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Matthew Spencer Named Director of Harvey Mudd Makerspace

Located on the first floor of the Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center, the makerspace helps 无忧视频 foster inclusive excellence on campus while creating new educational and community engagement opportunities.

鈥淭he place is just cool,鈥� says Matthew Spencer, an engineering professor at Harvey Mudd, who started his assignment as director of the 8,000-square-foot facility on July 1. 鈥淪tudents love it. The place is always popping, and I want to keep an environment like that working.鈥�

A hub of student creativity, the makerspace at Harvey Mudd is dedicated to being a place where everyone feels comfortable working on a variety of projects. 鈥淭he people we get in the makerspace aren鈥檛 just engineers,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淲e pull in a lot of artists from all over The Claremont Colleges. We also get Mudd students who are interested in art, in addition to technical people from all over our campus. I think that鈥檚 one of the real strengths of the makerspace.鈥� Projects that people produce there engage all parts of their training, Spencer says, 鈥渇rom fine arts all the way to pretty serious engineering.鈥�

The makerspace also fosters collaboration among The Claremont Colleges, Spencer notes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just Mudders in the makerspace. It鈥檚 a cool space in a neatly designed building that鈥檚 available to the entire consortium. This helps our students take advantage of the consortium by meeting many different people. It鈥檚 also good for belongingness. People who work in the makerspace feel a part of a community at Mudd.鈥�

As director, Spencer expects that he鈥檒l also help with fundraising for the makerspace and looks forward to sharing the story of this 鈥渧ery valuable space.鈥�

Spencer acknowledges the work of outgoing director Jeff Groves, who, he says, did a great job of getting things set up. 鈥淜im Neal, the makerspace manager does just phenomenal work and really pours her heart and soul into her job. And thanks to the student stewards,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淚t takes all of us to make the place work, and I鈥檓 honored to have been entrusted with this role.”