Recently, the DIISx New Car Workshop Joint Laboratory, which is co-sponsored by Shanghai Institute of Innovative and Creative Design (DIIS) and the first maker space in China New Workshop, opened and launched its first open night. More than 70 members of New Workshop participated in the opening event on site.
“Maker” refers to a group of people who gather out of their interests and hobbies, utilize open-source hardware and the Internet, and personally create, transforming more ideas into products.
New Workshop was established in 2010, dedicated to encouraging the general public to create and turn their enthusiasm into reality. Since its establishment, it has held an average of over 100 events per year, with a total of over 6,000 registered members. For the past decade, New Workshop has been based in Shanghai, providing a space for sharing knowledge and skills, sharing tools, and doing things together through community platforms. It has witnessed the development of countless maker projects from 0 to 1, and has always supported the integration and innovation of programming, open-source hardware, the Internet of Things, art and technology, and various workshops. The projects currently participated in and implemented include electric skateboards, urban farming, superconductors, programming robots, etc.
The DIISx New Workshop Joint Laboratory is located on the first floor of the research institute and is an important infrastructure in the DIIS innovation transformation ecosystem. At present, the laboratory is equipped with hardware equipment such as 3D printers and drones, and software equipment such as 3D modeling, graphic programming, CAD modeling workshops, etc. The laboratory is also equipped with professional support personnel to assist more creativity in taking root.
An official of New Workshop told, "Our goal as a maker is to bring everyone together and enjoy the joy of production and innovation, which is our original intention. Now we have established a joint laboratory with DIIS, where our community can graft and creativity can be shared. We hope that some design achievements will be born in the future, and we also hope that makers like us have more opportunities to serve society
It is learnt that in the later stage, the joint laboratory will frequently hold scientific and technological innovation workshops, maker roadshows, and other activities to carry out necessary community building, prototype building, and technical deepening in the process of creative generation, deepening, and implementation, actively driving the implementation and transformation of innovative projects.
Zhang Jie, Director of Development Planning at Shanghai Innovation and Creative Design Research Institute, introduced that innovation transformation is a full chain process from seed concept to prototype production, technology deepening, experimental implementation, and ultimately commercialization and industrialization by start-up teams. As an important infrastructure of the research institute, the DIISx New Workshop Joint Laboratory will gather outstanding talents and seed creativity, while providing software and hardware facilities and professional personnel to support the implementation and transformation of innovative ideas.
The industrial joint laboratory is one of the key elements in designing an innovation transformation ecosystem, and it is also a deep cooperation between Shanghai Innovation and Creative Design Research Institute and leading enterprises in various industries. Since entering The Lester School and Henry Lester Institute of Technical Education in December last year, the Research Institute has built an innovation ecosystem by linking creativity, commerce and science and technology to provide an essential diversified ecosystem for industrial innovation. In the future, the Research Institute will also collaborate with more industry leading enterprises to explore more new paradigms of industrial collaborative innovation.