For almost 5 years, I have worked in a bubble.
The Mechatronics lab wasn’t well known, access was largely controlled by me being there or not, and this gave me a lot of control over how much time and attention I could distribute among people and projects and personal interests.
The new EDC building is now accessible, and it is time to move from my opaque bubble in a dark corner to a more generally accessible, and extremely visible space where the day to day operation of it is going to be a team sport.
During a tour of high school students this past year, the guide was commenting on labs as they were going through my area and the guide’s only comment on the Mechatronics Lab was “that’s a big word isn’t it?”
I’ve also already had unsolicited suggestions on what I should buy for the lab from people that think it’s a brand new vacuum needing help to be filled.
That speaks clearly that people barely know it exists, and definitely don’t know what it is, or how it is different from the other labs.
I need to be more active in directing the course corrections so the ship doesn’t end up simply being a bland duplicate of another lab with a big word on it’s door.
MECHATRONICS dOt LIFE 