April 16, 2025
“IDeATe Open Studios” Photo Gallery
As part of Carnegie Mellon’s Spring Carnival festivities, the “2025 IDeATe Open Labs & Studios” welcomed a vibrant mix of students, faculty, alumni and guests for an afternoon of creativity, collaboration and hands-on discovery. Attendees had the chance to explore immersive, interdisciplinary student projects, seeing firsthand what can happen when students are provided the space and opportunity to ask “what if” and bring their bold ideas to life.
Through its 10 interdisciplinary minors (Game Design, Animation & Special Effects, Media Design, Sonic Arts, Design for Learning, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Intelligent Environments, Physical Computing, Soft Technologies and Immersive Technologies in Arts & Culture), the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) network at Carnegie Mellon invites undergraduate students from all majors tap into their discipline-specific strengths and collaborate with one another to show what is possible at the intersection of technology and the arts.
This year’s event, held on April 4, featured guided tours of the IDeATe facilities in the basement of Hunt Library led by Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences junior Zarmond Goodman, School of Computer Science senior Liam Hower, and 2019 College of Engineering graduate and current adjunct instructor Joseph Paetz. Various staff and faculty, including Academic Coordinator Ryan McKelvey, Assistant Teaching Professor Robert “Zach” Zacharias, and Assistant Teaching Professor Tom Corbett, facilitated playtests of student projects.
To learn more about the IDeATe program from a student perspective, watch “Maker’s Paradise: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s IDeATe Network.”
McKelvey plays “Wizorb,” a 2v2 3D wizard basketball game created in the Unity game engine, with Hower, one of the game creators, and two seated student participants.
McKelvey shows off a midterm inflatables course project titled, “Oh My God, Goldfish,” to longtime CMU volunteers and donors Michael Smith, a 1968 graduate of the College of Engineering and member of the Libraries Dean’s Advocacy Council, and his wife Lonna Smith, a 1969 graduate of the College of Fine Arts and member of the College of Fine Arts Dean’s Council.
Helen and Henry Posner, Jr. Dean of the University Libraries and Director of Emerging and Integrative Media Initiatives Keith Webster prepares to play an augmented reality version of the classic board game Battleship for the Tilt Five console, which uses a retro-reflective game board with special glasses and controllers.
IDeATe Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Director of the Learning Media Center (HCII) Marti Louw and IDeATe Associate Dean Richard Nisa play an augmented reality version of the classic board game Battleship.
During a visit to the Physical Computing Lab, Spring Carnival guests, including alumni, family and friends, test out an old retro game lab project, a robot version of Operation.
Zacharias speaks with guests in the Physical Computing Lab.
Goodman, an IDeATe student and tech advisor, speaks with guests in the Sewing Lab of the Soft Technologies Studio, which is available to students.
An alumnus taps his nose on the button of Mechanical Engineering senior Rongrong Wang’s “Push-up Pal,” a device made in Intro to Physical Computing that encourages the user to exercise.
In the IDeATe Commons, an alum touches a conductive pom-pom on a new interactive display, triggering LED lights to shift color.
