Wichita State’s new makerspace to give public a place to build

Backyard tinkerers and garage inventors could soon gain a new favorite place in town: Wichita State University’s makerspace.

The university, with a big assist from the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation, included the 18,152-square-foot space in its new Experiential Engineering Building, which is now under construction on the east side of campus as part of the university’s Innovation Campus.

On Friday morning, hundreds of officials, students and well-wishers gathered in Beggs Hall to dedicate the rising building and unveil the name for the makerspace, which will be called GoCreate.

GoCreate will be more than an encouraging name, say WSU officials. It will be a way for members of the public to act on their bright ideas by manufacturing prototypes for new inventions.

The space will have sophisticated manufacturing machines such cutters and lathes, as well as computers.

It’s a method for unleashing the creativity and technical skill of thousands of citizens to build the local economy, said John Tomblin, WSU’s vice president for Research and Technology Transfer.

The center removes some of the hurdles prospective entrepreneurs face; many have the talent, skills and ideas to create exciting new products, but they lack the money or know-how to turn that idea into a successful business.

“There are 35,000 machinists in this town,” Tomblin said. “They don’t get to use Spirit’s machines for their ideas.”

The university also offers staff who can help entrepreneurs decide whether there is a market for their products, help with business plans, even help find mentors and investors, said WSU president John Bardo.

“This entity, this thing, this space, can make such a difference in the lives of our community,” Bardo told the crowd. “It’s about how we engage the community to create something new.

“Maybe it’s somebody who has struggled, maybe because they didn’t have the right education, but maybe they had this really cool idea. And now they have the right place to come where they can learn how to make that idea, and given the resources of the university, they can walk right to our technology transfer office and talk to our entrepreneurship faculty, and they can build a business plan, and they can create a business that can change the future for their family.”

Koch Industries and the Koch Foundation pledged $3.75 million to establish GoCreate, part of $11.25 million Koch pledged to create and advance programs at WSU to help students become entrepreneurs and business leaders. Koch’s gift provides scholarships and training stipends to qualifying applicants based on financial need, as well as mentoring support through fellowships.

Liz Koch, president of the Koch Foundation, spoke at the event, unveiling the name and logo, which was created by Greteman Group. Koch said later that the GoCreate and the Innovation Campus are a natural fit with the culture at Koch Industries.

“It’s a perfect fit for Koch, which is basically a discovery company,” Koch said. “Wichita State is all about young people and innovation and all the exciting things that go with that.”

The makerspace will be on the first floor of the three-story, 142,000-square-foot Experiential Engineering Building, which will be packed with laboratories for everything from aerospace structures to meteorology. It will be part of a campus expansion onto the former Braeburn Golf Course that will include corporate research and engineering buildings, for companies such as Airbus and Dassault Systemes.

“When you talk about the Innovation Campus, you are going to see a mall running along the golf course and you are going to see a gateway,” Tomblin said.

“That’s what we are talking about today: It’s the gateway to innovation, and the Experiential Engineering Building is the gateway.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s new makerspace to give public a place to build."