Part 4: An Insider’s Tour of the Innevation Center Makerspace
Welcome to the Innevation Center! In this 4-part blog post, you’ll get an insider’s tour of the University of Nevada, Reno Innevation Center – Powered by Switch. In Part 1, we visited the first floor of the Reno Innevation Center. In, Part 2, we headed up one floor to visit the coworking space and meet the second floor companies that call the Innevation Center home. In Part 3, we explored the top floor of the Innevation Center and visited with the companies that use the Innevation Center on the daily. Finally in this section, Part 4, we are headed down to the basement to visit what is arguably the most exciting part of the building, the Makerspace!
The Innevation Center Makerspace
But first… The Elevator
So you’ve seen the rest of the Reno Innevation Center, or maybe not, maybe you skipped Floors 1-3 and headed straight to the Makerspace! For those of us headed from the third floor in Part 3 all the way down to Floor 0, I insist we take the elevator.
Looks nice right? The elevator is such a fun example of the creative, artistic, and DIY attitude in the Makerspace. If you’re from Reno, you’ll recognize the city skyline decal that spans the perimeter is actually the Reno skyline. The blue and silver color scheme comes from the UNR colors found throughout the Reno Innevation Center. Alongside the creativity is the scrappy resourcefulness that is always present in the Makerspace: the silver top half is actually carefully adhered vinyl, the blue bottoms are colored acrylic that are kick and scratch resistant, and the white light diffuser in the ceiling is actually just plastic mesh purchased from the local plastic shop. All together it is a beautiful and practical work of art that everyone in the space can enjoy.
The Design Lab
Ultimaker 3D printers 
Stratasys and custom 3D printers
The first room of the Makerspace is the Design Lab. In the Design Lab there are six workstations outfitted with Solidworks Premium as a well as a slew of other useful design software. On the far table, there is a high-powered computer that is ideal for heavy processing requirements such as rendering and 3D scanning. Around the perimeter is the Makerspace’s fleet of 3D printers that can accommodate most 3D printed prototyping needs. Included in the line up are two Ultimaker 3Es, a Prusa i3MK2, a Stratasys F270, and two FormLab 2s. For a full line up of the 3D printers and equipment available at the Makerspace, visit the Equipment List on the Makerspace’s website.
The Makerspace Staff – Student Makers
The Makerspace Staff is really what turns the Makerspace from a room full of equipment to a creative space where anything feels possible. The staff, dubbed Student Makers, is fully comprised of UNR students who are guided and supported by the Makerspace Specialist. They come from a variety of disciplines but come together in their passion for hands on creating and helping others do the same. At the Makerspace, they run the 3D printers as a service, train users on all the equipment in the Makerspace, maintain all said equipment, and are always there to help other makers ideate, generate solutions to their problems, and help with projects in general.
The Prototyping Machine Shop
After sketching and designing your idea in the Design Lab, it’s time to build which is exactly what the Prototyping Machine Shop is for. In the prototyping machine shop lives the laser cutter, CNC mill and lathe, band saws, a drill press, and power tools among even more equipment. The laser cutter is the most used piece of equipment here and for good reason – it is super easy to learn and has a lot of capabilities cutting wood up to 3/8” thick and acrylic up to 1/2″ thick. However do keep in mind that this machine cannot cut metal of ANY thickness. The staff can train makers on almost every piece of equipment in the Makerspace except for the CNC mill and lathe which takes a long time to learn to be safe on. However they are working on creating entry level CNC classes to get you started on your CNC learning journey.
Machine shop equipment. 
Laser cutter.
The Beta Space
The Beta Space might more aptly be called the project space. This is where projects come to life because they’ve been thought up and designed in the Design Lab and created in the Prototyping Machine Shop. In the Beta Space, it is time to put everything together and add the final touches. Here you’ll find an electronics lab with breadboards and rework stations, a large vinyl cutter for cutting out stickers, and a sewing machine! A little bird told me that the Makerspace is revamping their sewing machine setup! You’ll also find play time equipment in the Beta Space including a ping-pong table and electric bicycles that can be borrowed for the day.
Electronics lab. 
Electric bikes.
The Podcasting Studio
The last stop in our Makerspace tour is the Podcasting Studio. This great little booth was set up by the Reynolds School of Journalism (Thanks J-School!) to make podcasting accessible to the community. With support from the J-School, the Reno Innevation Center is able to rent out this equipment students and the community to use for podcasting projects.
And that brings us full circle! If you are interested in using the Makerspace, definitely visit the Makerspace website and click on Makerspace Orientation. It goes over what to expect during a New Maker Orientation which takes roughly 30 minutes to get paperwork and basic safety training completed. If you’re not quite ready for that, you can take a tour of the Makerspace any time during business hours – no appointment necessary!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk-through of the Innevation Center Makerspace! If you didn’t already know, I am the Assistant Director at the Innevation Center and if you have any questions whatsoever about accessing or visiting the space, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I’m available on LinkedIn or Twitter or you can email me directly at crystalh@unr.edu. Or you can visit me at my desk on the first floor of the Innevation Center! If you’d like to continue seeing my blogs on innovation, business development, and our community, subscribe to my blog on the right. Thanks for reading!
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