An early highlight of the Maker's Lab is always the Quick-and-Dirty Prototyping Session. The aim here is to create quick, simple, initial prototypes from everyday materials without getting bogged down in questions of technical feasibility. Individual functions, the entirety of the system, or even usage situations can be represented. In particular, the students should get a feeling for the three-dimensionality of the later product.

As this event could also take place on site in our laboratories the students did not have access to our dedicated collections of QnD materials. Instead, the students received the necessary supplies at home and the method was introduced in one of the regular online meetings. Here, within two hours, a short overview was given, first prototypes were developed and these intermediate results were briefly presented at the end. Since the students had the remaining material on hand, it was easy to continue developing the prototypes afterwards.

A basic set of craft and household materials was provided to students for prototyping. This ensured that all participants had access to a variety of the most commonly used QnD materials. The cardboard box in which the materials were handed out also had the same dimensions as the later puzzle box, so this could be used as a basis for prototypes. Of course, the students could also bring in other materials from their environment.

The core of the Maker's Lab is of course the prototypical implementation and iteration of the project with the help of various manufacturing techniques. Unfortunately, the students could not, as usual, work independently in our Fablab to gain personal experience in the use of laser cutters, 3D printers and co. Instead, they had the opportunity to prepare files for manufacturing and commission them from university staff. This way, they could still use the full scope of the Fablab and gain insight into the possibilities, but also limitations, of the different techniques.

In addition to manufacturing the puzzle box it needs to be equipped with sensors and actuators to make it interactable. Since all groups had the same task this year, a basic stock of generally required materials could already be procured in advance. Under hygienic precautions the boxes with the materials were packed and could be picked up outside the university building; for students outside Oldenburg the materials were sent by mail. Furthermore, the students had the option to order additional material specifically tailored to their project. 

The IEEE Pervasive Computing magazine published our experience report on this year's Maker's Lab class titled "Making, Together, Alone: Experiences from Teaching a Hardware-Oriented Course Remotely" in Vol. 19, No. 4, 2020 ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9261236

On Oct 22nd, 2020, Susanne Boll was invited to talk about her experiences with the Maker's Lab class in the "Future of Work Conversations" series.