Fourth-years Matt Milanese, Owen Brown, Noah Balis, Alex Chou and Nora Patel working on a project in one of the Makerspace classrooms at Bolz Hall. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Ohio State’s Break and Make club is all about taking something outdated and imbuing it with a new purpose. This semester, they’re taking that “out with the old, in with the new” mantra one step further.
Founded in April 2023, Break and Make is an Ohio State student organization that provides students with the opportunity to scrap old, broken or dysfunctional technology to design new projects from the found materials via “reverse engineering,” according to the club’s Student Activities webpage. Though the group previously resided in Smith Laboratory’s basement, it has since moved to the new Makerspace, a lab located in Bolz Hall that offers work tables, tools and other resources for students to “ideate and prototype,” the space’s website states.
The inside of Room 114 at Bolz Hall, which is a part of four rooms dedicated to the Makerspace. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Since the club relocated at the beginning of the spring semester, Break and Make co-founder and President Nina Nebesh, also a third-year in agricultural engineering, said members’ resources have skyrocketed. Co-founder and Vice President Debbie Hodson, a third-year in mechanical engineering, agreed.
“It’s great,” Hodson said. “There’s a lot more space for us to do our projects because where we were originally, which was in the Humanitarian Engineering Lab in the basement of Smith, is much more conducive to learning like classroom-style learning, but not so much as breaking apart objects and then trying to build stuff. So there are actual power tools here and then they have larger machinery. We also have a 3D printer.”
Nebesh said another perk of the new space is its additional appliances, which the club has full access to. However, the space is still in a developmental stage, given that it only opened this semester and is a fairly new initiative at the university.
“There are definitely still improvements happening every day,” Nebesh said. “I still walk in and there’s something new happening in the Makerspace. But, for the most part, everything is ready to go for every single meeting.”
The club’s occupancy in the new Makerspace has also allowed its members to pursue several large-scale projects, Nebesh said.
“Different projects are worked on at different paces,” said Nebesh. “We currently have a catapult that’s being worked on and I know the arm is finishing up, the motor’s being worked on to actually get it running on its own. We have a sign that we’re putting up in the Makerspace. We have lights ready to go and a motor, we’re gonna add a spinning component to it.”
The Makerspace, located inside Bolz Hall, is a hands-on learning area and lab. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Now more than ever, Hodson said she encourages all students to scope out Break and Make, as the new space can foster imagination and skill among individuals of all skill levels.
“It’s kind of open to anyone’s availability,” Hodson said. “It’s not time intensive. Also with that, we don’t expect that people have a certain knowledge of electronics or even physics. It doesn’t really matter, you can join and we will catch you up to speed or figure out whatever you want to do. The Makerspace lets people be creative without having to have the prerequisite of being an engineer.”
Students interested in learning more about Break and Make can attend one of the club’s meetings, which are held Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in Room 114 of Bolz Hall. More information about the organization can also be found on its Instagram page.
