Florida International University (FIU) has partnered with MakerBot, a leading company in the desktop 3D printing sector, to launch a novel CARTA Innovation Lab at FIU College of Architecture + The Arts (CARTA) Miami Beach Urban Studios.
CARTA Innovation Lab: Where FIU Prints the Future (Graphic: Business Wire)
The grand opening ceremony of the FIU Innovation Lab is scheduled for 10 a.m. on September 29, 2015. The event will feature speeches from MakerBot CEO Jonathan Jaglom and FIU President Mark Rosenberg.
The new FIU Lab will include a MakerBot Innovation Center, which is a comprehensive 3D printing installation, making FIU the first university in the United States to have such a center. The MakerBot Innovation Center is specifically designed to assist organizations and universities to speed up the creative process, more effectively team up with others, and to have a more competitive edge.
FIU’s MakerBot Innovation Center will cater to design and the arts where faculty, students, and local business dealers will collaborate on creative projects and investigate the crossroads of technology and art.
“The College of Architecture + The Arts is the first arts college in the nation to work with MakerBot to embrace 3D printing at a large scale,” said Brian Schriner, Dean of FIU’s College of Architecture + The Arts. “This new creative space will prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow by exploring the intersection of arts, design, and technology. The CARTA Innovation Lab is a major milestone that will help establish FIU as a national destination for innovative teaching, research, entrepreneurism, and creativity.”
Although the city of Miami has witnessed plenty of growth in the startup scene in the recent past, there are very few recognized makerspaces available for entrepreneurs to experiment and fabricate. The CARTA Innovation Lab provides the much needed solution. This lab will provide a place for the innovators of the next generation to come and transform their ideas into a reality with the involvement of the community.
The Miami Beach Urban Studios will house the 3D printing lab to offer wide unrestrained space for design and fine arts students, and spaces for music and theatre students to practice and perform. Additionally there are also expansive exhibition/gallery spaces and classroom space, which can be used by the whole college.
This place will also be a perfect base for those interested in pursuing communication, arts, entrepreneurship and design. It will be a meeting point for local design firms and arts organizations to share with one another.
The CARTA Innovation Lab is built with an open layout so as to persuade cooperation. This facility can be used by the community so that students from various streams can interact with artists and local business dealers to collaborate on creative projects, conduct research, and develop unique products. The lab will cater to numerous activities such as dual-enrollment programs for local high-school students, start-up programs for recent graduates, and for-credit classes for FIU students.
The lab will contain 30 MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers, one MakerBot Replicator Mini Compact 3D Printer, one MakerBot Replicator Z18 3D Printers, five MakerBot Digitizer™ Desktop 3D Scanner, a large stock of MakerBot PLA Filament, and a detailed MakerBot MakerCare® protection plan. The MakerBot Innovation Center Management Platform, a proprietary 3D printing software platform, lies at the center of this innovative lab. It is designed to connect the MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers with each other, thereby simplifying staffing and productivity of the center, and providing remote access, mass production of 3D prints, and print queuing.
“Desktop 3D printing is changing the way we think, work, and create things, and FIU is taking the lead in unlocking the creative potential of this transformative technology to art students,” noted Jonathan Jaglom, CEO of MakerBot. “By bringing in a large-scale 3D printing center and providing access to 3D printers to students at an early stage, FIU can create an atmosphere of collaboration and accelerate the creative process like never before.”
John Stuart, AIA, Associate Dean for Cultural and Community Engagement and the Executive Director of Miami Beach Urban Studios, said “FIU students already have ideas of how to utilize the lab, ranging from architecture students who want to use MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers to reimagine urban landscapes and showcase models, to art students who are designing 3D printed musical instruments.’’
As students will be able to interact with people from other streams, they can explore and develop 3D printing of objects, which can provide solutions for various issues, such as global potable water shortages, aging in place, sea level rise, prosthetics, mobility, and health.
Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Composer-in-Residence, has started developing a new composition, wherein 3D printers will join the world-renowned FIU School of Music’s ensemble-in-residence Amernet String Quartet to produce a quartet with 3D printer soloists that generate sound and related objects.
The CARTA Innovation Lab received support from the Knight Foundation’s efforts, which aims to invest in emerging entrepreneurs and innovators in Miami, thereby shaping the community at large. The Knight Foundation has invested in over 100 investments in entrepreneurship over the last three years across South Florida.
FIU is the fourth largest university in the United States.