Knowledge is multiplied in the MakerSpace classroom, located in the hall from the Higher School of Technology and Engineering of the University of La Laguna: while a Fine Arts student finalizes the details of a 3D printing, an electronic engineer tests a communication system, a computer scientist works on the construction of a new code and a astrophysicist adjusts his telescope. Each one is nourished by the work of the other, they ask questions and exchange ideas in a multidisciplinary space that adjusts to all needs, a laboratory and workshop that invites collaboration and research, to put into practice everything learned in the degree. This is how the vision that the Cepsa Foundation and the University of La Laguna, promoters of this multipurpose classroom, had a few years ago materialized.
The new laboratory and workshop of the Cepsa Foundation Chair for Ecological Transition and Innovation at the University of La Laguna was inaugurated last March and has now become the operations center for Teidesat, the team made up of university students who has the objective of designing, building, placing in orbit and operating a nanosatellite based on the CubeSat standard.
It was precisely they who took on the task of designing, equipping and manufacturing the furniture for this space. “Last summer the project started. They trusted us because we already had some experience at an administrative level with the University and because being students was also an added value: we know first-hand what the equipment needs are”, sums up Joshua Barrios, student of a master’s degree in Astrophysics, member of the TeideSat team and one of the MakerSpace coordinators.
The students involved in the launch of this space worked for months on its design and development: from the manufacture of the tables, to the purchase of all the necessary material for its implementation. “First of all, we conducted a survey with the university community to see what their needs were. A place was needed
tinkering, a place to meet, where we can record with a certain quality, a studio”, he confesses. The task went much further. ”We have done everything ourselves and we have been learning new skills along the way, because each one contributed the part they knew. A colleague taught us to weld, the designers from Fine Arts and Interior Design designed the space and the furniture, the administration of the ULL helped us with the purchases and with the organization of the material, the engineering and electronics colleagues contributed their own and They fed on the knowledge of others. We learned to register with the Treasury, to hire, to make an occupational risk plan,” adds Barrios.
MakerSpace is equipped with a wide assortment of electrical and electronic tools and materials, large format 3D printers, laser cutting machine, augmented reality technology, and 3D scanner. A powerful computer that will be used, among many other uses, to carry out advanced simulations. Televisions, screens and all the necessary equipment to organize streaming transmissions, collective video conferences and podcasts.
For now, this workshop is being used by the TeideSat team and also by the members of MotoStudents, a team of students who are developing a project to build an electric motorcycle. “Later, you can reserve the use of the classroom, but, for now, to use the MakerSpace you only have to be part of the university community, have a project and come here,” adds Barrios.
From a workshop to a recording studio
The MakerSpace classroom can be converted into a true recording studio, a meeting and training room, a workshop for manufacturing components, or even a control room for when the satellite reaches space. All this, thanks to a series of panels designed by the students and which have multiple uses. These panels are used for soundproofing, they can be turned into blackboards, supports for chromas and protection barriers when you want to use tools such as radials.
This space has a capacity for up to 30 people and is therefore considered as a space open to multiple modes of use, which can be organized and modulated according to the needs of its users at all times. In this sense, it can also be used as an exhibition hall or for carrying out electronic and radio tasks. To these uses is added the MOOC classroom, for the recording of courses on-line massive.
Behind this project there has been the encouragement and invaluable support of the director of the Chair, Elena Pastor, and the heads of the Cepsa Foundation in the Islands, Belén Machado, as well as the director of Corporate Relations of Cepsa in Andalusia and the Canary Islands. , Jesús Velasco, who wanted to know on the ground the functionalities of the classroom before its start-up.
With this project, the Cepsa Foundation Chair of the ULL, created in 2018, takes another step in promoting research, training, scientific dissemination and knowledge transfer, in this case through the implementation of practical activities on the part of the students that allow them to advance towards a global formation.
