By Kritin Karkare
 |
| Mark Liu in the EnVision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio |
First the EnVision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio doubled in size, and now it’s expanding its full time staff to better
support students. Undergraduate engineering and visual arts students using the
space to build, tinker and design projects are in for a treat: Mark Liu joined
the studio as the new lab manager in April. He’ll be providing students with
support as they work on projects requiring tools like laser cutters, 3D
printers, soldering irons and more.
EnVision supports
the Jacobs School of Engineering’s Experience Engineering Initiative to ensure all students have a hands-on or
experiential engineering course or lab every year — starting freshman year. There
are engineering and visual arts courses held in EnVision’s classroom space, and
students are able to use the studio for class assignments or projects of their
own on weekdays from 9 am to 8 pm.
Liu will help
students with questions about the tools available in the studio, provide input
and guidance when requested, and serve as a resource to the more than 1,000
students who use the studio each quarter.
Get to know Mark
in this Q&A, edited for clarity.
Q: You have a
background in mechanical engineering. What drew you to that?
ML: I always
liked building stuff-- as a kid I played with Legos, built little robots, and
have done FIRST robotics competitions for the last 10 years of my life as a
student and then mentor. FIRST Robotics, which organizes youth robotics
competitions around the world, is where I got experience running a lab, since
I’m a mentor and run a FIRST team. I helped build the machine shop the team uses,
and help the students use the tools.
Q: Is that what you’ll be doing at
EnVision?
ML: I’ll be helping Jesse DeWald
(EnVision Maker Studio Staff Director) with keeping everything running. In
particular, I’ll be working with our students, staff and faculty to ensure that
all of our classes have everything they need to be successful.
Q: How many different tools and
technologies can students use at EnVision?
ML: We have 15 3D printers, laser
cutters, CO2 laser cutters, a vacuum-former, and a printed circuit board oven.
There are soldering irons, microscopes, a drill press, 10 computers with
software for analysis and design including: CAD, MatLab, Adobe Suite and more.
There’s also a lot of bench space so students will come in here to work on
homework or projects and even hold meetings. It’s a great general workspace for
both engineers and artists.
Q: What do you like to do outside
of the EnVision studio?
ML: I’m into BattleBots and
aerial photography with drones and quad copters. Two years ago Battle Bots was
new to me but some friends had been doing it and I decided to join them. The
team that I joined had been doing it for 15 years. Battle Bots are basically
robots that can be remotely controlled and have weapons to fight other robots
in big televised competitions.
And way back when I was a freshman in high
school I took a video film class as an elective for art since I can’t draw for
my life. I took the video class because a few of my friends were in it, but I
picked up photography editing and really liked it. So now I enjoy drones and
aerial photography. That’s part of the reason why I think it’s cool that arts
students can use EnVision as well.
Q: What are you
most excited to work on?
ML: I’m excited to
expand the space. Over the summer, we’re going to knock one wall down to push
into the room next door so we can rearrange the studio portion. We’re also
trying to establish a components store—a lot of students come in and need a
resistor or capacitor, and now I have to say I’m sorry you have to go find
that. So we’d like to start a store that has arduinos and resistors and small
components for students. That’s a project we’re working on.
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