On February 27 at the Crowne Plaza Stamford, as part of the MIT Better World event series, 245 alumni and friends from Westchester and Fairfield counties gathered to hear MIT faculty, alumni, and Institute leaders speak about the current and future shape of innovation and entrepreneurship. The event featured [talks from speakers like] Marty Culpepper SM ’97, PhD ’00...

Culpepper outlined the important role the Institute’s makerspaces play in allowing students to innovate. “Right now, at MIT, we have about 130,000 square feet of makerspaces and machine shops—that’s about two football fields of space,” he explained. “Out of all of that, only about 5 percent of that space is what we call community makerspace. And it turns out, for the future, that’s what our students most need to solve the next-generation problems. For innovators and entrepreneurs, that’s the space that they like the best.” To help address that need, Culpepper said the Institute is launching the design of MIT’s biggest makerspace, to be built as part of the Met Warehouse renovation.

"How Is the MIT Community Making Space for Innovation?" by Julie Fox, Slice of MIT, 8 April 2020