Purpose
The Elko Engineering Garage is an open, hands-on makerspace for community collaboration and physical prototyping, facilitated by providing training services, troubleshooting support, and fabrication resources.
The Elko Engineering Garage stems from the vision that making something must be experienced first-hand through designing, building, iterating, and seeing something created from nothing. Not everyone has access to a garage at home, so we’ve made a Garage for everyone!
The Garage is intended to provide a hands-on makerspace for the University of Alberta community. We provide learning resources, introductory training, and equipment access to enable our Makers to fabricate their ideas, foster a community of people interested in building things, and learn by exploring possibilities together.
The Elko Engineering Garage was made possible through the generous financial support of Ernie & Cathie Elko.
Values and Principles
- Safety
Training is available for all equipment.
Complete, consistent, and comprehensive operating documentation is available and maintained.
A continuous risk assessment and monitoring system is present and maintained.
- Accessibility
Clearly defined user access (who can access the space, when they can access the space, what they can do in the space).
Resources are equally accessible.
Exception handling is transparent.
Minimum possible barriers.
- Communication
Transparent for how Makers can utilize the space.
Consistent messaging across all platforms.
Clear user expectations and limitations tied to a reason.
Transparent expectations of Staff.
- Community and Collaboration
Cultivate a maker community.
Instill a sense of ownership.
Strengthen relationships with other UofA initiatives.
- Learning and Self-Efficacy
This is an exploration space for making.
Provide access to resources for skill development and self-learning.
The makerspace staff and community will grow from experiences.
Meet the Staff
Staffing rotates regularly throughout the year. Here is our current roster: