Collaborative Research: University Maker Spaces: Discovery, Optimization and Measurement of Impacts

持续创新对国家安全和经济增长至关重要。工程教育必须超越工程科学和分析的教学：工程师必须设计，创造和创新。 这个由格鲁吉亚理工学院、德克萨斯州立大学-圣马科斯分校和詹姆斯麦迪逊大学合作的项目将衡量大学创客空间的影响，并确定设计创客空间的方法和指导方针。创客空间是一个地方，在那里，对创新充满热情的个人可以获得自由发明和建造实物和原型所需的资源。 为了应对社区创客空间在学术环境之外的成功，许多大学正在超越传统的机器车间，建立多学科的创客空间设计中心。本研究旨在了解和利用这些新的环境，以实现长期难以捉摸的目标，在工程教育，如提高学生的保留，培养多元化的学习环境，促进多学科团队。创客空间也有可能对女性和少数族裔产生积极影响，因为创造性思维和人类影响的机会驱使她们追求工程。这项工作还将调查创客空间对女性和少数民族产生积极影响的潜力，从而扩大对工程的参与。全国正在进行的创客运动有可能改变大学工程教育。 该运动主要起源于大学环境之外。该项目将衡量创客空间对工程创意生成技能、设计自我效能、保留和少数族裔/女性参与的影响。该项目有两个主要研究目标。 第一个是衡量格鲁吉亚理工大学、詹姆斯麦迪逊大学和德克萨斯州立大学圣马科斯分校的大学创客空间的影响。影响将通过工程设计自我效能来衡量;保留在工程专业;和想法生成能力。 将在两个层面衡量影响。 该项目的第一阶段将采用随机分配的实验设计，通过纵向测量评估早期参与对女性和少数群体的影响。 在第二个层次，将通过比较广泛的用户和接触最少的用户来研究创客空间的参与者。 在这个项目中，分段快照和纵向测量将结合起来。 第二个主要研究目标是确定设计创客空间的方法和准则。一旦创客空间的有效性得到展示，如何在其他地方复制它以及如何改善现有的大学创客空间的问题将得到解决。 在这一阶段，将进行一项跨大学的创客空间研究。关键特征将被确定，可能包括这些空间的设计方式，吸引的人以及运营时间。通过访谈、调查和收集出版物，将确定和传播新的办法和有效的做法。

Continued innovation is essential to national security and economic growth. It is crucial that engineering education move beyond teaching engineering science and analysis: engineers must design, create, and innovate. This collaborative project by Georgia Tech, Texas State University - San Marcos, and James Madison University will measure the impact of university maker spaces and identify approaches and guidelines for designing maker spaces. A maker space is a location where the individuals who have a passion for innovation can access resources needed to freely invent and build physical objects and prototypes. In response to the success of community maker spaces outside of academic settings, many universities are moving beyond traditional machine shops and building multi-disciplinary maker space design centers. This study seeks to understand and use these new environments to achieve long-elusive aims in engineering education such as improving student retention, fostering diverse learning environments, and promoting multi-disciplinary teams. Maker spaces also have the potential to positively influence females and minorities, who are driven to pursue engineering by opportunities for creative thinking and human impact. This work will also investigate the potential of maker spaces to positively influence females and minorities and there by broaden participation in engineering.The maker movement underway nationally has the potential to transform university engineering education. The movement is primarily originating outside of the university environment. This project will measure the impact that maker spaces have on engineering idea generation skills, design self-efficacy, retention and minority/female engagement. The project has two major research objectives. The first is to measure the impact of university maker spaces at Georgia Tech, James Madison University, and Texas State-San Marcos. Impact will be measured through engineering design self-efficacy; retention in the engineering major; and idea generation ability. Impacts will be measured at two levels. The first phase of the project will use a randomly assigned experimental design to assess the impact of early engagement on females and minorities through a longitudinal measurement. In the second level, maker space participants will be studied via a comparison between extensive users and those with minimal exposure. In this project, segment snapshots and longitudinal measurements will be combined. The second major research objective will be to identify approaches and guidelines for designing maker spaces. Once the effectiveness of a maker space is shown, the questions of how to replicate it in other places and how to improve existing university maker spaces will be addressed. In this phase a cross-university study of maker spaces will be undertaken. Key features will be determined and may include how these spaces are designed, the people attracted, and hours of operation. Through interviews, surveys and collection of publications, novel approaches and effective practices will be determined and disseminated.