Who We Are
Brandeis Design and Innovation (BDI) in the Library at Brandeis University supports innovation and entrepreneurship in a welcoming and affirming space.
We build foundational digital literacy and playfully built mastery, so that our community can have the autonomy to explore and express their innermost curiosity.
Our creative spaces enable students, faculty, staff and alumni to improve the world by creating things with their hands, hearts, and minds. By doing this we contribute to the university’s mission of excellence in teaching, learning, and research.
Brandeis Design and Innovation was formerly known as the Brandeis Research, Technology, and Innovation Department, and is colloquially known as "The Makerlab".
What We Do
Innovative hands-on collaborations in Brandeis classrooms; weekly trainings and workshops
Our current research projects merge the physical and digital worlds, building bridges between STEM, Humanities, and Social Sciences disciplines.
24-hour design and prototyping challenges, invited talks, and sponsored Maker In Residence
Tools We Use
Tools that physicalize the digital world (3D printers, laser cutters, CNC)
Tools that digitize the real world (3D scanning, drones, computer vision, sensor data acquisition)
High intensity computers for crunching huge datasets, including our new High Performance Workstation, designed for students to develop machine learning experiments in a Windows or Linux environment
Hardware and software for prototyping embedded systems and robotics
“We are pragmatic dreamers; innovators with an outside-the-box question-everything mentality, with extreme respect for human rights and equal access, passionate about enabling all humans.”
Ian Roy ’05
Founding Head of Brandeis MakerLab