How Maryland turned makerspaces into community infrastructure

In 2001, MIT physicist Neil Gershenfeld began teaching a course called How to Make (Almost) Anything. Two years later, he and community organizer Mel King opened the first fab lab in Boston — a workshop with tools like 3D printers and laser cutters, where people can try out product ideas and build prototypes. The model spread to more than 2,500 labs across 150 countries.