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Where making becomes a first venture

Western's student-led makerspaces give ideas a room, a tool and a community to become tangible.

Makerspaces at Western thrive under student leadership. Official Western News image.
Business & entrepreneurshipMakerspaces at Western thrive under student leadership. Official Western News image.Photo: Western News / official source page

A makerspace is entrepreneurship infrastructure before anyone calls it a company. Students learn to prototype, troubleshoot and explain what they are building while other people are still asking whether the idea is possible.

The shared equipment matters, but so does the social permission to make a rough first version and improve it in public.

Sources 1
  1. Original reporting · news.westernu.ca
Next · p.36Western receives $9.8M in federal SSHRC fundingA source-linked Western story about business & entrepreneurship.

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This story is from the August 2026 issue of Alumni Digest · Western. It's free, monthly and independent.

Alumni Digest is independent and is not an official Western University publication. Stories summarize the public reporting linked under each piece; photographs belong to the credited sources and remain under rights review.