CITRIS INVENTION LAB

As previously communicated the CITRIS Invention Lab will follow campus policy concerning safety around the COVID-19 response. In light of today's guidance from campus leadership  the Invention Lab will operate with limited access and updated polices as detailed below:

The lab will operate and be open only under staff hours. As of now, this will be weekdays only M-F 8 am – 5 pm. The lab will be staffed by Chris Myers, Kuan-Ju Wu, and Dan Chapman. Please check the lab calendar for the most accurate information as these hours may be further restricted based on staff updates.  

Superusers are not to post hours or come to the lab to open it for any reason for other students or individuals outside of these operational hours.

No more in lab training sessions will be provided for any equipment.

With reduced hours and staff we may also (at the discretion of the staff) need to reduce access and overall lab capacity. To help us avoid the need to limit capacity we are asking in advance that you follow these guidelines:

 1) Please only use the lab for time-critical academic work (i.e. no personal projects or non-time critical work, etc)

 2) Plan ahead to limit your time in the lab. For example, please be in the lab to use equipment, tools, and supplies. Do not use the lab for team meetings, gatherings, or other non-critical work. Again for example, please come to the lab, laser-cut your work, solder your project, and then please relocated elsewhere outside the lab to complete your debugging and final design. We realize the lab offers an amazing and supportive culture but we need to limit that experience for now in the interest of safety.  

 3) For team-based work, arrange for a single member of your team to use the lab rather than gathering as a team to complete the work. Find another location for teamwork to allow others to more efficiently and safely us the lab.

 4) Invention Lab staff will support the lab in terms of maintaining lab access policy and lab safety. The will not be available for general high-contact consulting and design advice. This is to reduce their overall exposure level. 

For now, Superusers will continue to have access to the lab for their personal use outside of these operating hours but may not provide any access to others. We ask that all Superusers abide by this rule out of lab policy and safety. Opening the lab outside of the posted hours (M-F 8-5 pm) will result in loss of Superuser privileges.

We will continue to provide access to SnapFab as a resource as best we can accommodate. We encourage students to take advance of this remote 3D printing service.

We ask that everyone work with us to help us all maintain a safe level of lab operation for all while provided the access many students need to finalize projects and coursework.  

These policies will be in effect until Spring Break when users should expect an updated policy to be announced. We will, of course, update these policies should there be new campus directives or Invention Lab staffing concerns.  

Thank you all for cooperating and working with our updated policies.

Eric Paulos
Director, CITRIS Invention Lab
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Maker Pass holders, students who qualify to use a variety of makerspaces on the Berkeley campuses, can now access high-resolution Form 2 3D printers in the CITRIS Invention Lab in Sutardja Dai Hall, thanks to a grant from the Student Tech Fund at UC Berkeley. 

In its eighth year, the CITRIS Invention Lab has always made lower-resolution Ultimaker 3D printers available for no extra charge, the costs of the higher-resolution printers have made that prohibitive until now. 

“Ultimaker printers are useful for prototyping, but students can learn valuable design insight and manufacturing skills when they can use the Form 2 3D printer,” says Chris Myers, senior manager of the CITRIS Invention Lab. “The Form 2 helps students understand the manufacturing process more holistically because it creates designs closer to the end product.”

“This grant lowers the barrier and will result in more students utilizing some of our best equipment,” added Myers.

The CITRIS Invention Lab currently has over 400 student users, including a community of “Superusers” who offer support to newer users of the lab. To use all equipment in the lab — including a laser cutter, portable 3D printers, and other rapid fabrication equipment — students need to apply for a Maker Pass, pay a small per-semester fee, and take online safety courses. To learn more about the CITRIS Invention Lab, please visit invent.citris-uc.org.

Photo: Chris Myers 

Free and open to the public, the CITRIS Research Exchange offers fresh perspectives on information technology and society from distinguished academic, industry, and civic leaders. Each hour-long seminar is on Wednesday from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm in the Banatao Auditorium at Sutardja Dai Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Lunch included.


Wed, September 11, 2019

Jutta Williams
Senior Program Manager, Facebook
Register >

Wed, September 25, 2019

Jiang Lin
Adjunct Professor, UC Berkeley
Nat Simons Presidential Chair in China Energy Policy, LBNL

Register >


Wed, October 2, 2019

5G, Tech and Policy Leaders
Register >

Wed, October 9, 2019
Rama Akkiraju
IBM Fellow, AI Operations, IBM Watson, IBM Master Inventor, member, IBM Academy of Technology, IBM
Register >

Wed, October 16, 2019
Lisa Yeo
Assistant Professor, UC Merced
Register >

Wed, October 23, 2019

Oscar Dubón
Vice Chancellor of Equity & Inclusion, UC Berkeley
Register >

Wed, October 30, 2019
Yana Feldman
Nonproliferation and International Safeguards Analyst, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Register >


Wed, November 13, 2019
Irma Olguin Jr.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Bitwise Industries
Register >

Wed, November 20, 2019
Victoria Coleman
CEO, Atlas AI
Register >


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CITRIS and the Banatao Institute have partnered with the Lawrence Hall of Science on an exhibit that spun from the Sophie’s Super Hand and Million Hands projects out of the CITRIS Invention Lab. The Prosthetic Hand Challenge, which enables children to design, build, and test a working prosthetic hand, is open at Lawrence Hall through June 30, 2019.

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Don’t be caught at graduation with an ordinary, boring, standard issue graduation hat…celebrate your creativity and individuality while you celebrate your accomplishment of graduation!

** ALL GRADUATING UC BERKELEY STUDENTS WELCOME **

** NO MAKER PASS REQUIRED **

Come join us at the CITRIS Invention Lab Fri 17 May from 9-5pm.  We’ll be there to help you hack your graduation hat (or other graduation gear).  This is open to not only all Maker Pass holders but all UC Berkeley graduating students.  So even if you don’t have a Maker Pass you are welcome to participate! Even if you are not graduating, feel free to come by.

See you Friday….and again congratulations on your upcoming graduation!

​This CITRIS Invention Lab Team!

2019 CAL Day was over, but those fun memories of making together will last and continue to spark more creativity in the hearts of the next generations.  Video Credit: Annalise Kamegawa

​The Invention Lab will be open for visitors this Cal Day from 10-2pm.
Outside, On the Yali's Cafe patio, we will have a large-scale, hands on, interactive ball run constructed completely out of cardboard and dowels that can be modified, added to, refined, dismantled and tested to demonstrate the principles of rapid prototyping and testing and the wide range usefulness of recycled materials.

Inside, student projects will be on display and visitors can construct a movable mechanisms, also out of cardboard, as a playful introduction to mechanisms.
There will be 3D printing and laser cutter demonstrations along with explanations of other the equipment in the lab.

The door from the patio to the 1st floor will be open providing direct access between the lab and outside so folks have easier time finding the lab.

Berkeley City Council members Tour CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at UC Berkeley

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin and City Councilmembers Kate Harrison (District 4), Sophie Hahn (District 5), and Rigel Robinson (District 7) toured the CITRIS Invention Lab and CITRIS Tech Museum on Tuesday afternoon. They learned about the ways the Institute is advancing information technology in the interest of society through its new Policy Lab, helping create an equal playing field for women in tech through WITI@UC, and has supported 48 "deep tech" startups through the CITRIS Foundry. This was the first stop on the Innovation Assets tours that the Berkeley Startup Cluster will be organizing for Berkeley City Council this year.