IDeATe at 10: Celebrating a Decade of Collaborative Innovations

Instead of a treasure map, a peculiar lighting installation in the library’s stairwell leads visitors to IDeATe’s whimsical and funky underground haven — a maker’s paradise consisting of collaborative classrooms, a lending office, fabrication and physical computing labs, and a black box studio.

Aptly named "Ideation," this standout project from IDeATe's first decade is responsive to ambient sound, such as footsteps, voices, doors closing and the elevator, while offering a variety of interactions when people clap, play music or whistle. It was designed in 2015 by Jaime Chu and Robert Rudolph, two of the program's initial enrollees.

“The light installation has gone through a few iterations in the last 10 years,” said Kelly Delaney, assistant dean and the program’s primary contact since its inception, “but it still captures the essence of what the students wanted, which was to draw people’s attention to the basement where all these cool ideas and projects are taking shape.”

View the complete article on the CMU news website.