At the end of the Fall semester, I was offered a position as an assistant in the Grand Challenges Initiative (GCI) Makerspace. It was very rewarding to help the program transform an old organic chemistry lab into a creative space for students to explore interdisciplinary solutions with sophisticated equipment. The new Makerspace includes everything from
As the Grand Challenges Initiative begins to close out its first year at Chapman University, a fuller picture of what its inaugural student class will be working on has formed. The next year of work will be spent developing out ideas, conducting more tests, and communicating their findings. For Freshman Monroe Roush, Ashley Nichols, and
When I reflect upon being a scientist, three words come to mind: fascination, frustration, and exhilaration. A scientist’s fascination comes from the wonder of trying to understand and decipher the vast complexity of the world around us. Frustration creeps in as we discover how challenging that complexity is, and how unsophisticated some of our scientific