Made for Mudd

The makerspace was a magnet for Naomi Horiguchi ’25. During her admission tour, she took in the 8,000-square-foot creative space in the Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center, with its assorted materials and machines—from 3D printers to laser cutters to sewing machines. It looked like somewhere to build community and creativity, precisely what appealed to Horiguchi.

“I just really liked the students I met when I visited Harvey Mudd. Everyone seemed very passionate about their interests and like, enthusiastic generally,” said Horiguchi who grew up in Fullerton, California, and has always considered herself a creative person. “I really felt that sense of community throughout campus and the dorms. It seemed like a friendly place where people care about each other.” Horiguchi saw the makerspace stewards at work and was determined to be one herself. After arriving on campus, she immediately took all the safety quizzes and learned most of machines. She became a head steward during her sophomore year and now, as the Bill ’62 and Karen ’77 Hartman Makerspace Head Steward, she leads events and the social media team while nurturing a culture of creativity and collaboration.

Crafting materials and the associated tools can be expensive, making it prohibitive for students to experiment. The makerspace houses electronics stations, a digital jacquard loom (one of 12 in the U.S.), welding area, spray paint booth and a digital production studio along with specialized equipment, storage and collaboration areas. Having such a vast array of resources available is a big draw for Horiguchi and many other students.

“I think it’s very powerful that I get to personally help shape the direction of the makerspace substantially,” she says. “Something that’s extremely unique about the Harvey Mudd makerspace is that it is truly student-run.”

Non-student, professional staff are engineering professor Matthew Spencer (director) and Elissa Avelar (manager), but the head steward team (including Horiguchi, six other head stewards and 49 stewards) handle the day-to-day running of the makerspace. “If I see something that I think could be improved on, I really want to work on it. And I think this role gives me the ability to do that,” says Horiguchi.

She’s proud of launching the maker- space’s first open house in September, a “very big logistical undertaking” that took the entire steward team to pull off (see inside front cover). She also planned Halloweek, filled with cookie decorating, costume-making, ghost plushies, Polaroids, movie night, clay skeleton hands and pumpkin painting. She wants to make it an annual event, just like the open house.

These gatherings and others are part of the stewards’ strategy to raise visibility of the makerspace within the 7C community. “I want to host more events that are welcoming and open to the other colleges,” she says. Horiguchi is also exploring ways to collaborate with another creative space: the Hive (The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity on the Pomona College campus), which has its own distinct offerings. One of the Hive’s latest events—the Tiny Patio Concert—is something Horiguchi thinks would be great to collaborate on and bring to HMC.

While Horiguchi spends many hours at the makerspace, she’s also an engineering tutor and leads Mudd Escapes (escape room building club) and the Mudd Amateur Rocketry Club. Since her first year, she’s worked in engineering professor Leah Mendelson’s Flow Imaging Lab at Mudd, building a flapping mechanical model of the leaping archer fish to study bioinspired fluid mechanics, resulting forces and fluid structures in water. In November, she attended the Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics and presented “Effects of free surface deformation on thrust production by a partially-submerged fin at the water-air interface.”

Whether it’s practicing MATLAB for her research or crafting intricate costumes for cosplay or spreading the joy of making as a makerspace steward, Horiguchi is up for a challenge. She’s determined to try new things that keep drawing people to the makerspace—and to Mudd.