Hackerspaces and engineering education

During the past two years, we investigated the Louisville, Kentucky hackerspace as a venue for hosting undergraduate engineering student projects. The projects took place at LVL1.org, a collaborative workshop in downtown Louisville. There are such "makerspaces" or "hackerspaces" in most medium to large-sized US and European cities. Our nine participants developed a strong sense of project ownership during their semester, learned skills from hackerspace members, and were interviewed about the effect of the experience on their attitudes toward engineering. Most reported increased confidence in their problem-solving and project-planning abilities. Project-based learning is an important element in an engineer\´s education, because it gives opportunities for students to encounter the unexpected and exercise their creativity. The students were able to spend one semester working on their projects full time through the University of Louisville\´s cooperative education (Co-op) program. Co-ops proposed their own projects, and came from five different engineering departments: electrical, civil, industrial, mechanical, and bioengineering. We describe common themes found among our participants, including the "start-over" pattern and the pattern of activities when students encountered a new technical problem. We discuss how these experiences equipped the students with new skills and attitudes for tackling ill-structured problems.