text: Hacker Lab is a makerspace and coworking space; an economic catalyst for start-ups and micro-businesses; a place where one can go to learn, create new products or technologies; and a community of diverse minds, skills and interests that reflects a growing and passionate Creative Class.
  The seven-story, 50,000 square feet facility is the culmination of a vision that began in 2008 with a small group of faculty to bust open the innovation door on campus. The vision of the Sears think[box] is to operate an open space that enables users of all disciplines, all ages, all organizations to come together as a community to ideate, create, make, tinker, and build.
  The Integrative Design, Arts and Technology (IDeATe) Network was born from Student Need, and pushed as a Campus-Wide Initiative by multiple Provosts, and the President. Located on the first (2) Floors of Hunt Library, the IDeATe@Hunt facility, acts as a supportive resource for this initiative. Hosted
  The resulting ICE (Innovation, Collaboration, and Entrepreneurship) structure and Makerspace opened for business in April 2014. The future success of the project depends on continued support and collaboration of the three founding partners. Ongoing operations of the Makerspace area are funded by 4-VA.
  The Maker Spaces in the Department of Engineering at James Madison University (JMU) are distributed throughout the four floors of the Health and Human Services building on JMU’s East Campus. Maker Spaces support engineering courses and project work, and consequently, the equipment and spaces are generally shared spaces that can be leveraged by engineering courses, labs, project work, and research activities.