UAT becomes First University in Arizona to open on campus Digital Makers Fab Lab

TEMPE, Ariz., Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- University of Advancing Technology (UAT) becomes first University in Arizona to launch a digital maker fabrication lab on campus: the UAT Makers Fab Lab.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131113/LA16041)

On the heels of the lab opening mid-October 2013, University officials are enrolling students into the nation's first fully accredited Bachelor of Science degree in digital making and fabrication. The new degree will combine the curriculums and capability of UAT's existing and respected degrees in Robotics and Embedded Systems, Artificial Life Programming, Advancing Computer Science, Technology Product Design, Virtual Modeling and Design and Human-Computer Interaction. 

Located on the technology University's campus in Tempe, the UAT Makers Fab Lab is equipped with the latest 3D printers, maker bots, CNC cutters and the software and knowledge guidance that students need to bring innovative ideas to life. Modeled from the design of MIT's first Fab Lab community, UAT plans to join together the student communities already leveraging the new lab from many other UAT disciplines to start the first student facilitated and University-sponsored Digital Makers Lab organization. The Digital Makers Lab is designed to foster creativity and challenge student innovators with a 24/7 environment for those who seek to lead the new industrial revolution driven by the convergence of advancing technologies.

Since the dawn of the computer revolution more than 30 years ago, UAT, a highly respected, private and fully accredited University in Tempe, AZ has accumulated a remarkable history of developing elite advancing technology degree programs. UAT bachelor and master level degrees are focused around preparing this country's technologists to help lead and supply the continual need for technology innovators created by the constant progressions of new technology. 

University President Jason Pistillo says, "We have always had student success with dual technology majors who have been able to combine multiple disciplines for a real advantage once they graduated. The new digital maker and fabrication degree major takes this value equation and multiplies it exponentially for the student.  Digital Making and Fabrication will be a degree major that's a product of converging digital disciplines we already offer that are materializing as something completely different when we combine the curriculums and the disciplines. We believe it's time to put the components together with a fully accredited major and degree program that provides graduates with a respected bachelor's level foundation within a STEM based general education curriculum and a major in digital maker or digital fabrication."

UAT believes there will be a shortage of those that will posses the capability to fulfill the yet unseen demand for industry, business and government that will be created by the new digital maker and fabrication movement: think web developers and computer programmers in the late 90's.

Jason Pistillo says, "At University of Advancing Technology, we have a responsibility to both our students and nation preparing for this explosion of technology breakthroughs that are changing the way we bring innovation to the markets. It is our intention to place our graduates at the forefront of the digital maker and fabrication revolution thus opening new doors of capability for them most cannot imagine yet."

"Our new Digital Makers Fab Lab and advancing technology degree programs will provide UAT's graduates with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the first educated experts in an era of technological change that will reshape this nation and the world. We are doing all of this keeping in perfect stride with our mission by educating students in advancing technology who innovate for our future," says David Bolman, Ph.D., UAT Provost.

"At UAT, we're proud of this new degree program addressing an emerging new field and joining our long line of elite technology degrees. Fueled by our history of innovation and our mission to educate students in advancing technology who innovate for our future, I believe UAT will help educate more leading innovators with this program than any of our others. The Digital Maker and Fabrication movement is as big for technology innovation as the dawn of the Internet," Dr. Bolman adds. "I think the American public will soon discover this digital makers movement will have an impact on our innovators much like that of the industrial revolution or the Internet."

A groundswell that's sweeping across the industry according to industry analysts, the Maker Revolution is a new way to think, design, conceive, prototype, test, manufacture and bring innovation to market. It is 3D printers, 4D fabricating, maker bots, robotics and embedded systems, engineering and hardware creation, digital design and animation, laser cutters, open-hardware and software, and desktop fabrication all combined and now taken to the industrial and consumer levels. This is an entire shift in the way we innovate and will change the way products and services are produced, distributed and used in everyday life.

"Anything that can transform the process of making stuff has tremendous leverage in moving the global economy. That's the making of a real revolution," states Chris Anderson in his recent book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution.

Already, UAT graduates are innovating and quietly setting the tone in the Makers Revolution. Since 2008, UAT has offered a bachelor's of science in Robotics and Embedded Systems. The Robotics program is more focused on hardware development versus a balance of hardware and software design methods that are forming together to create the Makers Movement. One example of early UAT alumni success in this emerging area is Network Security graduate and tech entrepreneur Jeremy Leung. He was provided the education base necessary for him to identify the need for and champion the development of HeatSync Labs in 2009.  The lab is a membership-supported nonprofit that gives tech entrepreneurs and inventors access to expensive technology and professional-grade, high-tech tools they couldn't possibly afford on their own.

The UAT Makers Fab Lab, the development of a BS degree program with a major in the area of digital making and fabrication join the technology University's series of firsts in advancing technology offerings.

UAT is respected for its leadership and innovation in building the first computing-based, regionally accredited University in the country, at the dawn of the PC revolution. UAT offered the first regionally accredited Game Design and Game Programming degrees that have proven over the last 20 years to be one of the largest growth areas in technology today.  UAT also introduced to education one of the first regionally accredited Network Security and Computer Forensics programs, now considered elite and among the most recognized nationwide, with their on campus lab being originally funded by a grant from the United States Department of Defense (DoD).

For more information on UAT visit www.UAT.edu.  For more information on UAT's Makers Fab Lab, visit www.digitalmaker.com.

About UAT: University of Advancing Technology is an elite, private college that serves its student body by fostering knowledge creation and academic excellence in an environment that embraces the young technophiles of the world. With three centers of research and a suite of technology-centered undergraduate and graduate degrees, the University is a recognized leader in technology education.

SOURCE The University of Advancing Technology