1819 Innovation hub

Ground floor makerspace

JANUARY 2026 - PRESENT

WHAT IS IT?

The 1819 Ground Floor Makerspace is a two-part workspace on UC’s campus, located in the 1819 Innovation Hub. 1819 is a building built specifically for startups and for large companies, like Kroger and US Bank, to get together, innovate, prototype and thrive. The Makerspace is free to use for UC students and provides two labs for students to use, the Prototyping Lab and the Fabrication Lab. Each lab has equipment and space for students to make new products, work on projects or meet with technicians to put together blueprints on how to make something.

WHAT DID YOU DO?

For my Spring 2025 co-op, I worked as a prototyping assistant to help members learn how to use equipment, learn new skills, and grow in their creative fields. On a given day, I could be teaching a certification on how to use our UV printer, or running our 3D printing submission queue, where members can submit files to be printed on one of our five types of printers.

Working in the Makerspace has been such a revitalizing experience. Every day, I come in and learn something new just by working with fellow students. I get to be creative and exercise my graphic design brain to help members do things like plotting and laser cutting, but I equally get to learn what members are passionate about and what things they make for capstones and personal projects in a given week.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN?

I learned so much about what I actually want to do with my experience. Although some may see working in a makerspace as a shallow way to get experience in the graphic design field, so much of what I do in a day is me applying what I have learned so far in my major. I’m always giving people help with Adobe softwares, advising on design decisions and using my InDesign experience to draft SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for utilizing our equipment. Getting to teach every day, and work with technology, and be crafty and friendly and so many other things is my dream.

Working in this lab has taught me so many new skills too. I’m trained to operate 3D printers, resin printers, laser cutters, UV printers, powder coating machinery, large-scale plotters and vinyl cutters, and more. Having this experience makes me a great candidate for makerspace jobs in the future, and not just the one here at 1819.

This co-op has taught me to be patient, understand individual learning styles, work in a professional but crafty environment, communicate with members and technicians alike, and more than anything, it has taught me that being a maker is my calling.