From garage to workplace: Local college makerspaces to support manufacturing

The next big thing in startups could sprout from an unexpected source: one of four new entrepreneurial makerspaces located at Western Pennsylvania colleges.

The Community College of Allegheny County, Westmoreland County Community College, Penn State New Kensington’s Digital Foundry and Indiana University of Pennsylvania have created makerspaces to attract entrepreneurs and small-business manufacturers in the early stages of getting their tech-based products off the ground.

Sherri McCleary, executive director of the Digital Foundry at Penn State New Kensington, noted that the programs, including her university’s “Innovation Forge” program, are not as much like traditional artisan “makerspaces” as they are centers for manufacturing innovation.

“We’re helping existing businesses and people with new ideas to forge those ideas into something they can take forward,” she said. “We want to focus on bringing some of that tech economy that has become so big in Pittsburgh out into the surrounding areas, and helping people who have ideas around technologies, whether that is something with an idea in robotics or artificial intelligence, or a product that requires the use of new technologies, like 3D printing or a robotic assembly method.”

Tuesday Stanley, president of Westmoreland County Community College, said the college’s new Makerspace District program will be “a unique opportunity for us to foster innovation in the region.”

A new director will start work at WCCC on Aug. 1.

“We have the skilled faculty and equipment to help cutting-edge developers bring their vision to light,” Stanley said.

Workshop collaboration

The program, which will run out of Westmoreland County Community College’s Advanced Technology Center in East Huntingdon, will house multiple designers, entrepreneurs and small-business owners, who will be able to use the center’s manufacturing equipment to develop prototypes and early versions of products.

Byron Kohut, dean of the WCCC School of Technology, said the program is set up for an entrepreneur “who has an idea but doesn’t have capital, equipment or space.”

“We’ll have a committee here, and they’ll pitch an idea and we’ll see if it fits,” he said. “We’ll take entrepreneurs, and we’ll also work with existing companies that are working to prototype a new product.”

Sydney Beeler, vice president of enrollment management, said the Makerspace District represents an opportunity to “build Westmoreland County’s economic engine by investing in our local creative minds.”

“The Makerspace District will help rising entrepreneurs with access to needed resources, such as state-of-the-art equipment or subject matter experts, as well as infusing our community with innovation and jobs of the future,” she said. “(It) will provide unique learning experiences for our current and future students.”

The program will have two modes of participation. Alongside the startup model, people also will be able to become “members” of the program to come in for a set number of hours per week. Kohut described membership as being intended for people who might not yet be ready to start a business but are “tinkering with an idea.”

The Digital Foundry’s Innovation Forge program also will focus on two areas — existing manufacturers, and individuals or startup groups that have an idea that is in a “pre-revenue stage,” McCleary said.

“We really want to focus on things that are a little more focused on products with embedded technology, or requiring advanced technology, because that is where our expertise is,” she said.

Manufacturing mentorship

Though the Makerspace District program is run out of Westmoreland County Community College, Kohut doesn’t expect the participants to be college students. They’ll still receive an education from faculty and guests, he said.

The makerspace programs are funded through federal Build Back Better program grants.

“With the grant, we are able to bring in experts that we might not have available at our college,” he said. “If someone is doing additive manufacturing and they want to do metal manufacturing, we’ll bring an expert in to help them with it.”

One of the key aspects of the program is to allow the developers to take advantage of small-business development opportunities and mentorship, he said.

“This will give them an opportunity to have advanced equipment to work with, and people,” he said. “Our faculty will serve as mentors. My faculty are all experts in the trades — they’re all experts in welding, machining, additive manufacturing, robotics, industrial automation, electronics and drafting.”

The Makerspace portion of the center will be approximately 2,500 square feet with desks and office equipment for the entrepreneurs. Equipment for manufacturing and building will be included in the space, but members of the program also will have access to other equipment.

McCleary noted that the presence of four makerspaces in the region will help to spread out access to expertise and education.

“I think the intent was to create, geographically, options for people who are outside a lot of what was recently mostly accessible within the Pittsburgh region,” she said. “It’s about getting people some choices and some options, both with respect for expertise and focus, but with respect to geographical locations that may be more convenient for them.”

Kohut imagines the WCCC’s Makerspace District program as an “accelerator” for businesses and startups, helping people take their ideas, projects and business plans “from the garage to the workplace.”

“It’s taking someone and teaching them how to get their business started,” he said. “It really does revolve around the robotics industry — there’s a lot of parts to robotics. The goal of the grant is to continue to build robotics in Western Pennsylvania.”