The Center for Student Innovation at Eastern is where any student can use the technology it provides.  

There are many types of technologies for students at the center including podcasting, virtual reality, 3D printing, and more.  

Director of the Innovation Center, Michael Gillespie, explains how someone can use the technology at the center using the example Google jam board.  

“The cool thing about [it]is that this is just a kiosk, but you can use a Google jam board on any device,” Gillespie said. G 

The Google jam board can be a useful tool for many students new to writing notes. Gillespie also explains how people can use 3D printers and how any student that is in any major can use the printers.  

You can scan any kind of 3D objects like the Panther here, and it will create an electronic file of it and then you can print those things off on the 3D printers,” Gillespie said. “We had a student last semester and this semester, who was part of the entrepreneurship program who’s designing a board game and was using the 3D printer to print out the pieces for the board game.”  

The Digital Initiatives Coordinator Trevor Burrows also talked more about the Center for Student Innovation by explaining that the center is not just about the types of technology, but the center is a unique spot-on campus.  

“I think in some ways, it is not so much a single piece of equipment, it is a unique spot-on campus,” Burrows said. “We really are trying to just invite folks into being creative and making things. You’re free to come in and just explore and we have gotten people here to help you out, and that is really, in some ways, what makes it unique.”  

The Center for Student Innovation has most of the technology supplied through donations and grants which has helped get the technology that is needed for students on campus. If it were not for the grants or donations much of the technology at the center would not be there.  

“So, we really rely on donations, and we have a donor wall out there for people who have donated, and there’s been some COVID funds and things to help get it started but it’s really been about grants and donations,” Gillespie said.  

Eastern students are also welcome to go to the workshops held this spring semester. The center will bring different workshops for different pieces of technology to the center. 

“This semester for the first time we were doing some equipment specific workshops,” Burrows said.  

The technology provided at the Center for Student Innovation is on the lower-level floor of Booth Library. Any student can register for the workshops for Spring 2023. For more information on the center, contact csi@eiu.edu.  

Chandler Smith can be reached at 581-2812 or at cbsmith5@eiu.edu.