About

The Maker Space encompasses all things good about the university’s mission to transform lives, stimulate discovery and realise potential.

Whilst we’re currently a small (but growing) facility, we have big ambition and we’re not resting on our laurels. There’s lots of work to do and projects to develop. It’s an exciting time!

You could make in Salford before the development of the Maker Space of course; universities in their essence produce innovators, creators and makers. The purpose of the Maker Space, however, is to develop a different philosophy to learning.

Making is all about learning whilst doing, it is collaborative by nature, applying creativity to solve problems. Yes, it’s about using cool tech, and there’s lots of that now, and lots to come, but as the MIT professor and father of the FabLab Neil Gershenfeld, states in his journal paper How to Make Almost Anything – The Digital Fabrication Revolution (Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2012).

“The real strength of a fab lab is not technical; it is social. The innovative people that drive a knowledge economy share a common trait: by definition, they are not good at following rules. To be able to invent, people need to question assumptions. They need to study and work in environments where it is safe to do that.”

The Maker Space at Salford provides a safe space for our staff, students, industry partners and community to use digital fabrication technology to problem solve, to learn through failure, to have time to listen and talk about ideas and to then work together to turn those ideas into reality.

We’re working with our academics to integrate making into their teaching. We’re developing live briefs with our industry partners for student projects, working with our industry sponsor Morson Group to challenge gender stereotypes in STEM subjects.

We’re running Maker Mondays, Tech Tuesdays as well as socials and meet ups to share knowledge, learn skills, and chat about ideas. We’re helping students win national competitions and even helped a student send a 3D print to space!