Unimaker25 – Its a wrap!
The University of Salford’s Maker Space hosted the Unimaker Salford Conference on June 26-27, 2025. This two-day event featured increadible speakers, panels, and roundtable discussions along with a energetic marketplace showcasing maker projects.
With the theme “Innovative Learning Spaces: Unlocking the Impact of Maker Spaces,” the conference explored how makerspaces influenced curricula, digital strategies, student engagement, maker community and entrepreneurship shared lessons from makerspaces, and their role in fostering collaboration within universities and beyond. Unimaker was established by Dr. Peter Mylon, Senior University Teacher in Multidisciplinary Engineering Education at the University of Sheffield. He led the iForge Makerspace, the UK’s first student-led facility, and founded Unimaker to highlight innovation and skills in academic makerspaces.
Contribute to the Unimaker25 Digital Toolkit
During Unimaker25, we gathered a wealth of makerspace knowledge and now we’re sharing it with you in a free Digital Toolkit. This is a practical, downloadable resources you can access and add to anytime. We’ve made a start, but we need your expertise to help this grow into a truly valuable resource for the community.
What’s Inside:
- Recommended software tools
- Must-read articles and books
- Trusted material suppliers… and more!
🔗 Follow the link and add your contributions via Padlet Unimaker 2025 Digital Toolkit
Unimaker25 Speakers
We welcomed to our inspirational speaker, Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project – a grassroots social enterprise in the UK to ease the burden of handwashing clothes for women in remote, low-income, and displaced communities by providing an accessible off-grid washing solution.
We also heard from our keynote speakers Prof. Corrina Cory, Associate Professor in Engineering & Entrepreneurship at the University of Exeter and Dr Alejandro Veliz Reyes, Associate Professor in Digital Design, School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth who will kickstart the Unimaker conversations.
The conference started with a welcome presentation by Prof. Neil Currie, Professor in Structural Engineering Practice & Director at Woolgar Hunter sharing “Why on earth did we build a makerspace?”. This was followed by Dr. Peter Mylon, The University of Sheffield + iForge who gave an overview of the inauguration of Unimaker. The conference was chaired by Dr. Maria Stukoff helping to link talks, panels, and roundtable feedback.
Panel 1. Unlocking MakerSpace Impact
1. Charlotte Palmer, King’s College London
2. Dr. Peter Mylon, University of Sheffield + iForge
3. Dr Will Newton, Swansea University
4. Ollie Kanjoo-Parson, Rolls-Royce SMR
Panel 2. Makerspace Communities.
Our Community strand was kindly supported by Additive-X
1. Rachael Turner, Director MADLAB
2. Prof. Chloe James, University of Salford
3. Sohaib Hussain, EDF / iMechE
4. Joe Amos, Salford Youth Zone
Panel 3. The Student Experience.
How do makerspaces enrich the student experience, and how does this add value?
Speakers include makerspaces student reps and alumnus sharing their experiences.
1. Josephine Riani, University of Manchester
2. iForge, University of Sheffield
3. Elizaveta Krasnova, Makerspace Technician at Kings College London
4. Faraz Falahi, The University of Salford
15 min Lightning talks. We head from invited guests to share makerspace insights inlcuding:
– Chris Summers, Head of Engineering Delivery, Morson Projects, UK
– Dr Meghna Nag Chowdhuri, Senior Research Fellow, UCL (Making Spaces Project and the 3-STEP approach for equity in makerspaces.
– Lianne van de Laar, Project Leader Maker Residence Programme, Makers United, Chemnitz, Germany
– Katrin Hoffmann, Managing Director of the Saxony Industrial Association
Facilitated roundtable discussions exploring conference themes including:
1. Health and Safety & Training Students to be Operators
2. Student Instructors & Volunteers as Makerspace Delivery Team
3. Starting a Makerspace: Equipment & Costs
4. Integrating Maker Skills and Pedagogy into Curriculum
5. Equity and Inclusion Strategies Welcoming Makerspaces
6. Formal Teaching vs Informal Learning: Alternative Accreditation Paths
7. Running Community Makerspaces
8. Rethinking the Staffing Model to Boost Student Innovation
Unimaker Salford 2025 is proudly sponsored by the Morson Group STEM Foundation, RS, Additive-X and the University of Salford.