Bright Ideas, Brought to Life

At NC State, ideas become solutions. Students, faculty and staff take sparks of ideas and fan them into flames of invention through experiential education.

Students experience hands-on learning and creating in six makerspaces across campus that are designed to give life to ideas and entrepreneurial endeavors.

Hunt Library Makerspace

The library of the future is also home to the technology of the future. Head to the Hunt Library Makerspace for access to 3-D scanning and printing. Located on the fourth floor of the ultramodern building, this makerspace supports students, faculty and staff in learning about emerging technologies and bringing their creations to life.

The Entrepreneurship Initiative Garage

NC State students with a passion for entrepreneurship find a place to pursue it in the Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI) Garage. Located in Innovation Hall at Wolf Ridge Apartments on Centennial Campus, the Garage provides a common space to foster new ideas and work on entrepreneurial endeavors.

“We are eager for students from all over the university to gather here to work, learn and share,” says Tom Miller, EI’s executive director. “We want to support these students in becoming North Carolina’s future job creators.”

Open to students from all disciplines, the Garage includes everything from prototyping studios and lounges to woodworking shops and power tools.

Open Hardware Makerspace

The Open Hardware Makerspace is a catalyst for turning big ideas into real-world results. Designed to empower student creativity, celebrate hands-on experimentation and open the door to cutting-edge technologies, this makerspace is the stepping stone to developing an entrepreneurial endeavor before taking it to the Garage.

Operated by student volunteers, the Open Hardware Makerspace also builds community partnerships and provides programming and outreach for local schools.

The Crafts Center

The NC State Crafts Center has everything students need to enhance their artisanal skills, whether they’re creating their first clay vase in the pottery studio or building an animatronic model in the woodworking studio. There’s something for everyone looking to channel creativity into art. The Crafts Center offers classes for all skill levels.

Several NC State colleges also have their own makerspaces, open to their own students and others:

CIRCUIT Research Studio

The CIRCUIT Research Studio is designed for graduate students in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to work across disciplinary boundaries with team members and faculty from other colleges. This makerspace supports solution-driven projects developed in association with graduate coursework ranging from digital media and humanities to physical computing and mobile media.

Technology, Engineering & Design Education Laboratories

The Technology, Engineering & Design Education Laboratories cultivate appreciation and understanding of new technologies among students in the College of Education. These labs provide an experiential foundation for tomorrow’s teachers.

Advanced Media and Materials Laboratories

In the College of Design, the Advanced Media Lab gives students and faculty access to the latest digital hardware and software. The Materials Lab features wood, metal and welding shops; weaving and sewing studios; fibers and dyes; and a range of printing tools.

The Troxler Design Center

The Troxler Design Center is the hub for senior design projects in the College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Troxler center is both a lounge for incubating ideas and a lab for designing and prototyping them.

Digging Deeper

• A Makers’ Place — At MakerFaire, NC State students’ thoughtful solutions were on display.
• Hunt Library: Create Reality — In the Hunt Library makerspace, researchers create a useful tool for blind pedestrians.