A Creative Home on Campus

Sophomore Maya Beach finds inspiration in IDeATe, both in and out of class

Spring 2025 is the first semester that College of Engineering sophomore Maya Beach hasn’t been involved with a class that falls under the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) network. But that doesn’t mean she’s taking a break from the creative inquiry through making that IDeATe fosters in CMU students across disciplines.

While she’s not officially enrolled in a course, she still finds time to innovate and experiment in the collaborative making facility tucked in the basement of Hunt Library. This spring, Beach is using the resources available through IDeATe to bring her student organization’s Spring Carnival booth to life.

 An IDeATe Education

Beach enrolled in her first IDeATe class, The Culture of Color, her first semester on campus; she decided to pursue a soft technologies minor in addition to her mechanical engineering major not long after.

The Culture of Color introduced Beach to textiles, natural dyes, and how chemistry links the two together. Then, in spring 2024, she explored both the art and engineering of structures that respond to a human presence in Responsive Structures, where students learned about concepts like kinematics and sensor-based actuation. She also had the chance to explore spaces like the Soft Technologies Studio, which includes a sewing lab, fabrics, threads, and other supplies to facilitate project construction, as well as the Physical Computing Lab, which features a wide range of electronics, sensors, and craft supplies needed to make a prototype.

“IDeATe resources inspire creativity, and taking a class where you have access to these materials is very fun,” Beach said. “It’s a very free-form environment, and you’re encouraged to take risks with no consequences, just to see if they pay off.”

Building a Booth

“Think of it as a build-a-house club, with houses designed to fit a theme.” That’s how Beach describes Booth, which springs up on the Midway at the College of Fine Arts parking lot the week leading up to Carnival.

She is a member of the Student Dormitory Council (SDC), and serves as the organization’s Props Chair for the Carnival tradition. This means that she is responsible for overseeing the creation of decorations and other features that will appear in SDC’s booth — and IDeATe’s labs and equipment, which are free and accessible to all students who have completed necessary training, have enabled her to take her ideas to the next level.

“IDeATe has been an incredibly useful resource for so many aspects of our project, whether that’s laser cutting, experimenting with Arduino boards and battery packs, or simply finding wood glue and clamps to construct a small sign,” Beach explained. “It’s the perfect combination of great open spaces to work, essential equipment, and incredible staff who are happy to answer questions and offer suggestions.”

This year, SDC’s booth will bring to life the Disney-Pixar film “WALL-E,” tracing the robot’s journey from his little shed on Earth to the dystopian starliner “Axiom.” The team has envisioned a building-sized portrait of WALL-E — complete with four-foot actuating eyes — that will whisk Carnival attendees on an interactive adventure through the movie’s plot.

“Our leadership team has students from mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, information systems, and architecture, and the plan for WALL-E's moving eyes came to fruition thanks to our varied perspectives,” Beach said. “Different experiences like design, hardware selection through the College of Engineering, set rigging in the School of Drama, and summer construction jobs all helped inform our plan.”

Culture of Collaboration

The collaboration that happens during Booth echoes the spirit of interdisciplinary learning emphasized within IDeATe.

“When I was a teaching assistant for Culture of Color last semester, the interdisciplinary nature of IDeATe really stood out to me: I had context about each student’s home school and interests, and got to watch what themes showed up in their projects,” Beach said. “Collaborations were really notable — as students from different departments shared knowledge with each other, you could see their perspectives and approaches start to change.”

She has experienced this sharing of knowledge firsthand as well. She’s worked alongside students from disciplines like architecture, computer science, and design, and learned creative new ways to engage with challenges from them. IDeATe has inspired her to dream beyond the typical parameters of her major.

“IDeATe has opened my mind to this entirely different niche of engineering,” Beach said. “Whether I’m thinking about an IDeATe course like Inflatables or looking up how people make robotic props for our booth, I’ve found that creative structures like these are often used in parks like Disneyland, or maybe in a movie. There’s an entire world of creative engineering applications out there, and I’m excited to continue to explore over the next two years and beyond.”

You can visit SDC’s WALL-E booth during Spring Carnival Weekend.