New UNC Makerspace Puts Innovation in the Hands of Students

Laser cutting, 3D printing equipment, sewing machines. All are available for use in UNC’s new Be-A-Maker or BeAM innovation lab in Murray Hall. UNC has been known to offer cutting-edge technology to students for use in the classroom and for their major, but BeAM is open to everyone for both educational and personal uses.

Fletcher Cox is a UNC senior, and used the sewing machines in BeAM to make a special pair of “Strip-Straps” that attach to the back of a flip-flop to make them sandals. Cox started a business from this idea for people to have a cheaper alternative to popular sandal brands.

“If you’re not quite sure you want Chacos, some people go and they buy Chacos and might wear them twice—twice in a year,” Cox said. “With these, it’s a $10.00 or $15.00 commitment, and you can throw them on whenever you want.”

Judith Cone is the Vice Chancellor for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. She said Cox’s “Strip-Straps” are the reason for the lab: to give students access to develop ideas they wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

“At the heart of innovation, we want to put in important ideas to use,” she said. “And you have no way, no knowledge, no guidance, how to make a prototype so you can start to show what’s that idea that’s in your head, show me something tangible, let me see that. This is what this is all about.”

BeAM joins two other Makerspaces on campus: one in the Hanes Art Center and another in the Kenan Science Library. UNC College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kevin Guskiewicz said this new Makerspace is a collaboration project within the whole university. He said this represents how important it is for all students to be able to make and create what they want.

“This is really a campus-wide partnership,” he said. “Not just College of Arts and Sciences initiative, not just housed in one or siloed in one department, but this is truly a campus initiative that we’re really excited and proud of.”

Cox said that it’s because of BeAM that his business took off. He said he hopes other students now have that opportunity with these resources at their fingertips.

“The UNC Makerspace is huge in coming up with this. I had almost given up on the idea about last December—I mean it’s always been in my back pocket but I had stopped making them, but I was literally meeting a friend to study downstairs and saw the sewing machine and just came in and started making them.”

The new Makerspace will host training workshops so students and faculty can learn how to properly use the tools. Some tools have already been used by faculty to help teach subjects such as biomedical engineering and sociology.