MakerLodge’s mission is to provide training, resources and an enthusiastic introduction to MIT’s maker community to first-year undergraduate students.
MakerLodge aims to train first-year undergraduate students on a small set of introductory maker technologies, give those students an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned, and then choose one additional tool or technology for further training—welding, sewing, machining, or whatever is of most interest to them! MakerLodge provides all students who complete the program with a toolbox full of hand tools, an Arduino nano and MakerBucks (a special form of TechCash) to enable and encourage future making.
TRAINING
We offer peer-led introductory maker training and practice sessions for first-years who are new to making as well as the opportunity to ‘test out’ of training for those students coming to MIT with significant making experience under their belt. Each year approximately one third of the first-year class choose to complete their MakerLodge training and join our community.
LAUNCHPAD
MakerLodge training is only the first step in your journey as an MIT Maker! Our graduates go on to learn and use new maker skills all around campus, whether in class, through UROPs, in student clubs, on competitive teams or any of the dozens of maker communities around campus.
RESOURCES
The training takes place in Project Manus’ two makerspaces, The Deep and Metropolis, where students are granted immediate access upon completion of their training to work on any personal, academic or research projects.
COMMUNITY
We have a very diverse group of trainees each year, with students going on to choose more than 16 different courses of study from Mechanical and Electrical engineering to Mathematics and Urban Studies and Planning. More than half of the students we train return to our makerspaces for either further training or to make things during open hours! Students who complete the training receive a toolbox full of tools, an Arduino and MakerBucks (TechCash for makerspaces) to fuel their creativity and enable them to start making right away!
What MakerLodge Graduates Make After Training
