Universities are increasingly looking beyond traditional classrooms to create more engaging, practical, and interdisciplinary learning experiences. At UCD Innovation Academy, this approach comes to life through its Living Labs: the MakerSpace and Greenacre Sustainability Hub.
These environments give students, researchers, and staff the opportunity to experiment, prototype, test ideas, and tackle real-world challenges. Whether creating augmented reality learning tools, building research equipment, exploring sustainable food systems, or designing solutions for industry, the Living Labs bridge the gap between theory and practice.
What Is the MakerSpace and Why Does It Matter?
The UCD Innovation Academy MakerSpace is a hands-on innovation and creative technology lab where students from all disciplines can develop practical skills while exploring emerging technologies.
Rather than using technology for technology’s sake, the MakerSpace is designed around purposeful learning. Students gain experience with tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, virtual reality systems, augmented reality platforms, electronics workstations, and recycling technologies while developing problem-solving, collaboration, and design-thinking skills.
The impact extends far beyond technical training. The MakerSpace supports projects across UCD, helping students and researchers create prototypes, teaching aids, research tools, and interactive learning experiences.
How Does the MakerSpace Enhance Learning?
The MakerSpace enables students to learn through experimentation and creation.
Examples include:
- Developing prototypes for award-winning student innovation competitions.
- Creating 3D-printed models for archaeology, biology, engineering, and mathematics teaching.
- Building custom research equipment for scientific projects.
- Using virtual and augmented reality to make complex concepts more interactive and accessible.
- Supporting interdisciplinary collaborations between students, researchers, and industry partners.
Projects have ranged from AR-enhanced biology education and Mars farming simulations to museum exhibits, veterinary training models, and sustainability-focused innovations.
By giving learners access to advanced technologies and expert guidance, the MakerSpace helps transform ideas into tangible outcomes.
Which Schools and Research Projects Benefit from the MakerSpace?
One of the MakerSpace’s greatest strengths is its ability to support teaching and research across disciplines. The facility has collaborated with schools including Biology and Environmental Science, Archaeology, Classics, Engineering, Chemistry, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture and Food Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics, and Information and Communication Studies.
These partnerships have helped researchers and students create custom teaching models, laboratory equipment, augmented reality learning tools, museum exhibits, field research devices, and rapid prototypes for innovation projects. Examples include AR-enhanced biology education, 3D-printed archaeological artefacts, veterinary training simulators, earthworm sampling equipment for agricultural research, and physical models that help mathematics students visualise complex black hole orbit calculations.
By making specialist equipment, rapid prototyping, and creative technologies accessible, the MakerSpace accelerates research, improves student engagement, and enables academics to communicate complex ideas in more interactive and practical ways.
How Does Greenacre Bring Sustainability Learning to Life?
Greenacre Sustainability Hub is UCD Innovation Academy’s outdoor classroom, living laboratory, and sustainability hub.
Unlike traditional teaching spaces, Greenacre provides a real-world environment where students can explore sustainability challenges through direct experience. It supports teaching, research, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration across multiple UCD schools.
The site has become a space where students don’t just learn about sustainability, they actively practise it.
What Happens at Greenacre?
Greenacre hosts a wide range of learning and research activities, including:
- Sustainability-focused undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
- Biodiversity monitoring and species identification workshops.
- Urban hedgerow planting and ecological restoration projects.
- Circular economy initiatives.
- Student-led sustainability experiments and research projects.
- Community events and public engagement activities.
Students taking programmes such as Design a Sustainable Future and the MSc in Design Thinking for Sustainability use Greenacre as a practical learning environment where sustainability concepts can be tested and applied.
How Does Greenacre Demonstrate the Circular Economy?
One of Greenacre’s most innovative projects is its mushroom farming initiative.
The project uses coffee grounds collected from the UCD University Club as a growing medium for oyster mushrooms. The mushrooms are then supplied back to the University Club, creating a closed-loop system that transforms waste into food.
This initiative demonstrates key circular economy principles, including waste reduction, local food production, resource efficiency, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
For students, it provides a living example of how sustainable systems can be designed, tested, and implemented in practice.
Check out examples of how we collaborated with different units within UCD by reading our flipbook below. Alternatively, you may view it on our Issuu: How UCD Living Labs Support Research and Learning in UCD.
Why Are Living Labs Important for Research and Learning?
The MakerSpace and Greenacre create opportunities for students and researchers to build, test, collaborate, and solve real-world problems.
By combining innovation, technology, sustainability, and experiential learning, UCD Innovation Academy’s Living Labs are helping prepare students not only to understand complex challenges but to actively address them.
For more information about how we impact research and teaching across UCD and other institutions, email us at innovation.academy@ucd.ie