The first floor of the Engineering Hall is home to a place where students can explore their creativity and turn concepts into reality.
The Stanley V. Jaskolski Discovery Learning Laboratory provides the tools to bring student ideas to their fullest potential. From bandsaws, drill presses and grinders to advanced 3D printers and lasers, the lab provides a fully equipped, on-site machine shop for the design and production of prototypes, test fixtures and complex objects — it’s where students learn the practical aspects of engineering firsthand.
Senior Kendyl Cunningham loved working with wood in high school, so she applied to become a student worker in the lab. Student lab workers, known as Blue Shirts, undergo laboratory safety training before accessing specific shop areas. They, in turn, provide that training to other students who want to use the lab.
“I’ve worked here for two years now,” Cunningham explains. “We train the engineering students on all the machines. And then when we have down time, we can make our own projects.”
Like other student workers, the marketing and English double major now has her own dedicated workspace where she crafts custom cutting boards.
“I’ve made 20 to 25 cutting boards over the last two years,” Cunningham says. “I’ve also made a chess board, including the pieces. I usually give them as gifts this time of year. Mr. Silman really encourages us to create our own projects. I’m always making something or working with a student. I’m never just sitting.”
Thomas Silman, operations engineer for the Opus College of Engineering, gives his students the space to be themselves, with his help readily available.
“The students are learning about solving problems which involves creativity,” Silman says. “If you have limited resources, you still have to get the job done. You just adjust your drawing or your object to what tools are available, and that’s what the shop is all about. You adjust to the resources that you have, and you produce magic.”
Senior civil engineering major Vince Salvador is a fellow Blue Shirt. He’s made a shoe shelf, as well as engraved cutting boards for family members.
“Last Christmas, I made a gift for my aunt. I engraved a chopping block with some of her favorite things,” Salvador says. “I used a software called CorelDRAW. The fun and creative part was thinking of a concept and then creating it.”
Salvador says his creativity has been elevated by what Silman teaches every day in the lab. When he finishes at Marquette, Salvador would like to find a position in structural design for buildings.
Unwritten rules
The Discovery Learning Lab is more than just a workshop. It’s a place where students feel safe to be themselves and make mistakes. Progress rather than perfection is the goal and mistakes are encouraged. Silman helps prepare students for the real world by teaching some of the social rules that aren’t in textbooks.
“Every machine shop, every manufacturing floor and every industry has its own set of unwritten rules,” Silman explains. “What we do here is teach the students those rules. We take them aside and say, ‘Look, you really don’t want to borrow anybody’s personal tools.’ You teach students what’s appropriate behavior on the shop floor. You also clue them in that the people on the shop floor sometimes have the equivalent of Ph.Ds. in the art of making. And, sometimes, if you get the shop personnel working and talking, you learn things you would never otherwise notice. So, it behooves you to learn how to be polite on the shop floor.”
The atmosphere is familial — students of all backgrounds are welcome and all are encouraged to be uniquely themselves through course or passion projects. The space also doubles as a comfortable meeting place for groups of engineers eager to gather and collaborate.
The Discovery Learning Lab gives a face and feeling to what it means to be an engineer. Refusing to take any credit, Silman reiterates that the students are the ones driving the creative culture in the lab.
“That’s my students driving that. I’m just the facilitator,” Silman says. “I give them the resources that they need and this is the atmosphere they’ve created. I’m very proud of them.”
