Jaden Chizuruoke May ’29 worked with teammates Rihanna Arouna ’29 and Marian Akinsoji ’29 to design the chemically powered model car whose framework he is building in this scene from the Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space, where students have a chance to work safely and independently with biological systems.
The assignment to build the car—and the layered electrochemical battery that powers it—came in a class called “Hands-On Engineering: Squishy Style Making with Biology and Chemistry” taught by the lab’s director, Justin Buck, PhD ’12. “It is definitely one of my favorite classes,” says May, who appreciates that after being trained, students are given the freedom to figure out how to tackle each task in a project.
Located in the basement of Building 26, the BioMaker Space welcomes novices and expert mentors alike, offering workshops in such things as bacterial photography, biobots, lateral flow assay, CRISPR, and DNA origami.
For May, the makerspace has been a hub for collaboration. “I could never have done anything in that lab without my peers and counselors helping me, and the emphasis placed on teamwork is what makes the class feel both welcoming and exciting,” he says, adding that he made some of his first friends at MIT there: “It has been a great introduction to campus.”
May says he’s thinking of double majoring in Course 10-ENG (energy) and Course 21W (writing)—but the class has gotten him interested in biology, too.
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