The DCI Lab: home of stickers, arcade games, singing parrots

Pictured: Zuleyka Urieta; Photo by Samantha Rosinski, Staff Photographer

From making stickers for a water bottle and embroidering Greek letters to creating an arcade game from scratch and programming a robotic dog, there’s a space for everyone in the DCI Lab.

The Design/Create/Innovate Lab, better known as the DCI Lab, is a maker space located in the Keck Center and it is available for all students to use to make projects of all kinds. 

“Our doors are always open, we’re always open for questions,” said Kalin Richardson, a junior software engineering major who is a student worker at the Lab. “Just coming in to take a tour of the space just to see what exactly you can and can’t do (can be helpful).”

The DCI Lab is split into two separate labs: The Prototyping Lab — which has 3D printers, sticker maker and sewing and embroidery machines — and The Manufacturing Lab — which has laser cutter, saw machines and metalforming machinery. 

“You have access to a lot of different tools and we’re staffed during all of our open hours,” explained Miyuki Weldon, the Makerspace Manager. “You can always ask our staff for help so you can learn how to use a lot of these different pieces of equipment and get really knowledgeable technical help for free which is something that’ll be hard to find after you graduate”

Most students start with the Prototyping Lab where the equipment can be less intimidating.  There, they can learn how to use 3D printers, make stickers or sew and embroidery fun designs. All of the equipment is available to all students to use during its open hours.

“This is a space that can allow you to be creative and it’s at little to no cost to the user,” said Weldon. “We get a lot of students who want to make stickers for their water bottles or posters for their room and you can do it much cheaper here than if you do it online.”

To gain access to the DCI Lab, all students need to do is join the Canvas page, where they need to fill out an agreement form to gain access to the space. Depending on what students want to do in the makerspace, they might be required to pass certain quizzes to gain access to the equipment, but the quizzes are open note and with unlimited attempts. 
For students who feel like they want more guidance to get started using the DCI Lab, the staff holds biweekly workshops. There are intro workshops for new users to learn how to use the equipment, as well as custom workshops that may appeal to more experienced users, as they make use of the more advanced equipment.

“Every student will feel intimidated, even engineering students.There’s a lot of scary looking equipment,” said Weldon. “(The DCI Lab) is a space where anybody can learn how to use this stuff and you can start with something small like a sticker and then as you get more comfortable in the space you can grow into learning more different types of equipment.”

The DCI Lab is one of few similar places in universities that is open to all majors. Typically, spaces with equipment similar to that of the DCI Lab are only available to engineering majors, but Weldon feels like it's important for different majors to have access to the space.

“Part of being creative and designing is working with people of all different backgrounds, so you get a lot more interdisciplinary learning when all majors can use this space,” said Weldon. “In other universities you see a lot of repetition, (but) here for instance we get a lot of Dodge students that come out here and they make props for their films.”

One such project was a robot that was made for a thesis film, which was printed, sanded and painted in the Lab and also had some electronic components. A similar project were parrot puppets made from scratch for Chapman Student Orgs Productions.

“(The parrots) were made for a musical,” said Weldon. “They were designed and 3D printed so their heads turn and the wings flap and they were painted in here and there was a pattern made for the feathers. It was a really cool project that used a lot of different pieces of equipment and was interdisciplinary so it (has) engineering components to it but used in theater.”

Students have also used the DCI Lab to make costumes for themselves. 

“One of my friends actually 3D printed armor using a mix of fabric and PLA, the 3D printing material,” said Ashleigh Hahn, a senior television writing and production major. “I also have another friend who is printing a full body Five Nights at Freddy’s cosplay where each body part is made of the PLA.”

But the DCI Lab doesn’t necessarily have to be used for big projects. Students can also use the lab for smaller things such as dorm decorations or even fidget toys.

“I would print Rocktopi. I found it on Thingiverse. There was some talented artist, 3D modeler who decided to superimpose Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s head onto these little fidget octopi,” said Hahn. “I decided to try and print it in every color and just stick them around campus just to see what would happen.”

Many professors also use the DCI Lab for class projects, where the students get to make bigger projects. Richardson was project manager in one of those projects, where the class got to build an arcade game from scratch.

“We built an arcade all from hand,” said Richardson. “We (computer nuqqq, we laser cut, we did sticker printing, we did 3D printing… Everything for that arcade is all hand made here in our lab.”

Similarly, Hahn also got to use the DCI Lab to build costumes for kids in need as part of a class project.

“My favorite thing that I ever made was, the DCI Lab works with the professor who teaches engineering 300 and he does this project every year where he makes halloween costumes for kids in need,” explained Hahn. “I ended up making a Sally dress from ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ using a mix of the embroidery machine and the dye subbing materials and that was a lot of fun to make and seeing the little kid smile also made me really happy.”

The DCI Lab is fully staffed during its operating hours and the student workers are always available to help students with questions they may have. Both Weldon and the student workers consider it a priority to make the Lab as accessible as possible to all students.

“We want to have more students and staff and faculty from all over campus, we don’t want to be just an engineering space,” explained Weldon. “We really encourage everyone to come in.”