Kettering University unveils Opportunity Lab to help entrepreneurs think, tinker and thrive

FLINT, MI – A new space at Kettering University may help students turn ideas into reality. It symbolizes the future of the institution.

It's a space not just for working, but also collaboration, creativity and really whatever students want it to be.

Kettering administration, faculty, staff and students celebrated the grand opening of the Opportunity Lab – also called the T-Space – Wednesday, Dec. 3. "T-Space" refers to the keywords for the area -- "Think, Tinker and Thrive."

Created by a Kettering University graduate, the T-space was created to be an ever-changing space to mold into what the students need.

"(We are creating) pieces of an ecosystem that focuses on entrepreneurial thinking. This is one of those pieces," said Massoud Tavakoli, Kettering mechanical engineering professor and director of the Innovation to Entrepreneurship Across the University (i2e-AU) initiative.

The space, located in the Mott Building, now provides students access to 3D printing, laser cutting, soldering and other utilities to work on small electric and mechanical prototypes.

The roughly 2,500-square-foot T-Space will constantly be evolving, but will begin as a place for light prototyping with access to whiteboards, moveable furniture, music creation, communication devices and a green room for animation and multimedia production.

It helps the students and graduates create a better world with the technological skills they learn at the university and in the lab, Tavakoli said.

"Then they can go out and define the world to any size they want," Tavakoli said.

Alex Barath, a 2013 Kettering graduate, started the planning for the T-Space because he has a wish that every Kettering student and organization would have access to the materials, tools and resources they need to complete class projects and also express themselves creatively through science and engineering.

He couldn't have done it without all the students' feedback and help, Barath said.

"I think it turned out great," he said. "We're going to keep changing and evolving as they go on."

Those walking by the T-Space can see three words on the glass – Think, Tinker and Thrive.

Here's how Barath defines those words:

Think: The ability to be creative, communicate together, think of different ideas together and work toward making it a reality.

Tinker: The ability to go past the thinking phase and make a project happen. "We have everything at fingertip's reach," he said.

Thrive: Taking the idea, creating it and then selling it, promoting it and being successful.

It will be a space where students can complete most, if not all, of their class assignments. They can learn to work in teams with other students and expand their thinking process, said Barath.

This is just a small part of the direction Kettering will be moving, said Kettering President Robert McMahan.

Earlier this year, Kettering officials also created what was called the D-Space, a collaborative area in the Academic Building that's open to anyone.

"What does the Kettering of the next century look like? ... What we are here to celebrate today is more than the opening of a space," McMahan said, adding that the T-Space is the sign of the future with more collaborative, creative space. "This is the first really dramatic example of this initiative."

In the near future, the space will contain servers that will provide students with access to software that may not otherwise be common on campus. The tools currently provided are plentiful for computer scientists and mechanical and electrical engineers to use and experiment.

Kettering senior Hunter Casbeer of Texas has had the opportunity to use the T-Space for a few different projects. He's excited to see something like this coming to the university, he said.

Before, the space simply had cubicles, offices and desks. The area will be much more beneficial for the students now, Casbeer said.

Now students who want to work on projects or are just curious about the machines like the 3D printer or laser printer can get some experience, said Casbeer, who's worked on a drone and a robot arm in the T-Space.

"I'm really glad to be here at a time like this and to see this milestone," Casbeer said. "It's just the tip of the iceberg. There's a great future of improvements."

Long-term, Barath would like to see the space evolve into a full-fledged "Makerspace" with student access expanding to heavy machinery and the other labs on campus.

"The end is not to encourage our students to create businesses. That they can do on their own later in life," Tavakoli said. "The underlying motivation for all of this is to get our students to adopt a mindset that might be alien or uncomfortable to engineering and science students. That mindset is the innovation and entrepreneurial mindset."