CEID students celebrate manufacturing with creativity and fun

Today is October 3, 2014—do you know where your 3D printers are?

If you’re President Obama, who this morning proclaimed October 3 to be National Manufacturing Day, then you’re hoping those printers are in the hands of America’s next generation of creators and makers, doing what the President called “the important work of inspiring our young people to pursue careers in manufacturing and engineering.”

That, of course, is exactly what’s happening today—and every day—in Yale’s Center for Engineering Innovation & Design (CEID), where along with the 3D printers, students have access to many of the most important next-generation manufacturing tools, including a machine shop and a laser cutter—all in service of inspiring innovation.

“With a diverse membership that includes students representing every major and professional school at Yale, the CEID truly is a place where anyone, regardless of background or experience, can create,” says School of Engineering & Applied Science Deputy Dean Vince Wilczynski. “Our hope is that National Manufacturing Day’s celebration of engineering culture will encourage students who have never visited the CEID to come in and see what’s happening.”

And “what’s happening” is a lot, according to Wilczynski. Student-led clubs have already begun their regular meetings, laying the foundation for the many inventions they’ll build over the course of the 2014-2015 school year; and the CEID’s Wednesday Night Workshop series is also in full swing, including workshops on inventing smartphone apps, tearing down engines, and building night lights.

Additionally, the three courses taught in the CEID this fall are also fully underway, with students in “Musical Acoustics and Instrument Design” having already performed on the first musical instruments they built for the class. Both “Medical Device Design and Innovation” and “Mechanical Design: Process and Implementation” are also taking advantage of the CEID as they begin work on their semester-long final projects, which will be presented to the public in December.

“Final presentations for CEID courses are always engaging,” says Wilczynski. “It’s a chance to see just what’s possible when you encourage imagination to grow among the tools in the CEID.”