Inside IDeATe: Fabrication Lab
By Riona Duncan
The Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) network is an academic program with a collaborative making facility in the basement of Hunt Library. Home to various studios and work spaces where students can work on creative projects, the IDeATe program itself has 10 minors, along with courses that train you how to use these areas, which are available to students in all disciplines. IDeATe focuses on creativity and collaboration, and its spaces offer students room to experiment at the intersection of technology and art.
The IDeATe Fabrication Lab consists of two rooms in IDeATe, and can be found in A5 in the basement of Hunt Library. There are many IDeATe classes that use the area, and all IDeATe students have key-card access to the space. However, access to the space is not limited to students that have taken IDeATe classes.
Open hours, when the Fab Lab fabrication room is available for use by all members of the CMU community, are being held 5-6 p.m. on weekdays during the Fall 2025 semester. Staff and student workers are available at this time to ensure safety and provide help with fabrication and prototyping projects. (Note that some specialized equipment in A5B is restricted to IDeATe students who have completed the required training.)
“IDeATe is an academic program and service ecosystem in integrated media and fabrication,” said Cody Soska, the Technical Specialist for IDeATe. “All of the educational technology in IDeATe is sourced and maintained to help students seamlessly get work done based on learning science principles, alignment with curriculums across the university, and first-hand experience.”
The Fab Lab has an array of fabrication equipment including hand tools, a drill press, a sewing machine, hardware, fasteners, and crafting supplies. It also has laser cutters and 3D printers.
To use the Fab Lab’s laser cutters, IDeATe students must email help@ideate.cmu.edu after they have read the IDeATe’s Epilog guide and completed Laser Cutter and Fire Extinguisher training. If you’re not an IDeATe student, you can also receive access to the laser cutters if you have been trained on similar epilog laser cutters — just reach out to help@ideate.cmu.edu after doing the safety training and reading the guide. More information on this policy can be found on the laser cutters page.
The laser cutters may only be used if there is an IDeATe staff member or authorized safety monitor on duty, and must use approved materials.
IDeATe provides flat stock for the laser cutters including:
Student worker Merlin Enriquez, a junior studying art in the College of Fine Arts, helps monitor the laser cutters. “I work to maintain the space and make materials and advice accessible to students,” they said. “I also use the Fab Lab for my own projects as a student in the School of Art. For one of my art pieces I cut and engraved a life size green card for a project about the conversations around immigration, which I could do because I had access to the laser cutters and materials in IDeATe.”
For 3D printing, students in approved courses should add their files to their class submission folders. Other members of the CMU community can email help@ideate.cmu.edu for inquiries. IDeATe provides free filament if the printing request is for a CMU class project.
The 3D printers in the Fab Lab are:
College of Fine Arts sophomore Tabris Wang, who is majoring in architecture, has been using the Fab Lab’s 3D printers for 53-332: Advanced Look Into Development. 53-332 is an IDeATe class where students print models and create textures both physically, with paint, and digitally with a texture painting software. However, this isn’t her first project using the Fab Lab’s resources.
“I’m in the Game Creation Society, and last year I worked to model the characters for a game. Then the team leader printed models of the characters in IDeATe, and it was so cool to see our ideas become reality,” she said.
Riona Duncan is a student writer covering the University Libraries, the ETC, IDeATe, and the CMU Press. She is a junior studying Literature & Culture, with an additional major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. This past summer, she worked as a newsroom intern at 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR news station, and she is also the Public Affairs Director at Carnegie Mellon’s college radio station WRCT.