ORIENTATION VIDEO - new for 2025!
Starting in Fall 2025, we ask anyone who wishes to use the Makerspace to watch this short video. The orientation video introduces the space, explains access and basic safety, and tells you about the opportunities and expectations therein. Click above to watch the video, and then follow the QR link at its conclusion to take a short quiz that enables your OneCard access.
Wood Shop Certification - signup
Use of large woodshop equipment and power tools requires attendance at a 90-minute training session, offered in batches in the beginning (late Sept) and middle (early Nov) of the semester. If you would like to sign up for a time please follow the link to THIS FORM.
makerspace overview
Having launched in January 2018, the Swarthmore MakerSpace located in Whittier Hall is a physical and visual nexus for the MakerSpace Ecosystem and the Swarthmore Innovation Collaborative’s work. The space is an open and communal facility with resources for making, including tools for digital, mechanical, and manual fabrication. It is a testing ground for creative innovation, whether a student explores Japanese joinery in a studio course, or a group of students collaborate to build a solar powered speaker, the space generates more inter-disciplinary interaction on campus, particularly between Engineering and Art, but also from such departments as Theater, Computer Science, Biology, and Physics. In addition to curricular uses, we experience significant interest from individual students, faculty projects and community partnerships working on projects, as well as in attending regular workshops and training opportunities that are offered in the space.
The Makerspace has moved to Whittier Hall from its original location in Beardsley Hall, allowing for an expansion of digital fabrication, the procurement of a CNC router capable of handling 4' x 8' sheets of material. The location is closer to Singer Hall, allowing for more collaboration in an already existing partnership between the Makerspace and the Engineering Department's shop.
Follow the Makerspace on Instagram and Facebook to see ongoing projects and workshops.
