How did we get here?

When I started working on Studio X in early 2019, it was an idea with a roadmap. That idea was shaped by community needs gathered through interviews, design activities, and extensive work done by the original steering committee led by Lauren DiMonte, now associate dean of Learning, Research, and Digital Strategies. What we learned boiled down to access to:

• Space that feels welcoming to all
• Expertise that lowers barriers to entry
• Technology that stays current
• Community that fosters collaboration

Today, the requests we receive from our community still echo the feedback from our original user research. But what does success look like? We asked stakeholders what they want to see, and they said:

• New users in the space and events that would make all feel welcome.
• Faculty incorporating extended reality in their teaching and research.
• Studio X having a big impact on our students, faculty, and the broader community.

Our mission statement was created to achieve these goals, and we hope you see them reflected in this report.

I do need to point out that as much success as we’ve had, the past year wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Supply chain issues delayed our technology. And like many units across the University, we were short-staffed and had trouble filling positions and finding people with the skills we needed. Although we have assembled a team of dedicated and skilled students, we see our team as a work-in-progress. Case in point: we still don’t have the staff to fully meet faculty needs. Finally, as is true with all new spaces, we discovered physical and technical limitations, which sometimes forced us to rethink our strategies for programming and events.

We’re proud of what we have accomplished in our soft-launch year, and we look forward to continuing to build the program, space, and community at Studio X.

Read more about our first year at the Studio X Annual Report.