1.

INTRODUCTION: UNIVERSITY MAKERSPACE FOR EDUCATION AND OPEN INNOVATION

The region around Jena has a long tradition in the field of optics and photonics which goes back to the fundamental works of Ernst Abbe, Carl Zeiss and Otto Schott in the late 19^th century. Over the years, a very viable and competitive photonics cluster has evolved in that area of Germany. Nowadays, more than 15,800 jobs in industry and academia in that region are connected to photonics.¹ Part of this viable ecosystem is also the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena which is positioned as one of the leading educational centers in the field of optics and photonics.

In the year 2017 the university started to establish a Makerspace that has a specific focus on photonics to complement the education programs with a more hands-on approach. This aligns with the trend that recently more and more universities establishing Makerspaces.² A Makerspace is a shared physical space where people can use digital fabrication tools like 3D printers, laser cutters, microcontrollers, and in this case also a fully equipped state-of-the-art optics laboratory, to experiment, build and share their knowledge with each other.^3,4,5 The so-called “Lichtwerkstatt Jena – Open Photonics Makerspace” (Lichtwerkstatt is the German word for workshop) is located at the Abbe Center of Photonics and thereby integrated into the Abbe School of Photonics which enables easy access for university members, students, researchers of different disciplines and the maker community to use this ideation and experimentation space.

The Abbe School of Photonics (ASP) offers programs to educate in the broad spectrum of optical and photonics technology. The program covers state-of the art scientific aspects as well as engineering, with potential applications in areas such as information and communication technologies, medicine and health, manufacturing and energy consumption. ASP students are prepared for positions in both, industry and academic research.

The Master’s degree and doctoral programs benefit from the experience in optics education having a long-lasting tradition at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena. Optics and photonics are one of the university’s key profile fields in education and research. The education programs of the Abbe School of Photonics are part of a modern research infrastructure belonging to the Abbe Center of Photonics. Through the Abbe Center of Photonics, the University interlinks with local research institutions such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, the Helmholtz Institute Jena and a number of prominent industrial partners

One of the main goals of the Makerspace is to deliver a hands-on experience to the participants and give them the opportunity to experiment, fail, learn and share experiences in a save learning environment during their studies before they hit the job market. An important part of the Lichtwerkstatt Jena – Open Photonics Makerspace concept is that it is not closed to be used only by university members but is following an open approach. This makes it also interesting for companies to get in contact with the Makerspace because more and more companies are recognizing that they have to open up their innovation processes and integrate external knowledge to stay competitive.⁶ Especially in the optics and photonics industry the establishment of open innovation practices is in discussion.⁷ This development aligns with the goal of the Makerspace to establish and foster open innovation processes within the photonics industry which on the other side supports the strategy of the Abbe Center of Photonics maintaining long-term relationships to major photonics and optics companies in Germany. The Makerspace at the Abbe Center of Photonics enables industry partners to establish open innovation processes by sharing innovation challenges with the highly educated and technically skilled users of the Makerspace, the so-called Makers (e.g. students, researchers, start-ups). For the companies the usage of a Makerspace is beneficial due to knowledge inflows from outside the company while for the Makers it is interesting to enrich their education by working on recent industry challenges, by getting access to exclusive technologies and by having direct access to possible employers.

The Makerspace receives funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Three institutions are involved in the project: the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering and the University of Applied Sciences Mainz. While the first two institutions have expertise in the field of optics and photonics, the University of Applied Sciences Mainz complements the project with expertise in the fields of business management and human-centered-design methods to unleash the creative potential of the interdisciplinary teams who are working within the Makerspace.

2.

LICHTWERKSTATT JENA – OPEN PHOTONICS MAKERSPACE

2.3

Event Formats: Education and Community Building

Due to the fact that the Makerspace was established as a top-down decision and did not evolve out of an already existing community it was important to build a sustainable community that is consistently using the Makerspace. To foster the community building the Lichtwerkstatt Jena team developed an educational program which starts with formats to inspire people to use the Makerspace and later get involved in more sophisticated formats where the participants build first prototypes to tackle current industry challenges. The following graph shows the formats used to build the viable community around the established Makerspace:

Figure 1.

Education formats offered by the Lichtwerkstatt Jena – Open Photonics Makerspace.

According to the individual knowledge level, in some of the education formats the participants could choose between the two stages “Basic” and “Pro”: The “Basic” courses provide an introduction to a specific topic and are designed to be understood by everyone without prior knowledge. The “Pro” events aim at advanced participants who already have previous knowledge of the topic and would like to deepen their knowledge.

• (a) Lectures: During the event, experts give an overview of the current state of science and technology, as well as current Makers of the Lichtwerkstatt Jena give an insight into their projects. The audience has the opportunity for questions and discussions. Lectures in particular aim to increase the awareness of the Lichtwerkstatt Jena, to give the participants a low-threshold access to the Makerspace to set impulses or inspiration for own project ideas.

• (b) Workshops: Together with an expert, the participants develop application possibilities of specific technologies or procedures and use them directly in their own projects. In addition to just theoretical knowledge building the participants have the chance to enhance their knowledge with hands-on experience. Workshops aim to initiate and promote idea development and practical execution by the participants.

• (c) Hackathons: The teams develop solutions to tackle current problems of science and industry partners. The challenge is to create concepts or demonstrators within a short specific timeframe e.g. 24 or 48 hours. At the end of the event the participants pitch their ideas. The goal is a result-oriented application of specific technologies for the creation of innovative concepts and demonstrators. This format is also used to initiate long-term projects for the Makerspace.

• (d) Innovation Camps: This format is closely linked to the industry partners. In the collaboration project with companies, participants will be tasked with developing hardware and software-based solutions to current industry challenges. Within the multi-day event or the several-week processing phases, the teams develop ideas and tangible prototypes. In return, they gain access to exclusive technologies or data and work together with the companies. Depending on the tasks, topic-specific workshops are integrated into the format. Finally, the participants present their solutions in front of a specialist jury and the partner companies.

• (e) OpenLab: The Makers have the opportunity to get to know and try out the technologies, procedures and materials of the Lichtwerkstatt Jena. The event offers space to exchange about experiences and to find suggestions for new joint projects. Mentors share their knowledge and assist with questions.

• (f) Open Format: To stress the open character of the Makerspace approach the “open format” is a venue to experiment with different formats brought by industry or academia. For example, the University of Applied Sciences Mainz used this option to involve the Makerspace into an innovation seminar. The “Hands-on Innovation” seminar was held for business students at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz. The goal of the seminar was it to engage business students as Makers and provide them with basic knowledge in digital fabrication and photonics technologies such as LED-lighting or optical sensors to unleash their creative potential. In the course of the 3-month 3-hours per week seminar, the 32 business students had developed eight different ideas by using photonics technologies and the expertise provided by the Lichtwerkstatt Jena. The ideas showed a broad variety in terms of their innovative potential and in terms of technologies, e.g. one group of students built a carbon monoxide detecting lamp, others developed a smart mirror that could show weather forecasts and information about upcoming meetings, and finally another group formed an artistic LED-table for entertainment purposes.

Figure 2.

Impressions of the “Hands-on Innovation” seminar at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz involving the expertise of the Lichtwerkstatt Jena – Open Photonics Makerspace.

3.

RECENT MAKERSPACE OUTCOMES

Due to the establishment of the above-mentioned event formats more and more projects are evolving in the Lichtwerkstatt Jena. The Makerspace supports different kind of projects which are started by students, researchers and other Makers e.g. an open source single pixel camera project or a project which investigates the possibility to use smartphones for lithography and a medical drone which uses photonics technologies to offer an improved first aid service in areas which are hard to reach with existing solutions. In this section, two recently nurtured Makerspace projects are described in more detail to give a short impression what the Makerspace is used for and what can evolve out of an University Makerspace and the Maker community.

Figure 3.

Concept of the in-line holography microscope based on the UC2 modular microscope system. (source: https://github.com/bionanoimaging/UC2-GIT)

Figure 4.

Design prototype of the Fraunhofer IOF low-cost 3d capturing development-kit. (source: Fraunhofer IOF)

4.

BENEFITS OF AN UNIVERSITY MAKERSPACE

The establishment of an University Makerspace seems to be a first step to give university members like students, PhD students, Post-Docs etc. the possibility to transfer their ideas into prototypes or products and thereby to transfer intellectual property generated in the universities to the marketplace easier. Use of the Makerspace is not limited to those working within the university. The space is also a place where external knowledge migrates back to the university e.g., when used by established companies, start-ups or people who are just interested in photonics.

In this sense, a Makerspace can be an opportunity to engage knowledge flows in and out of academic institutions which aligns with the idea of open innovation.⁶ The effect of a University Makerspace would be even stronger if it is understood as a complementary education and rapid-prototyping service. In this sense, it should be well connected to the curriculum and other university services offered by the university entrepreneurship centers, for example. One recent observation at the Abbe Center of Photonics is that more and more scientists use the Makerspace for rapid prototyping of parts needed for their optical laboratory experiments. In this way, the needed parts undergo different design iterations very quickly and, thus, avoid long delivery or manufacturing times. Furthermore, to facilitate the transition from research to the industry as well as support start-ups the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena and the Fraunhofer IOF have established the Digital Innovation Hub Photonics (DIHP) just close by the Lichtwerkstatt Jena. The DIHP complements the offerings of the Makerspace (www.innohub-photonics.de) by offering different services to foster the innovation culture in the photonics industry e.g. by supporting start-ups in the process of establishing strategic partnerships with photonics companies and thereby accelerate the growth and time to market for the new ventures. Figure 5 summarizes some of the benefits achieved through the establishment of an University Makerspace.

Figure 5.

Benefits of an University Makerspace by different stakeholders.