IDEA Factory Highlights

ALEx Garage
On the first floor, the ALEx Garage is an area for student competition teams like Terrapin Rockets and Robotics@Maryland. It also houses a rapid prototyping lab with 3D printers and scanners.

Angel P. Bezos ’69 Rapid Prototyping Laboratory
3D printers and other state-of-the-art equipment make this the latest addition to the campus’s array of makerspaces.

TDF Foundation Quantum Technology Laboratories
A joint venture between the Clark School, the Department of Physics and the Army Research Lab, this home to the Quantum Technology Center is where students and researchers focus on translating quantum physics into real-world technologies. It’s below grade level with a 3.5-foot-thick concrete floor to isolate delicate experiments from environmental interference.

Lockheed Martin Rotorcraft Laboratories
Spread across two floors, the labs will be a new home for the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center. There, faculty and students will conduct research on rotorcraft aerodynamics, structures and flight mechanics. It’s also home to a monorail hoist, a giant, yellow crane-like device that can haul heavy equipment up from the ground.

Robotics and Autonomy Laboratory
In this third-floor hub for advancing robotics systems, students can work with Spot, a mobile robot from Boston Dynamics, and an unmanned ground vehicle called Husky from Clearpath Robotics.

IDEA Central
Even making lunch has gone high-tech in this glass-enclosed café. Terps can fill up with a grain bowl, salad or yogurt parfait freshly prepared by a robot named Sally.

Startup Shell
Founded in a storage closet in 2012, the popular student business incubator now has a spacious new first-floor home in the Tom & Susan Scholl Center for Student Innovation, where Terps can collaborate and network to scale up their startups and take them out to the world.