GENEDGE is proud to partner with the Monarch Engineering and Innovation Lab (M-Lab) at Old Dominion University. The M-Lab provides a state-of-the art environment for all engineering students, graduate, and undergraduate students to invent, design, prototype, build and test, and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration for students at the Batten College of Engineering & Technology.
GENEDGE supports the M-Lab to push the boundaries of innovation, solve the problems of the day, create jobs of the future, and have a direct and positive impact on the industries their students and faculty serve.
About the Monarch Engineering & Innovation Lab (M-Lab)
Creativity, invention, and innovation are values championed as central pillars of engineering education. However, university environments that foster open-ended design-build projects are uncommon. Fabrication and prototyping spaces at universities have typically been “machine shops,” where students relinquish actual manufacturing activities to trained professionals or are only accessible for academic assignments to highly trained students. The desire to make design and prototyping more integral to the engineering experience led to the idea to create a free-to-use M-Lab within the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University.
The roughly 6,000 sq. ft. M-Lab is located on the second floor of Monarch Hall (former education building). This modern collaboration and prototyping space facilitates technological innovation among ODU students and faculty. The key functions of an academic maker space are to encourage students to invent, design, prototype, build and test; support design focused coursework and encourage entrepreneurship.
Engineering and Innovation labs are not new. Many educational institutions have established student innovation hubs, like M-Lab’s to complement traditional learning classroom environments while providing a venue for creative design and collaboration. Museums, libraries, schools, universities, and independent organizations now offer places like the M-Lab’s worldwide, bringing together technology and community with new technologies such as 3D printers and scanners, laser cutters and software, along with traditional fundamentals like woodworking, electronics, and metalworking.
Student Director of Operations 3D Printing Co-Manager, Kylie Donald Director of Communications, Sydney Fletcher M-Lab Support Technician Metal Team Lead, Mical Nixon Director of Communications 3D Printing Co-Manager & M-Lab Director, Associate Professor, Dr. Orlando Ayala
Since the fall of 2018, hundreds of students each month plan, create, meet, and mentor one another while taking innovative ideas from concept and design to prototype and delivery. The facilities will demonstrate the value and sustainability of hands-on, design-build education to stimulate innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in engineering undergraduates.
Check out M’Lab’s design and invention areas for students on the Old Dominion University website.
Interested in More Information?
Contact: Anthony Cerilli, Vice President of Operations
Phone: (804) 517-1235
Email: acerilli@genedge.org