Opened September 2018: The Foundry mission is creative culture. A culture in which students from Babson (business), Olin (engineering), and Wellesley (liberal arts) (BOW) colleges work with one another, to increase their capacity to use unfettered creativity and a wide range of prototyping equipment, to advance new or existing projects.

The success of this creative culture is due in large part to an environment that is physically, emotionally and mentally safe. The Foundry maintains this safety though a broad range of diversity and inclusion initiatives designed into every aspect of Foundry culture.

Throughout the Foundry's pilot and 2nd year, Janos Stone directed the implementation of:

Scouts (student employees) are 30 students, 10 from each of the 3 BOW colleges. They comprise a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines, genders and interests that allow them to advise BOW students and faculty on a wide range of projects.

Scouts are trained to have the skills and awareness to keep The Foundry community safe from a wide range of physical, mental and emotional harm. These trainings include; having operational awareness of all 35+ pieces of Foundry equipment, EMS, de-escalation, bias identification and title IX reporting. These trainings provided all Scouts with "equipment equality" eliminating common male-preferencial biases associated with makerspaces.

Scouts, support an inclusive, fun and creative community. They actively expand their ability to explore new ideas to support their student leadership role, mentorship, Foundry ambassadors and liaise with the BOW colleges. Scouts consult, support and assists all members of the BOW community in the development of ideas and projects

Creative spaces are rarely designed to teach students inspiration, prototyping skills and entrepreneurial mechanics. Stone led the Foundry with the goal of providing not just a studio for creativity and fabrication but critically a place that teaches students business models to enable their passion projects to live on in the world

design and management of The Foundry operational budget. Including comp/non-comp, TME, materials, equipment, pr/media and digital. Coming in under budget for F/Y 18/19.

Weekly open-door, collaborative meetings to welcome and encourage the BOW community in developing Foundry operations, culture and vision.

the identification and oversight of dozens of major and minor safety upgrades to all five Foundry equipment shops.

the design of the Foundry equipment list, outfitted and launched five operational makerspace studios complete with 40 pieces of analog and digital prototyping equipment, from wood tools, to 3D printers to sewing in 5 months.

the design of the Foundry identity and Foundry logo. The logo is the overlap of a Square, Circle and Triangle. Each shape representing one of the three BOW colleges. But we never say which one is which... that's up to you!
In addition, the logo spells the word "AND", to define that the Foundry is collaborative, experimental and looking toward the future.

identified and worked alongside the design firm GoodGoodland.com to build Foundry website: foundry.babson.edu
The website housed information and sign up sheets for equipment trainings, events and initiatives and has a look and feel that matched the fun, creativity and energy of the Foundry

a mandatory to train on Foundry equipment. Orientation is a 30 minute tour followed by a 30 minute prototyping exercise. During the 60 minutes faculty and students learn about the Foundry culture, purpose, safety, honor code and fabrication capacity.

the 30 minute prototyping exercise teach the fundamentals of cardboard prototyping by making a cardboard, one-half cube.

the design of multiple storage solutions to allow the BOW community to bring projects and leave them in the Foundry to be worked on as needed.

the design of dozens of small and large scale BOW faculty and student outreach initiatives and events to raise awareness of the Foundry and build the culture.

Allows everyone who comes to the Foundry to understand the four core mission concepts of the Foundry in 5 minutes.
1. Learn how to make things
2. Be personally expressive

3. Be part of the Foundry community
4. Help improve the Foundry community

the development of the marketing and brand strategy with a long-term, forward-looking approach to planning with the fundamental goal of achieving BOW awareness of the Foundry mission

F(oundry) THAT! campaign raised awareness in the BOW community that the Foundry supports any type of project development and prototyping.

the design and implementation of a databases and archive to capture critical historic information on Foundry classes, events, programming, and BOW users

the development of a Foundry honor code that defines the inclusive values of the Foundry and the ethical expectations of those who work in the space.

The Fellowship is 10-week long residency focused on collaborative, creative exploration and innovative work. BOW students apply as a team of between 2-6 people to develop or continue a passion project. We received 62 applicants the first year.

A two-day team-bonding Scout retreat that focuses on equipping Scouts with skill-sets and an awareness to keep The Foundry community safe from a wide range of of physical, mental and emotional harm.

the integration the Foundry culture and equipment skills into faculty classrooms.

that celebrated and showcased the BOW community's deep creativity around wearables, apparel and fashion. "Untitled" was structured for students to use the Foundry equipment to make new work, the publicly share the experience with friends and to build the BOW community involvement in the Foundry. "Untitled" involved over 50 models 30 designers and had an attendance of 370 people.

the design of the Foundry Operations Handbook. A 70+ page living document which identifies all critical operational procedures and is used for reference and training The Foundry Scouts.

the development of systems to effectively manage 30 Scouts working on dozens of projects during 21 shifts per/week. The system increased the efficiency, success rate of projects. equipment trainings and BOW faculty / student support though this effort.

the implementation of a training infrastructure that enabled the Scouts to train on all the Foundry Equipment. This gave all the Scouts equal understanding of equipment allowing for more effectiveness and eliminating common biases associated with creative spaces and makerspaces

the training of Scouts to train BOW students and faculty to safety and effectively operate over 40 pieces of analog and digital prototyping equipment.

the identification of new equipment, a dozen more equipment trainings and multiple 2D and 3D software trainings to the Foundry offerings.

the development of bespoke coding projects, allowing BOW students and faculty to learn programming at their own speed. By taking the cards with them, users helped spread the word about the Foundry

the design of a workshop series to engage the BOW community in some fun and quick hands-on projects. This allowed BOW students and faculty to put into practice what they learned in trainings. While providing Scouts with teaching experience.

the Foundry’s first paid sprint for a corporate client. 20 Students work for a ½ day sprint to develop 60 high level solutions for the client.

an initiatives the resulted in corporate clients joining semester long projects that translated to funding %10 of the Foundry operational budget with in 18 months of the building opening.