Craig Forest is the founder/organizer of one of the largest student-run prototyping facilities in the US—The Invention Studio at Georgia Tech.  This campus wide makerspace is open 24 hours to any faculty, student, staff member or project and has $500,000 of equipment in 3000 square feet of space.  

Craig is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech where he also holds program faculty positions in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. He is a Fellow at the Allen Brain Institute in Seattle WA and he is one of the inaugural recipients of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Grants, a national research effort to invent the next generation of neuroscience and neuroengineering tools. He is cofounder/organizer of one of the largest undergraduate invention competitions in the US—The InVen-ture Prize.  He was named Engineer of the Year in Education for the state of Georgia (2013).

Zoe Laughlin is a co-founder/director of the Institute of Making and the Materials Library project. She holds an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and obtained a PhD in Materials within the Division of Engineering, King’s College London. Working at the interface of the science, art, craft and design of materials, her work ranges from formal experiments with matter to large-scale public exhibitions and events with partners including Tate Modern, the Hayward Gallery, the V&A and the Wellcome Collection. Her work has also been shown in London’s Science Museum and is included in the new permanent collection of The Design Museum. Her particular areas of interest and research are currently Materials Farming, The Performativity of Matter and the sound and taste of materials.  She can often be found giving theatrical demonstration lectures or making programmes for both radio and television.

Pete graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2006 with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and worked in a mechanical and structural engineering consultancy before returning to Sheffield for his doctoral studies in 2009.  His PhD focused on the impact of medical gloves on manual performance and involved designing and building test rigs to simulate medical and surgical procedures.

Pete then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Manchester where he designed test equipment for in vivo measurement of contact lens friction.

In 2015, Pete again returned to Sheffield to teach in the University’s brand new Diamond building, creating and delivering practical laboratory classes in dynamics and revolutionising the Engineering Applications teaching in manufacturing technology for first year Mechanical, Aerospace, Architectural and Electrical Engineering students.

In 2017, he worked with a team of students to create the iForge, the UK’s first student-led makerspace. Run by a team of over 40 students, it provides a space for students to learn practical skills and collaborate, both as part of and outside the curriculum, in a relaxed environment, and is developing a global reputation.

Pete is passionate about student-led learning and is always looking for opportunities to work with academics to transform their design and build curriculum. In 2018 he was awarded the Early Career Senate Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. 

Ryan Jones is a Senior Teaching Technician at the University of Sheffield and Technical Lead for their student-led makerspace, the iForge. He has been working in this role for two years, previous to this he was a secondary school teacher of Product Design, Graphics and Engineering. In addition to this he instructs on Autodesk software packages, currently helping implement Fusion360 into education.

In his current role he has worked with 40+ students to set-up, develop and manage the technical aspects of the iForge. The iForge is a student led makerspace ‘Run by Students for Students’ which has been developed to encourage student led learning. Ryan is passionate about manufacturing and enjoys helping students realise their designs through prototyping and experimenting. 

Mike Hounslow took up the role of Vice-President and Head of the Faculty of

Engineering at the University of Sheffield in 2008, having previously served as Head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering from 2000-2008.

Mike is an enthusiastic champion of engineering as a profession and discipline and believes that the history and achievements of Sheffield – the University and the city – make it an ideal place to show why.

Mike is a chemical engineer with BE and PhD degrees from the University of Adelaide in South Australia. After completing the first of his degrees he worked for ICI Australia for four years in a variety of technical and management roles before taking up a lectureship at Adelaide and commencing his PhD.

In 1990 he moved to a lectureship at the University of Cambridge, becoming a Fellow and then Dean of Selwyn College. In 1998 he moved to Sheffield and became Professor of Chemical Engineering, before serving as Head of Department for eight years from 2000. Mike’s research is in the general area of particle technology and he has published extensively on industrial crystallization, granulation (particularly as it applies to the pharmaceutical industry) and on various forms of computer modelling. The engineering of particles lies at the heart of most industrial chemical processes and nearly all pharmaceutical processes, yet is

very much less well understood than the processing of fluids. In seeking to address that gap in knowledge, Mike has published well over 100 papers and supervised more than 30 PhD students.

Mike is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and aFellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

When not working, he divides his time between family, food, wine and cycling.