About Us

I am a former middle school teacher and mom of three kids. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (go Packers!), I moved to Champaign, Illinois to teach where I met my husband. We then moved briefly to Oregon for his post-doc and are now settled permanently here in Tuscaloosa. I am really excited about bringing this space to fruition and providing an opportunity for the community to work on some really cool things!

I love to crochet and have made everything from blankets to stuffed animals. I would enjoy teaching other people to crochet but I somehow learned to crochet backwards. Starting new patterns and techniques is always tricky because I sometimes have to reverse things!

I never thought I would enjoy the more technology focused hobbies like 3D printing, but it is fun! Frustrating at times, but fun! It is sometimes overwhelming dealing with all the options, but I’ve learned you just have to try something and see what happens!

This Makerspace endeavor is a little overwhelming and scary, but I’m really excited to see the community of makers that we can build together. The past couple of years have been tough and I know a space like this can bring us back together and we can build that sense of community.

I am currently an assistant professor in the Civil Engineering department at UA and father of three crazy kiddos. I’m also a licensed professional engineer in three states. I grew up in Clemson (go Tigers), went to Clemson for undergrad, then Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for MS and PhD, where I met my wife. I have a Ceramic Engineering degree from Clemson University in addition to Civil Engineering degrees from Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

I loved my ceramic engineering program (one of the few that existed in the US at the time, there are almost no programs left) and am excited to do some really cool things with the kiln! During my program, we had free access to a variety of kilns and I spent many a late night slip-casting various things and designing my own glazes.

However, I am not artistic at all. If it were up to me, everything would have nice straight lines and be geometrically consistent. But, I do love tinkering with technology and making things do more than they were designed to do. You don’t want to see how I’ve re-wired the laser numerous times to get it to do more…