Makerspaces in Higher Education : the UR-Maker experience at the University of La Rioja

Nowadays, in addition to the expected technical knowledge, labor markets demand engineers with personal, interpersonal and system building skills, according to the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) syllabus. But the current higher education systems are mostly teaching theoretical concepts rather than practical or applied cases. Makerspaces could become a bridge between universities and industry, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers. Makerspaces, also known as hackerspaces, hack labs, and fab labs, are open-access spaces where tools, machines and knowledge are shared with the purpose of implementing an idea. This communication evaluates the current status of the makerspaces at the world's top 10 universities in engineering and three of the most well-known Spanish ones, as well as the new campus makerspace created at the University of La Rioja. All the information was collected from universities' websites. Most of these reviewed universities have created outstanding makerspaces generally for the entire academic community. The Spanish 'Maker UPV' has been exceptionally successful promoting activities and projects in spite of the lack of resources reported. Lastly, the implementation of a new makerspace at the University of La Rioja (UR-Maker) is described with information about its organization, funding sources and activities already performed. This experience can represent an attractive guide for the academic community as other universities can explore the creation of new makerspaces on their own campus.Peer reviewe

From multi- to single-hollow trimetallic nanocrystals by ultrafast heating

Abstract: Metal nanocrystals (NCs) display unique physicochemical features that are highly dependent on nanoparticle dimensions, anisotropy, structure, and composition. The development of synthesis methodologies that allow us to tune such parameters finely emerges as crucial for the application of metal NCs in catalysis, optical materials, or biomedicine. Here, we describe a synthetic methodology to fabricate hollow multimetallic heterostructures using a combination of seed-mediated growth routes and femtosecond-pulsed laser irradiation. The envisaged methodology relies on the coreduction of Ag and Pd ions on gold nanorods (Au NRs) to form Au@PdAg core-shell nanostructures containing small cavities at the Au-PdAg interface. The excitation of Au@PdAg NRs with low fluence femtosecond pulses was employed to induce the coalescence and growth of large cavities, forming multihollow anisotropic Au@PdAg nanostructures. Moreover, single-hollow alloy AuPdAg could be achieved in high yield by increasing the irradiation energy. Advanced electron microscopy techniques, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) tomography, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, and finite differences in the time domain (FDTD) simulations allowed us to characterize the morphology, structure, and elemental distribution of the irradiated NCs in detail. The ability of the reported synthesis route to fabricate multimetallic NCs with unprecedented hollow nanostructures offers attractive prospects for the fabrication of tailored high-entropy alloy nanoparticles