New Vanderbilt Innovation Center to support makers

• TechShop CEO Mark Hatch will give a lecture at Vanderbilt on Oct. 7
• Vanderbilt plans to launch a 10,000-square-foot Innovation Center in summer 2016

Nashville is a hotbed for innovation and Vanderbilt University wants to play its role in cultivating the next generation of creators.

In an effort led by Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering, the university plans to open a 10,000-square-foot Innovation Center in the summer as part of the under-construction engineering and science building.

The center will include a makerspace, entrepreneurship programming and educational resources to give students the tools they need to take their inventions to commercialization.

Peter Cummings, the School of Engineering’s associate dean for research, said many students are spinning off their own companies while at Vanderbilt or shortly after graduation. Giving those students access to otherwise expensive resources is important, he said.

“If you want to invent something, a physical object or something mechanical, you are probably going to need machining tools and all these kinds of things. That’s where, from a big picture point of view, we want to encourage or enable our students to innovate both in the hardware space as well as the software space,” Cummings said.

Cummings is leading Vanderbilt’s charge to develop more makerspaces at the university. Meanwhile, a national search is underway for a director of the new Innovation Center.

Future projects could include an off-campus makerspace intended for broader public use that would give people access to cutting-edge technologies and research, such as composite materials and how those can be used in design and manufacturing.

“Adding dimensions to the Nashville maker community with new materials that are simply not available elsewhere is one way we are imagining this externally focused maker space,” Cummings said.

Vanderbilt’s effort in developing the maker movement is one piece of Nashville’s thriving creative community, which includes hundreds of entrepreneurs making unique items across industries. The local maker community is a growing force in the city best known for its music industry.

Co-working spaces such as Fort Houston and The Skillery work to bridge the gap between people who have creative ideas but might need the tools or resources to grow as a maker.

Cummings said Vanderbilt’s new Innovation Center is meant to complement the existing makerspaces in Nashville. The university met with leaders in the local maker movement in July to detail the Innovation Center plans and solicit advice.

“We don’t want to duplicate what they’re doing. We want to be synergistic with what already exists in the city,” Cummings said.

Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, a fast-growing chain of co-working spaces that gives members access to more than $1 million worth of advanced equipment, called the maker movement a revolution with a significant economic impact.

Hatch will give a lecture at Vanderbilt on Wednesday titled “BOOM! The Maker Revolution: How the Maker Movement is changing the world and why you should join the movement.”

TechShop launched in 2006 and has eight locations, four under construction and 10 in development.

The 20,000-square-foot flagship TechShop in Redwood City, Calif., has a complete metal working shop, wood shop, textiles lab, electronics lab, plastics lab and computer lab. Tools include laser cutters, 3-D printers and commercial-grade sewing machines.

Products born out of TechShop locations include the first prototype of a Square reader — a device that allows smartphones and tablets to accept credit card payments — and a company called Embrace that makes an inexpensive blanket to keep premature babies warm.

“This is a revolution, and it’s going to drive all kinds of wonderful change I believe in helping people to pursue their dreams and own small companies,” Hatch said.

Cummings said Vanderbilt officials plan to pick Hatch’s brain for advice regarding the university’s developing makerspaces.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.

Lecture details

TechShop CEO Mark Hatch will deliver the Vanderbilt School of Engineering’s Chambers Family Entrepreneurial Lectureship at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday in Jacobs Believed In Me Auditorium at 134 Featheringill Hall.

The lecture will be live streamed on news.vanderbilt.edu.