Wichita State University has announced the name of its community "makerspace," which will be completed next fall. According to Wichita State, the building will allow students, faculty and local community members to explore new ideas and inventions.
At an unveiling on Friday morning, the makerspace was officially branded as “GoCreate, a Koch Collaborative.” The initiative is being financed by the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation to the tune of $3.75 million.
It’s billed as part manufacturing plant, part design studio and part garage workshop.
“GoCreate is about bringing people and ideas together,” said Liz Koch in a release. “It’s exciting to think what will happen in this space when people can work together and take ideas from imagination to creation.”
The money used for GoCreate is part of an overall donation from the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation of $11.25 million. The funding is set aside for Wichita State’s Innovation Campus—a large addition to the school’s main campus that will bring in outside companies for collaboration with students and faculty.
Wichita State President John Bardo said GoCreate will be housed in the Experiential Engineering Building, but that it will be open to everyone.
“It will have in it a range of equipment, all the way from plasma cutters and commercial sewing machines, to 3-D printers and the technology to create new images and new ideas,” Bardo said, adding that anyone in the Wichita area who might have ideas about new products, new technology, or who simply want to learn a new skill, is welcome to sign up for seminars.
GoCreate will also feature an entrepreneurship office that will help market new ideas.