent of the maker movement at Wheaton. “You can put different shaped bits into a fast-spinning spindle, and it moves around and can sculpt or carve out pretty much any shape out of soft wood or foam.” “It’s basically a robot that carves,” Assistant Professor of Art Kelly Goff says of the milling machine. Across the hall are power tools and shop machines such as a lathe for metalworking and the newest piece of equipment: a ShopBot five-axis, computer-controlled milling machine. Lab 213 features a number of high-tech tools for building, including two Makerbot 3D printers, a 120-watt Epilog laser cutter and engraver (which was moved here from the sculpture studio in the Mars Arts building), a 3D scanner and a knitting machine, plus hand tools and electronics. “This space really expands the range of capabilities.” “The WHALE Lab was really an office setting, where students could work with computers and digital video and 3D printers and design, but there wasn’t space available for ‘dirty construction’ or for bigger jobs, for working with power tools and expanding the scale of what’s possible,” Goodman says. The former WHALE Lab, which was run by Associate Professor of Computer Science Tom Armstrong, is reverting back to a computer science research lab. The new maker space expands on efforts that began in the Wheaton Autonomous Learning Lab, commonly known as WHALE Lab, to provide tools and a place for students to develop and collaborate on a wide range of projects, from hand-built drones to musical instruments. Lab 213, located on the second floor of the Science Center, officially opened this semester (though it has been in use since last summer) and is the new “hub of making” on campus, according to Associate Professor of Physics Jason Goodman, who is helping to run the lab. Lab 213 is Wheaton’s newest and largest makerspace, located on the second floor of the Science Center.
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