NEWS: Olin College receives $100k gift for “Supercharged” Engineering Design Studio
Olin has received a generous $100,000 gift to support the creation of the Harris Studio, an innovative engineering design space in Olin’s Miller Academic Center (MAC).
Students working in the shop during the 2023 Design for Manufacturing course. Photo by Leise Jones.
Together, Jon and Randy Hirschtick and John and Clara McEleney have given generously to honor Scott Harris, distinguished partner for engineering & entrepreneurship and Olin trustee. Jon Hirschtick, John McEleney and Harris share deep professional ties as co-founders of SolidWorks and Onshape.
“Scott is a CAD industry legend,” says Hirschtick. "He was a founder of both SolidWorks and Onshape. He made major contributions to both products, particularly ensuring they were both powerful and pleasant for users to use. Scott also instilled a culture of customer focus that lives on to this day in both organizations.”
"He has been an inspiring teacher to Olin students,” says Hirschtick. “Honoring Scott with this classroom is a way to recognize his incredible impact on both the CAD industry and on years of Olin students, and to inspire others with his approach to engineering, innovation, people, and life.”
The Harris Studio will integrate design space, tools, physical fabrication space and classrooms, and courses such as Principles of Integrated Engineering (PIE), Mechanical Prototyping (Mech Proto) and Design for Manufacturing (DfM) will benefit from the immersive space. Up until now, students enrolled in these courses have needed to spread throughout the MAC and its various Shop spaces to access the classroom and fabrication resources students need to prototype and collaborate.
“The Harris Studio is about empowering students and faculty to go further, faster. It’s a space where ideas move from sketch to prototype without losing momentum,” says Harris. “I’m honored to be associated with a space that reflects the spirit of innovation I’ve seen at Olin. I am so grateful to Jon and John and the other generous donors for making this space possible."
Olin students are fearless problem solvers,
They design, build, test, and iterate. That mindset is exactly what today’s engineers need. My hope is that this studio helps Olin students discover the joy of creating things that matter. Engineering should always be hands-on, people-centered, and fun."
Scott Harris
Distinguished Partner for Engineering & Entrepreneurship and Olin trustee
Learn More about Scott
This summer, Daniela Faas, associate professor of the practice & director of fabrication and laboratory, will lead a team of students and faculty in bringing the vision for this new space to life for the Olin community.
“Think of this as a ‘supercharged’ engineering classroom,” says Faas. “Lots of courses use a range of fabrication and prototyping tools. These gifts allow us to combine the best of the Olin Shop and the best of the curriculum. It will be exciting to see how the Harris Studio enhances the Olin student experience.”
Only two weeks into the summer period, the Shop staff, four summer fellows and several faculty have already conduct user need assessments and examine how to maximize the flow throughout the Harris Studio, which will combine and repurpose two classrooms and three fabrication spaces.
The new space will be open to the Community beginning with the Fall 2025 semester.