News
January 2016 Model View Culture
Making Queer
A feature by Neal Ulrich (BS ’16) about his experiences being a gay engineer and maker at the PRL is among the "Top 25 of 2015" contributions to Model View Culture, an independent media platform covering technology, culture, and diversity. Ulrich’s goal is to design products that shed modes of thinking and doing that are deeply ingrained in society; he sees the transformative potential for queer designers and makers to offer new ways of navigating and thinking about the world.
October 2015 Stanford 125th
PRL Celebrates 125 Years of Making!
At Stanford, making is learning. But even the most creative student needs a place to begin. The Product Realization Lab has been that place since the university opened its doors in 1891. Today, student-designed products of wood, metal, cloth, stone, plastic and electronics come to fruition in a “maker space” open to all Stanford students.
September 2015 Stanford Report
Stanford Mascot Made In the Product Realization Lab
Stanford has a new mascot for the 2015-2016 academic year, and one of the PRL TAs helped to make it. Sara Young, this year’s Tree, worked on the sewn components and Jeff Kastenbaum, a member of the LSJUMB and PRL Teaching Assistant, pitched in to construct the aluminum frame. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the birth of a new mascot.
September 2015 Stanford Report
Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow Finds PRL Transformative
Raj Bhargava, one of two dozen fellows in Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, honed his skills in design and making at the Product Realization Lab. DCI fellows are established leaders who spend a year at Stanford to recalibrate their career and life trajectories. As he moves back into the private sector following his fellowship year, Bhargava is exploring how to scale social ventures dependent on ongoing philanthropy.
July 2015 Royal Academy of Art, London
TA Leads Workshop at the Royal College of Art
David Bordow, MS ’15 and Product Realization Lab TA '13-'15, led a workshop at the Royal College of Art that focused on human-centered design principles to transform our perceptions of making and consuming food. Participants from eight countries experienced Bordow’s unique approach, which treats food as a material with qualities that can be augmented through rigorous experimentation. The Open Food Project, which sponsored Bordow's week-long fellowship, is a partnership between the Royal College of Art, Brunei University, and the University of Nottingham.
May 2015 Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian
PRL Alum Petravic Receives National Design Award
Robin Petravic (MFA ’97) and his wife and business partner Catherine Bailey have received the prestigious Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Corporate and Institution Award on behalf of Heath Ceramics. First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the award is bestowed in recognition of excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life. Petravic (MFA ’97) and Bailey, owners of Heath since 2003, are known for placing a strong emphasis on world-class design, quality over quantity, production at a human scale, local manufacturing, social and environmental responsibility, and thoughtfully designed spaces that don’t just reflect its values, but also create them.
March 2015 Stanford Report
Hoop-Bots Compete for Championship
This year's ME210 competition, held in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd, featured bots that shoot and dunk as many "basketballs" as possible in under two minutes.
February 2015 Go Stanford
Stanford Rowing Has Deep Roots in Product Realization Lab
Stanford rowing has deep roots in engineering. Peter Dreissigacker (BS ’74, Mechanical Engineering), who rowed as an undergraduate, developed the first viable, affordable composite racing oar and later invented the stationary rowing machine.
November 2014 Stanford Report
Learning to Fly
In Mechanical Engineering course ME 202, Stanford students learn how to turn open-source smartphone operating systems into powerful control of mechatronic devices.
September 2014 Stanford Report
Students Make Cool Stuff for SF Zoo Animals in the PRL
A dozen Stanford Sophomore College designed ways to enrich the lives of the giraffe, lions, and kinkajou at the San Francisco Zoo. The students made their devices—including a lion pellet dispenser and a giraffe back-scratcher—during an intense weekend of work in the Product Realization Lab.
July 2014 International Design Awards
TA Alexander Bremer Wins International Design Award for Chair
Product Realization Lab TA Xander Bremer was awarded second prize in the International Design Award Home Interior Products Competition (Student Division) for his Cirro Chair. The IDA jury cited the work for its creativity, usability and innovation.
July 2014 The Stanford Report
Building a bicycle, one piece at a time
One of the most popular courses run by the Product Realization Lab, ME 204 teaches students how to build bicycles, but also patience and project management.
May 2014 San Francisco Chronicle
Stanford Arts Explosion Fueled in the PRL
Stanford students in the Interactive Art, Design, and Creation course are creating some amazing installation art pieces in the Product Realization Lab.
March 2014 STANFORD Report
Battle of the ‘Bots
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January 2014 STANFORD Daily
PRL TA Works to Cure Clubfoot
Physical mobility is a basic human desire, and every kid should have the chance to run.
January 2014 STANFORD Magazine
Forging My Comfort Zone
We turned metal into fire and then back into metal right across the street from Tresidder-—and this was my education.
January 2014 Stanford News Service
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In ME 203:Design and Engineering, students must master several manufacturing processes to design and build a final project. Things rarely go as well as planned, which is perfectly fine with Professor David Beach.
July 2012 Stanford Report
Design and Mechanical Engineering share a seat in Stanford's Product Realization Lab
Goldilocks would be hard-pressed to find fault with any of the chairs, designed by students for ARTSTUDI262
Fall 2013 Stanford Magazine
The Art of Engineering Metal
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October 2012 Stanford Magazine
Ahead of the Curve
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March 2012 Stanford Report
Stanford robots clash in class finale
Amid a cheering audience, student robots faced off in a "mechatronics" class showdown. In a nod to the political season, the autonomous machines raced to transport poker chips for Michelle Botman or Team Robama.
October 2009 Stanford Magazine
Home, Green Home
In 2003, when their old house began to feel cramped, Peter Skillman and his wife, Laurel, decided it was time to build their dream home.
July 2004 Stanford Magazine
A Class for 'Bike Nuts'
The half-circle fishmouth of steel tubing is flush against another tube, and sparks are flying—so they say.
June 2002 Stanford Report
Students fabricate a wine decanting cradle for a 100-pound wine bottle in the Product Realization Lab
When winemaker Peter Mondavi Jr. recently found himself facing a novel design problem, he turned to his former prof, mechanical engineer Dave Beach.
June 2001 Stanford Report
His Ph.D. beckoning, Clock Tower caretaker winding down his volunteer duties
Rob Bernier was a clockmaker-turned-engineering graduate student seven years ago when he began riding his bike past the Clock Tower near the School of Education.
May 1997 Stanford Report
Three faculty members named Bing teaching fellows
Product Realization Lab Director David Beach Selected for Bing Fellowship