Making Physical and Digital Models
Our office supports hands-on, creative scholarship by helping students and faculty design and build the physical and digital components of their projects. Whether you are fabricating a scale model on the laser cutter, prototyping with 3D printers, capturing immersive media with VR headsets, or producing high-quality photo, video, and audio recordings, we can guide you from concept to completion. These tools open possibilities across disciplines: architecture students can construct spatial models, engineering classes can prototype designs, and researchers can create digital twins to simulate and study real-world environments and artifacts. We provide consultation on project planning, file preparation, materials, and workflows—helping you translate ideas into tangible outcomes. If you are imagining a model, prototype, or immersive experience and are not sure where to begin, we invite you to start a conversation with us.
We can assist at the individual, small-group, or whole-class level. If you are doing a resource-intensive project, we ask that you supply the consumable goods (ex. acrylic, paper, filament, etc).
3D Printing
Students and faculty have used our printers for creating customized lab equipment, prototypes, and models. We offer support in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and printing. For more information on our printers, please visit this site under The Hatchery.
Laser Cutting
We obtained our laser cutter at the start of the Fall 2025 semester. We have used the laser cutter for a student architecture project and have also used it to create replacement mirrors for the photography dark room, as well as making various signs and labels. The laser cutter requires a staff member to be present in order to function, limiting availability to within working hours. For more information on the laser cutter, please visit this site under The Hatchery.
Digital Twins
We offer support for creating digital twins of both small and large scale objects. We can help you capture images for photogrammetry using a DSLR camera, rotating platform, and light box, a Matterport 360 camera, or drone. We also have limited licensing for Metashape, which can stitch your images together to create a dimensional digital replica of the space or object.
