New leadership in the Project and Idea Realization Lab (PIRL) is sparking renewed energy to design, create and innovate.

Stepping in the Project and Idea Realization Lab (PIRL) is an experience. At any given time, the room is buzzing with creativity. It’s not unusual to hear the zipping sounds of hi-tech tools like laser cutters and 3D printing machines making parts for student projects, the hum of students collaborating with one another or feel the forceful banging of tools that students are using to hammer, drill or build. There are stacks of portable mobile tool cabinets surrounding the perimeter of the space. Across the room, a large tool wall stretching from nearly floor to ceiling holds a number of saws, wrenches, pliers, work gloves and other power tools. Next to the tool wall is an oversized white board displaying written details for student assignments and projects. In the middle of the room are several work tables, and a large flat screen monitor – all evidence that serious critical thinking, handy work and innovation are in progress.

The PIRL is a place where ideas, sketches and blueprints come to life and transform into real-life objects and products. It’s a space that allows students to dream, think, problem-solve, calculate equations and create what lives in their imagination. At any given time, there are at least 40 projects in progress like rockets, an automated Rubik’s Cube solver, a lidar-based self-driving car, a chess robot or a Roman Ballista model for Latin class.

It’s also a happy place for newly appointed director Troy Lanier who teaches electronics and robotics. The space is resemblant to Lanier’s makerspace at his home and brings back memories from his engineering days and the makerspaces he developed while in the corporate world. Lanier feels right at home and says he jumped at the chance to take the leadership role. 

“When they asked me, I thought, heck yeah, I'm in,” says Lanier.

The PIRL provides an environment for all members of the St. Stephen’s community to engage in design and creative service while also recognizing the individual, local and global hope and change that compassionate making can bring to society. 

“Nothing in here is cookie cutter,” says Lanier. “We allow kids to find what they're passionate about and then enable them to design and build it. We then give them the support, but then at the end of the day, we're also teaching them to be self-motivated, self-organized, and to go out and do things.” 

Students have access to power and hand tools, a Shopbot Desktop MAX CNC Router, an Epilog Mini 18 laser cutter, a Makerbot Method X Carbon Fiber dual extrusion 3D printer, an Ultimaker S5 dual extrusion 3D printer, a Form 2 Stereolithography printer, a sewing machine, an electronic prototyping platform, Raspberry Pi computers, a host of microcontrollers and LilyPad sewable electronics. These technologies help students create models, prototypes and patterns in 3D and program innovative computer simulations.

“We’re a wonderful mix of both academic rigor combined with real world application, combined with creativity,” says Lanier. “We're giving [students] not only the skills and the knowledge, but the courage to create.

When the PIRL first opened in 2018, it attracted just one curious student. Now, dozens of Middle and Upper School students and their instructors use the space regularly to teach, make, engage and learn, all fulfilling one of Lanier’s visions for the space. There are now more classes beyond engineering or computer science that are utilizing the space for other projects and he’s happy to report, the future is happening now. Traffic is picking up. 

“Ace [Furman ’12] was just here building a double pendulum that looks at chaotic motion,” says Lanier. “Having teachers in here is great. Clare Coakley ’05 was in here from the Middle School, building an earthquake demo.”

Lanier says the PIRL invites students at any skill level and all the work happening in the space lays a solid foundation for what students may encounter in college or the corporate world.

“It's a welcoming room for beginners, with advanced students and teachers helping them to learn the ropes. Students can even take an intro half credit course to learn about the space, although this is not required to use the PIRL,” said Lanier. “It's also a place for advanced students who design and build highly technical projects either on their own outside of class or within a class like Projects in Science and Technology.  Past students in the projects class have built a radio telescope, a food delivery robot, organic solar cells, and a simulated Mars food production environment. You've got kids here doing college-level engineering projects. There's an electrical engineering class at UT that does similar stuff we do.”

As activity continues to increase in the PIRL fulfilling one of Lanier’s goals, he also wants to continue seeing another of his ethos evolve; more classes, from a variety of subject areas like mathematics and the arts, utilizing the space more frequently. And he says although it’s a work in progress, he wants to see more students taking on additional responsibility and leadership roles.

“We have seniors helping first years, and we have first years sometimes helping seniors, which is just really cool, and then they end up knowing the space, and they become kind of stewards of the space,” said Lanier.

Lanier says he’s committed to making sure that the PIRL is a makerspace that is welcoming to all and he’s looking forward to expanding the size of the PIRL.

“It should be a place for students to work academically and creatively, at any point on campus when they want to be, and that includes boarding life as well as academic day life,” said Lanier.

Currently, the PIRL is open during the day for students, teachers who bring a class to work on projects together, and faculty, day and boarding students who host after-school and weekend activities.

The Future of PIRL

Director of Advancement April Speck-Ewer is excited by the fundraising progress to date for the St. Stephen’s Science and Technology Center, which will include a dramatically expanded PIRL. 

Speck-Ewer shares that one of the most exciting aspects of the new facility’s design is that the PIRL will be in a centrally located, glass-encased space. “As students walk through the building or study in the flexible learning areas, they’ll be able to see what’s happening in the PIRL. In the same way that a new turf field has inspired students to give field hockey a try, or that a new aquatic center will inspire Spartans to try swimming or water polo, we believe that glimpses into the PIRL will pique student curiosity in technology and innovation fields. It will be one of the most exciting places on campus!”

The Science and Technology Center project is a top capital priority of the comprehensive campaign. With continued strong donor support, this state-of-the-art facility could open its doors to students as early as 2028. 

For more information about the campaign for St. Stephen’s, including naming opportunities for the PIRL, contact April Speck-Ewer, Director of Advancement, at aspeckewer@sstx.org, 512.327.1213 x 118 or Alison Chang, Comprehensive Campaign Director, at achang@sstx.org, 512.327.1213 x 108.