Machine Agency
Our work harnesses the precision of machines for the creativity of individuals.
Research

3D Printers Don’t Fix Themselves
We study how practitioners maintain their FFF 3D printers in the home and find that maintenance is core to our participants' printing practice.

Forking a Sketch
We pair network analysis with qualitative techniques to capture high-level patterns and meaningful details about how creative coders remix sketches.

Doufu, Rice Wine, and 面饼
We investigate how to support the connections between precision and cultural knowledge in cooking.

Imprimer
We show how to use computational notebooks to unlock new ways of working with CNC mills.

Pathways to Open-Source Hardware for Laboratory Automation
Bringing together a community of scientists to collaborate on ways of sharing, vetting, and maintaining open source hardware for science and engineering research.

Verso
Exploratory digital fabrication often involves low-level machine programming, to which Verso adds within-code GUIs and expressive toolpath visualization.

Studying Community Biolabs
From a qualitative study of community biolabs, we discuss how members are creating new approaches to laboratory biology with implications for systems that support non-traditional settings for scientific practice.

p5.fab
A system for controlling digital fabrication machines from the creative coding environment p5.js, informed by insights into 3D printing practice.

Interactive Digital Fabrication Machine Control Directly Within a CAD Environment
Enabling control of digital fabrication machines from a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) environment, including interactive control of toolpath geometry as well as machine parameters such as speed, acceleration, or jerk.

Taxon
A language that encodes machines, workflows, and rules of thumb as programs. Taxon applies the safety and extensibility of programming to hands-on making.

Studying #PlotterTwitter
We conducted a qualitative study of #PlotterTwitter and found that makers champion creative exploration of materials over a predictable series of steps.

Teaching Digital Fabrication Online
Through interviews, we found that learning with hobbyist equipment and online social networks could emulate using industrial equipment in shared workshops.

Lamifold
Lamifold is a workflow for making functional mechanical objects using a laser cutter.

Jubilee
Jubilee is an open-source hardware machine with automatic tool-changing and interchangeable bed plates.

Machine-o-Matic
Initial investigations into representing parts of fabrication workflows as programs.

Cardboard Machine Kit
A framework for the rapid prototyping of rapid prototyping machines. Modular hardware, modular electronics, and modular software.

Material Flow in Makerspaces
An investigation into the practices that makerspaces around the world use to keep track of their materials.
Agents
Field Agents
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Orlando de Lange
Postdoctoral Researcher, now Professor at Shoreline Community College
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Kellie Dunn
MS '21, now PhD at the University of Copenhagen
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Cindy Feng
MS '21
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Frikk Fossdal
PhD Student at HVL Norway
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Brian Gillespie
McNeel
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Eunice Jun
Collaborator, PhD Candidate at UW CSE
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Khang Lee
BS '20
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Danny Leen
PhD '21 from KU Leuven, Belgium
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Maja Ling Han
Visiting Masters Student from the University of Copenhagen
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Chandrakana Nandi
PhD '21 from UW CSE, now at Certora
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Marita Sauerwein
PhD '21 from TU Delft, Netherlands
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Shenna Shim
Undergraduate Student
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Sonya Vasquez
PhD Student
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Andrew Waer
MS '20
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Willa Yang
BS '20, now PhD Student at the University of Chicago