Celebrating innovation

Looking back on 10-plus years of the Fab Lab

By California State University, Bakersfield

September 19^th, 2025

For more than 10 years, the Fab Lab has been a place where California State University, Bakersfield students and members of the surrounding community can go to make their ideas a reality. But before it became a hub of creativity and innovation, it too was just an idea waiting to come to fruition.

Opening in 2014, the CSUB Fab Lab was the first of 10 initial fabrication labs that Chevron announced it would fund nationwide. The Fab Foundation is a network of Fab Labs located all over the world, and CSUB was the first in the CSU or University of California systems to have its own Fab Lab. The lab opened soon after CSUB’s College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME) added its three engineering programs, marking a new chapter in the college’s growth.

“Getting the Fab Lab was huge for us because we knew we had this big responsibility on our shoulders to show Chevron that we could make this successful and prove to them that it was a good working model,” said Dr. Andrea Medina, NSME’s director of grants and outreach, who also oversees the Fab Lab. “It was just so cool that they put that faith in us to be their first. We’re very proud of what we've been able to do with that space.”

Megan Lopez, public affairs representative for Chevron's San Joaquin Valley Business Unit, said the company is “incredibly proud” of the impact the Fab Lab has had on CSUB students and the broader community.

“Chevron invested in the Fab Lab at CSUB because we believe in the power of STEM education and its critical role in workforce and economic development,” Lopez said. “By supporting the Fab Lab, we aim to empower students with hands-on experiences, nurturing their skills and preparing them for future careers. Our investments in the Fab Lab are not just about supporting a facility; they're about inspiring the next generation of innovators and leaders who will drive progress in our local community and beyond.”

‘Everyone’s welcome’

Located in the Engineering Complex, the Fab Lab first opened with a suite of fabrication machines, including 3D printers, vinyl and laser cutters, circuit board and a ShopBot computer-controlled cutting machine. It would not only be a place for engineering students to work on projects and put to practical use the knowledge they gained in classes — it would also be a community makerspace, open to anyone with an idea for something to create.

Beyond being a physical space, the Fab Lab also represented connection to the larger global maker community through the Fab Foundation network.

“That was a big deal, being part of this international network where every single lab had the exact same hardware and software, so you could collaborate with anybody worldwide on the exact same project and there are no barriers,” Dr. Medina said. “It was just really neat to have little old CSUB be part of this global network.”

At the time, there were 400 Fab Labs in 50 countries, with CSUB’s lab being one of 59 in the United States and one of just three in California. Today, there are more than 1,500 labs in 90 countries.

The Fab Lab’s first specialist, Matt Chalker, focused on getting the lab up and running, learning the new equipment and setting internal policies and procedures. When he left in 2016, Dr. Medina took on the Fab Lab as part of her role in grants and outreach, bringing on Bobby Hartsock as the lab’s new specialist.

Together, Dr. Medina and Hartsock set about making the Fab Lab a welcoming environment with open doors to anyone in the community. Through word of mouth and special programming, the goal was to make sure that Bakersfield knew about the resource it had on campus.

“Everyone's welcome,” Dr. Medina said. “We've had art students in there, theater students, business students. It really doesn't matter what your background is. If you have an idea, the Fab Lab interns can help teach you how to turn your idea into a reality.”

In addition to the Fab Lab specialist, the space is staffed by NSME student interns. As well-versed in every piece of equipment as they are, though, the interns will not create things for visitors. That’s been an important part of the Fab Lab ethos from the beginning.

“People usually come in saying, ‘I want to make something; here’s my project idea,’ and whatever their experience level is, we work from there and get them to a point where they can use the equipment and feel comfortable with it,” said Hartsock, who led the Fab Lab until 2024. “We always say that we don’t do anything for anybody — we teach everyone how to do it for themselves.”

The Fab Lab team also keeps busy with projects of their own. In 2019, they participated in Project Egress, a community build led by Adam Savage of “MythBusters,” where makers from across the country each built one part of the Apollo 11 command module, which Savage rebuilt from the contributed parts. In 2020, they created face shields for local health care workers during the shortage of personal protective equipment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Former Fab Lab specialist Bobby Hartsock works on masks during the COVID-19 pandemic PPE shortage.

The Fab Lab team works on their part of the Project Egress community build in 2019.

Over the years, many NSME students have made the Fab Lab their home on campus, a place where they can tinker away on personal projects or work out the details for big class assignments.

Computer engineering major Brhyona Thomas first got involved with the Fab Lab as part of the CSUB Robotics Club and has been working there as an intern since February 2024. In that role, she has used all the major machinery at the lab to help people outside of campus. She’s worked with a local entrepreneur to 3D print a mount for a GPS tracker, a motorcyclist who wanted laser-cut parts for his bike and a teacher who coaches an eports team and needed help making old arcade game frames with the CNC machine.

Thomas and her fellow Robotics Club members have also used the lab to make 3D-printed planes and a fully autonomous delivery drone for competitions.

“The Fab Lab is the heart of the engineering departments, in my opinion; it's definitely the heart of the Robotics Club,” Thomas said. “We are constantly having people come in for their senior design projects, class projects and personal projects. The Robotics Club meets in the Fab Lab to do any of our project due to all the resources we have here. It's the perfect spot to collaborate and build projects from scratch.”

The Fab Lab has also provided a valuable training ground for the 20-plus student interns who have worked there in the last 10 years. Two former interns, Grace Roman and Alfredo Arevalo, have gone on to work for Edwards Air Force Base, citing their experience in the Fab Lab as preparation for the jobs they do now. Martin Mendoza was one of the first interns and now has his professional engineer certificate.

James Odle was offered a job at Northrop Grumman before he officially earned his electrical engineering degree.

“The Fab Lab gave me the confidence to pursue my ideas,” Odle said ahead of graduating last year. “It gave me the confidence of seeing my ideas come to fruition.”

One former intern was even hired on as the Fab Lab specialist when Hartsock left. Ivan Martinez-Hernandez was an intern until he graduated with his engineering degree in spring 2024, was brought on as interim specialist soon after and officially became the new specialist in December 2024.

“There’s relief from finishing college and pride,” Martinez-Hernandez said of the full-circle journey from intern to specialist. “I’m glad that I can see the skills that I developed in college be applied directly to something.”

Now on the other side as the lab’s specialist, Martinez-Hernandez is excited to see interns take what they learn and apply it to their future careers. He knows firsthand how the skills they learn in the lab will help, having previously been hired as a CNC operator at a furniture company specifically because of what he learned as a Fab Lab intern.

“We're seeing more and more direct statements from engineering companies that they want people who know how to use 3D printers, who know that workflow of making a file,” he said. “And if they get someone who already understands that, they don't have to take the time to teach them that. They have a head start compared to other people.”

Grace Roman, previously a Fab Lab intern, now works at Edwards Air Force Base.

Ivan Martinez-Hernandez, seen here as an intern, works with the ShopBot.

Former Fab Lab intern James Odle was offered a job at Northrop Grumman before he had even graduated CSUB.

The Robotics Team shows off their remote-controlled planes in the Fab Lab Annex, located on the second floor of the Walter W. Stiern Library.

The next 10 years

Just months into his position as Fab Lab specialist, Martinez-Hernandez oversaw a total refresh of the lab’s equipment, generously funded by Chevron. New vinyl and laser cutters, 3D-printers, mini-CNC mill and ShopBot are now in the lab, providing students with faster and more efficient tools for their projects.

“It’s having better capabilities to actually make things,” Martinez-Hernandez said of the updated equipment. “The previous printers, for example, were good, but they had a lot of errors, and they were very manual. We had to be very patient with them. The new ones make it easier for us to fix errors and print without worry.”

Martinez-Hernandez mentioned “benchy boats” as a way to illustrate how much faster the new 3D printers are. Used as a benchmark to see how long certain projects will take to print, a benchy boat can now be printed in about 20 to 30 minutes on the new machines, where it would have previously taken about an hour. The other new machines are similarly faster, he said.

“Thanks to Chevron’s continued support of the Fab Lab and specifically their funding of this new equipment, our students and visitors have access to the latest and greatest in fabrication,” Dr. Medina said. “This not only makes for a smoother process for those working on projects, but it also keeps our students up to date on the kinds of machines and software they might use in their engineering careers.”

The Fab Lab recently expanded beyond its four walls with a new outdoor makerspace just south of the Engineering Complex. The Chevron-funded space gives students a dedicated spot to work on projects (including those requiring woodworking and metalworking) and to test vehicles, robotics and drones in a safe, fenced-in area.

Looking back at the first decade of the Fab Lab, Dr. Medina reflected on the dozens of interns, hundreds of engineering students and thousands of younger visiting students who have come through the makerspace. She has seen grade school kids have their interest in science sparked inside the lab, watched as students puzzled out projects for classes and kept in touch with those who turned the skills they learned in the lab into a dream career.

“I’m just really proud of the impact that we’ve had within the community,” she said. “I’m really proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m proud of the students who have gone onto these amazing careers. I’m proud that we’ve maintained that accessibility for anybody who wants to come in. It’s just a welcoming space for everyone.”

CSUB Fab Lab

Engineering Complex

Phone: (661) 654-4240

Email: fablab@csub.edu

Website

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Footnotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); photos by Abel Núñez-Guerrero, Outreach & Community College Coordinator for NSME or CSUB file photos