Source: People’s Daily Overseas Edition, Nov.29, 2013, HAO Qing
Innovation is the soul of a nation’s progress and an inexhaustible driving force behind a country’s prosperity. The development of human society is itself a history of continuous innovation.
In today’s Internet age, everyone is a form of web media, a potential creator and a link in the industrial chain. To welcome an era of “individual manufacturing” in the future, people will be able to apply internet and latest industrial technologies to their creative practices and to make their home a manufacturing space.
Makers making products in various fields.
Creators missioned with innovation are making their presence in various fields such as art, handicraft, science, engineering, food, music etc, creating products from emotion-triggered color-changing clothes to 3D light beams showing visual feast to the audience, printers that print 3D chocolates and human shapes, magical devices that write according to the writers’ visual direction and so on.
The Chinese phrase “Chuangke” comes from the English word “Hacker/Maker”, which refers to anyone who strives to turn creativity into reality.
Makers interaction igniting sparks of creative ideas
The 4th floor of Zhongguancun Dream Lab has some surreal handicraft articles and models on display. WANG Shenglin, the head of the Lab, while expecting us there, said, “Take a seat, please. We have designed all the chairs here.” Several armchairs made of cardboard were placed alongside a glass table, surrounded an array of cubicles, similar to a cubicle seat in a restaurant. Makers exchange creative ideas in these cubicles.
Currently, the weekly technical sharing session held by the Makerspace draws hundreds to attend. “This is a dream lab. No matter which industries and what backgrounds you are from, as long as you have ideas, come to the lab and help yourself with our free space, devices and human resources” said WANG Shenglin, “I hope more and more ‘makerspaces’ will be created throughout China. The power of one innovation team is limited, but a nationwide collective of teams can cook a storm of innovation revolution, say, a big accomplishment for our time.”
The value of makers in sharing.
“Maker project is the source of creativity and the starting point of creation. Any individual who is engaged in creative activities or strives to turn creativity into reality is called a maker” said GU Xueyong, the man who introduced maker activity into Tsinghua University. An associate professor from the Department of Industrial Engineering, he said, “the aim of introducing maker project is to provide up-to-date creative materials for teachers and students on-campus and a channel for teachers and students to have inter-country dialogue with other makers. The value of makers lay in its updated content that is the source material for learning and the origin of knowledge.”
WANG Deyu, a Department of industrial engineering postgraduate, told the journalist, “My research topic is about safe driving in the traffic system. Maker projects and several other interdisciplinary projects in our university have provided a unique opportunity for me to bring together the latest knowledge and the best talent from various fields. My future studies will be to explore interdisciplinary knowledge similarities.”
Currently, Tsinghua is turning its Fundamental Industry Training Center into Makerspace. The workshop area of 15,000 square meters is equipped with hundreds of digital controlled lathes, machine tools, milling machines, 3D printers, 3D scanners and so on for makers to use. In future, Tsinghua Makerspace is expected to be open to off-campus users, bringing together makers from Beijing as well as from the rest of the country.
