For a curriculum as project-intensive as Elizabethtown College’s engineering program ample space is a requirement. Students need an area in which to work on hands-on assignments, the faculty needs a place where it can supplement its research if necessary.
The Bollman Fabrication Laboratory, or “the fab lab”, located in Esbenshade 174, is the culmination of the Department of Engineering and Physics’ plans to expand and improve the space available for its students to use. It is intended primarily as a facility for students to prototype, in other words to create and build their assignments, but is available for faculty members to use, as well. Large portions of the curriculum require project work to from design stages to fabrication and implementation, and the fabrication lab needed to be a large enough area to allow a number of students to work on different projects, simultaneously. Mr. Mark Gatti, manager of engineering laboratories and student fabrication, said that the lab is more of a facility with the space and equipment for students to work than a lab.
[The students] used to have to build stuff outside…”
While students use the facility throughout the semester, its heaviest traffic occurs just before and during finals in December and May. The new, larger room means that the fabrication lab can handle an increase in project work at this time of the semester. “[The students] used to have to build stuff outside,” said Gatti. “Hopefully if they need to do that now, it’s because [the project] belongs outside.”
The introduction of the fabrication lab also freed up another room upstairs in which students can work on the research and design portions of their projects. Now known as the “design studio,” features six new work stations and facilitates group projects. Monitors at each station can show the professor’s display or work from any of the five students’ computers. Gatti said this allows the students to more easily share their work or designs with the rest of the group and is part of a new learning style ITS is hoping to implement more across campus. “It works very well, so far,” Gatti said.
Plans for the fabrication lab began in fall 2009 after the bachelor’s degree in engineering and the bachelor’s degree in computer engineering were accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. The previous facility’s size constraints made it difficult to keep space available for the numbers of students who needed to work there, especially after the accreditation of these programs caused a surge in the number of students. While the lab’s expansion was delayed, it allowed the department to create a facility beyond what had originally been planned.
“Right now, the Fab Lab supports the rest of the infrastructure and is in keeping with the size of the department,” said Dr. Kurt DeGoede, professor of physics and engineering. “It’s consistent with the number of professors and offices and classrooms.” Now that the department’s footprint has increased with the dedication of Bollman Fabrication Laboratory, the department has the space to best house and support the curriculum.