The Design Innovation Hub opened in 2020 and connects students, faculty and the community to a network of existing spaces, or DI Nodes, makerspaces and resource laboratories across the university. This connection will improve innovation at the intersections between disciplines and increase awareness and access to the broad range of university design, technology and resource laboratories.
Each of the nearly 30 DI Nodes is available to support students’ inquiries, not just those in their respective degree program areas. These nodes are part of the larger DI and “maker-culture” of the university and host challenge-based innovation events to support collaborative problem-solving.
Node locations include: College of Aeronautics and Engineering, Campus Kitchen, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, College of Education, Health and Human Services, LaunchNET, Liquid Crystal Institute,
MuseLab, Spark Innovation Studio, TechStyleLAB and many others.
The new DI Hub is located in the old Art Building and operates as an open-access collaborative maker and innovation accelerator environment at the center of the Kent Campus, to activate a community of inquisitive people and facilitate cross-disciplinary communication and problem-solving capacities.
The Hub contains a combination of core/typically-needed tools (laser cutter, 3D printer, CNC router, wide format printers, etc.) as well as specialized larger and/or specific pieces of equipment that are not already present in other academic areas across the university (in one of the DI NODES). The goal is to leverage and elevate the entire Design Innovation Ecosystem across all campuses at Kent State (DI HUB and DI NODES) to best expose our students and community members to the resources and possibilities.