Making Space for Makerspaces W&L students have access to cutting-edge tools and technology through W&L's commitment to hands-on pedagogy.

By Kelsey Goodwin
January 20, 2026

"There aren't correct answers for pretty much anything in life. There's just a lot of different good directions."

~ Jay Margalus, Johnson Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership and director of the Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship

The Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship and the IQ Center are kicking off the new year with a collaborative partnership designed to make creative experimentation easier and more accessible for W&L students.

Starting this month, the two centers are now offering shared workshops that introduce students to tools and techniques available in both makerspaces, allowing students to gain the confidence to move more fluidly between early-stage tinkering and advanced fabrication.

"The Maker Program helps students go from idea to prototype to iteration with real tools and real constraints," says Jay Margalus, Johnson Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership and director of the Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship. "It's a guided, project-based program housed within the Connolly Center and IQ Center ecosystem. Students will get exclusive access to tools while learning vibe coding, core shop and digital fabrication skills, earning certifications and receiving coaching so they can build a tangible project."

The program offers certifications in web development, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D Rapid Prototyping and Vector Design (3D) and is open to all majors and skill levels.

"If you've wanted to learn the tools, build something physical or add a serious project to your portfolio, this is the on-ramp," Margalus says.

An idea might begin with cardboard, markers and conversation and end with digital fabrication, imaging or advanced materials. By offering shared workshops and coordinated programming, the two centers aim to help students see making as a continuum rather than a choice between spaces. Margalus says he views the Connolly Center's new makerspace, launched this fall in the basement of Holekamp Hall, as a natural extension of the kinds of experiences that students can access through the IQ Center, located in the Science Center.

"I look at the IQ Center as the makerspace exemplar," he says.

Margalus says the Connolly Center's makerspace was designed with a specific educational purpose in mind: to help students unlearn the linear habits of traditional schooling.

"We have 12 years of learning how to take tests and how to think toward an answer," Margalus says. "But, of course, there aren't correct answers for pretty much anything in life. There's just a lot of different good directions."

He sees it as a place where students can practice uncertainty at manageable levels.

"Entrepreneurship teaches students to take risks at increasing levels," he explains. "What you're really teaching them is how to be uncomfortable, which they are not used to."

That philosophy shapes how students use the space. Rather than emphasizing polished outcomes, the Connolly Center encourages exploration, iteration and play. The space supports early-stage prototyping, creative experimentation and student-run ventures, particularly through the Connolly Entrepreneurship Society, which holds its meetings there regularly. Students from all majors are encouraged to use the space, which offers access to low-fidelity prototyping tools, 3D printers, textile equipment and open work areas where students can build everything from early business prototypes to personal projects.

If the Connolly Center emphasizes experimentation and early exploration, the IQ Center brings depth, scale and technical range. The center, which opened in 2013, was originally conceived not as a makerspace, but as a shared research and teaching facility, a distinction that still shapes how it operates today.

"The term 'makerspace' didn't exist when this space was created," explains Dave Pfaff, senior academic technologist and director of the IQ Center. "The idea was a collaborative research and teaching space."

Over time, as new technologies were added and faculty from across campus began using the facility in unexpected ways, the IQ Center naturally evolved into something closely aligned with the maker movement. The facility now offers students access to multiple types of 3D printers; a professional laser cutter and vinyl cutter; sewing, embroidery and textile tools; motion capture and high-speed imaging systems; an electron microscope and water-jet cutter; and an open-access, high-performance computing lab.

What truly sets the IQ Center apart, Pfaff says, is both its breadth and its openness.

"It's made to be shared among any department," he says. "We try to bring in tools that have broad application across campus."

That philosophy has led to projects that span disciplines beyond those found in traditional STEM courses. A politics class once brought in students to design and physically make their own flags. Students learned digital design, laser cutting, sewing and embroidery to produce finished flags using IQ Center tools. And a medieval history class recreated historical paper-making techniques. Using modern tools to approximate medieval processes, students produced linen-based paper complete with watermarks. Pfaff says he enjoys learning alongside students with each request.

Together, the Connolly Center and the IQ Center now function less as separate destinations and more as a connected ecosystem that supports curiosity from its earliest spark through increasingly sophisticated forms of making and serves as a resource for faculty wanting to incorporate DIY projects into their syllabus. Connolly Entrepreneurship Society co-chair Pedro Liron de Robles '28 believes that the university's commitment to expanding student access to these spaces will invite in students who might not otherwise have thought of themselves as entrepreneurial and contribute to a campus culture that encourages exploration.

"We want to create a community of people who are interested in creating things," he says, "regardless of whether you have a lot of experience or prior knowledge."

Visiting assistant professor of education studies Sarah Margalus' Foundations of Education class is an example of how the university's makerspace ethos is already beginning to extend beyond campus. During Fall Term, Margalus' students partnered with Lylburn Downing Middle School (LDMS) in Lexington to help the school design, outfit and launch its first makerspace in the school's library, building on work she and and her students completed during the previous Winter Term to help the school create a plan for the space. The Community-Based Learning course asked students to use the LDMS makerspace as a case study for learning about educational philosophies and the goals of education in practice and to gain real-world experience by engaging with a public school.

The class explored educational models emphasizing experiential learning such as Montessori, progressive schools and other student-centered philosophies, and, for several students, the class was their first deep dive into maker-centered learning. Theresa Bridge, Lylburn Downing Middle School's librarian, says the middle school students who attended the program found the class's energy infectious.

"Several students wished the session had been longer because they were unable to complete their tasks during the allotted time," says Bridge. "Three of the five attendees returned the next day or within the next few days to complete their projects. I found it extremely helpful to have college students on hand for our students to work on projects with."

Jay Margalus is encouraged by W&L's collaborative approach to creating more opportunities for students in which learning can take place through creativity and experimentation.

"The fear of uncertainty is the greatest fear of all," he says. "If you can ratchet up the amount of uncertainty students are comfortable with, they'll expose themselves to all sorts of new things they've never experienced before, just because it's not as scary anymore."

Information about upcoming workshops and opportunities is available at maker.connollycenter.com.