April 17, 2026
2026 “IDeATe Open Studios” Photo Gallery
As part of Carnegie Mellon’s Spring Carnival festivities, the 2026 “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 10, featured guided tours of the IDeATe facilities in the basement of Hunt Library led by IDeATe Assistant Dean Kelly Delaney and Associate Dean Rich Nisa. Various staff and faculty, including Academic Coordinator Ryan McKelvey, facilitated playtests of student projects.
During the tours, Assistant Dean Kelly Delaney led visitors through the various labs and workspaces in the basement of Hunt Library.
In IDeATe Studio A, Academic Coordinator Ryan McKelvey walked attendees through student projects on display. Here, McKelvey talks with 1981 Heinz College graduate Soumyo Moitra about the robotic looms used in 16-224.
In the Media Lab, College of Fine Arts senior Martin Baker shared their capstone project with visitors. The project is an audiovisual album composed for VR, created in the Unity Game Engine. The entire piece is comprised of three songs, each in a unique setting, exploring the relationship between sound and audio reactive particle systems.
Guests watched an excerpt from Baker’s capstone project, titled “At Some Point I Am No Longer Speaking.”
In the Fabrication Lab, Technical Specialist Cody Soska walked guests through equipment available to IDeATe students, including the 3D printers.
The Soft Technologies Studio is designed to support the IDeATe minor in Soft Technologies, offering sewing machines and plenty of materials and other tools.
Business Manager Gretchen Graff tries out the Robot Operation game on display.
El’Vonda Jacobs examines a robotic loom from 16224 IDeATe: Re-Crafting Computational Thinking with Soft Technologies. Students collaboratively built the weaving robot, which helped illustrate how weaving art is connected to computer programming and matrix mathematics.
During the tour, a group dropped in on Facilities Assistant Andy Perlman to check out the IDeATe Lending Office.
In the Physical Computing Lab, visitors view the carefully-arranged supplies that enable students to construct their projects.
McKelvey introduces Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation Curator of Art and Research Scholar Lydia Rosenberg to Steven, an electronic sculpture with functional audio cassette tape deck by College of Fine Arts sophomore Ebba Shim.
Attendees also had the chance to play “Wizorb 2K25,” a fast-paced 2v2 wizard basketball game created in Unity. The game was created by School of Computer Science fifth-year senior Liam Hower, College of Fine Arts senior Chori Jun, juniors Joy Leung and Yiming Li, College of Engineering senior Yujun Wu, and Tepper School of Business masters student Claudia Zhang for 53-471/-671 Game Design, Prototyping, and Production.
