Alum Gift Expands Machine Shop Offerings

A generous donation from engineering alum and former machine shop proctor Carl Carrera ’75/76 and Cher Carrera has allowed the machine shop to expand its offerings, increase student access and support a wider range of cross-disciplinary and creative projects.

The Carreras’ gift includes an endowed fund to support student shop proctor wages, the shop’s largest expenditure, and an unrestricted gift to expand raw materials, equipment, training and workshops. 

“Both of these contributions together are making the space more available and inviting to students,” says Machine Shop Manager Drew Price.  

Carl Carrera’s enthusiasm for the machine shop and its potential to benefit students dates back to 1973 when he made his own set of tools in E54. He particularly enjoyed making his own ball peen hammer, including the wooden handle. Carl donated his early design hammer to the shop together with his entire tool set in the original HMC issued tool box.  

“I had always enjoyed woodworking but never had any real exposure to serious metal fabrication until I got to HMC,” Carl says. “The experience I had in making all these tools helped me in my career as a design engineer.”

“Carl’s hammer is interesting because the E4 hammer design changed after Carl graduated,” says Price. “I don’t know the exact year we started doing a new design, sometime in the late ’70s or early ’80s, and we’ve been using that new design since. Carl gave us an early one, and it’s the only example we have here in the shop.”   

The shop’s student staff has grown significantly since Carrera’s day, from five to 10 proctors in the 1980s to 25 by the time Price took over six years ago from former director Paul Stovall. Now the shop has 50 proctors. Proctors receive training in both technical and interpersonal skills to ensure the environment is welcoming to all students, regardless of background or prior experience. The machine shop’s new location beside the makerspace and recent remodeling also help increase its visibility, and the staff works hard to spread the word about its offerings. 

“We’re at a point where we have open hours in the afternoons every single day, and we’re open for six to eight hours on weekends,” says Price. “We’re offering student-led workshops, subsidizing raw materials for projects. We are getting more in-depth into current computer-controlled manufacturing. We’re offering activities that mesh with what the makerspace is doing and bringing in students who want to make things for fun in addition to making things for coursework.”

The use of the machine shop has grown significantly, with students from a range of majors (not just engineering) using the facilities for academic and personal projects. Biology students have used the shop to create custom beehives designed for observational research, and a group of chemistry students fabricated a mounting device for a display representing rising earth temperatures made from Legos.  

Carrera has continued to engage with the machine shop, stopping by whenever he is on campus to talk with the proctors and students working there. 

“Carl’s gift is helping us provide a lively and welcoming space for experiential learning where students gain hands-on skills, learn from peers and can pursue passion projects,” says Price. “We’re not just a support space for coursework anymore, we’re a maker hub for all.”