Horizon Hall

Addressing Nonprofit Challenges: Honors College Connects Hosts Its First-ever Hackathon

Daniel Hyunbin Chung — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 15:56:51 +0000

Addressing Nonprofit Challenges: Honors College Connects Hosts Its First-ever Hackathon Daniel Hyunbin Chung Tue, 11/16/2021 - 10:56

Two dozen Honors College students and four hours on a Saturday is a recipe for great new ideas, as demonstrated at Honors College Connects’ first-ever Nonprofit Hackathon. This event brought three local and one international nonprofit into a space with motivated student volunteers, who participated in a rapid-fire guided challenge in human-centered design – making and testing rapid prototypes with an eye towards creating user-friendly ideas. Over the course of the day, the students bonded with each other, networked with their nonprofit partner, addressed challenges with brilliant creativity, and had fun giving back to the community.

 Honors College Connects (HCC) is a student-led program that connects students with local nonprofits, giving them the opportunity to gain valuable professional experience and develop leadership skills. According to HCC student leader Elizabeth Fortson, the main goal of the HNRS 261 Honors College Connects class is "to work with nonprofit partners to solve some kind of strategic question that the nonprofit has."

Some of these questions can take multiple weeks or months of brainpower and teamwork to tackle, but the Hackathon sought to tackle something different. Rather than taking a whole semester, the Hackathon gave one day to solving smaller topics. 

In addition to creating a space to solve these smaller topics, the event reached students who are not able to participate in the semester-long HCC classroom experience. Brandon Roca, another student leader, noted that, “as a leadership team we saw a need for [these] students to get more involved and see what human centered design is all about.”  

Drawing on the multidisciplinary strengths of the Honors College's learning community, HCC is able to take on projects that do not fit neatly in a single discipline or field. Fortson says of this that “many of these problems aren’t in the realm of something a government major or a biology major would focus on… so having all these different multidisciplinary students brings a lot of different perspectives in terms of what we should do, how we should do it, why it would work, why it wouldn’t work.”

The morning of the Hackathon, students had four hours to rapidly respond to the issues the four nonprofits faced. The nonprofits featured in Fall 2021 were FACETS, Dulles Area Transportation Association (DATA), the Starfish Foundation, and Veterans Moving Forward. FACETS serves individuals and families who are homeless, low-income, or at-risk in Fairfax County, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; DATA finds solutions to transportation issues faced in the Dulles area and promotes sustainable transportation options; the Starfish Foundation provides means for at-risk Ecuadorian youth to achieve post-secondary education and strives to empower these students; and Veterans Moving Forward provides service dogs and canine therapy services to veterans with physical and/or mental health challenges at no cost to the veteran.

Roca remarked that the rapid-fire format of a Hackathon gave the nonprofit partners chances to benefit by the "multiple perspectives" that Honors College students bring to the table. At the event, students helped the nonprofits with a range of changes, including logo design, public relations, outreach to different demographics, and evaluation of innovative programs.

The impact of the Hackathon was significant. The nonprofits involved were able to take the student-designed ideas and apply them to their own operations. Fortson noted that her favorite part of the Hackathon was watching the lively energy of the event, which was characterized by students running around and solving problems, resulting in amazing, fully-developed ideas that came from that chaos in a very short period of time.

Roca says that the HCC class will spend the rest of the semester working on some bigger projects for these same nonprofits - the kind that are not solved in a day. Honors College Connects plans to offer a Hackathon each Fall semester moving forward, extending the reach of the program and encouraging students who are not in the Honors College Connects classes to make an impact.

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MIX welcomes Mason makers to its new home in Horizon Hall

Melanie Balog — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 21:53:51 +0000

MIX welcomes Mason makers to its new home in Horizon Hall Melanie Balog Tue, 10/19/2021 - 17:53

The new MIX space is open in the brand-new state-of-the-art Horizon Hall. MIX stands for “Mason Innovation Exchange” and is a place for creators, makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Located at the heart of the Fairfax Campus, the MIX serves as a hub for Mason students, faculty, and staff to come together, collaborate, and create.

The MIX offers classes and workshops for those interested in learning more about the Makerspace. Photo provided.

What is the MIX?

The MIX has three areas—the Media Lab, the Makerspace, and the Incubator. The Makerspace is a collaborative and innovative location for anyone in the Mason community. It offers open access to tools and technology, including 3D printing, virtual reality (VR) headsets, sewing machines, electronics and microcontroller kits, and much more. It’s a place where Mason students, staff, faculty, and alumni can come together to develop ideas, research problems, craft solutions, and start companies.

The first floor has large group tables with tools and equipment to support prototyping and making. Whether you are looking to use the laser cutter to cut a chassis for a robot, 3D print a case for an electronic sensor, or upcycle material in a sustainable fashion project, the Makerspace can support you and provide resources and training.

The MIX is open in Horizon Hall. Photo provided

The Media Lab next door is the home to VR, video, and audio recording setups.

On the upper floor is the Innovation and Incubator Space, with desks dedicated to selected entrepreneurial projects. The MIX provides entrepreneurial training, mentoring, and workshops to help members of the Mason community take their ideas to the next level.

Want to get involved, but don’t know how to use any of the technology? No problem! The MIX holds classes and workshops on how to handle any of the available tech, or just ask a staff member. They are very eager and willing to help Patriots create.

The MIX is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Updates

For updates on projects Patriots are working on, or any new technology that comes in, follow The MIX on social media, check out their semester newsletter, or visit their website.

Facebook: @mixatmason

Instagram: @mixatmason

Website: mix.gmu.edu

Email: mix@gmu.edu

Tim Nielsen, MIX Makerspace and Events Manager tnielse@gmu.edu

Gisele Stolz, Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programs

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The MIX

Horizon Hall

Campus News

Horizon Hall will be open for classes on Jan. 25

Damian Cristodero — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 20:41:17 +0000

Horizon Hall will be open for classes on Jan. 25 Damian Cristodero Thu, 12/17/2020 - 15:41

Ann Ardis, the dean of ��AV’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, is looking forward to getting into the college’s new offices in Horizon Hall. It will be nice, she said, to have many of the college’s departments and interdisciplinary programs in one location rather than spread out over the Fairfax Campus.

But Ardis is also excited about what Horizon Hall will mean for teaching and learning when the building opens four classrooms on Jan. 25, the start of the spring semester.

The active learning classrooms in the first two floors of the building are a “huge” new asset for the university community, Ardis said.

The six-floor, 218,000-square-foot building is the centerpiece of the Core Campus Project that is transforming the center of the Fairfax Campus with a new and expanded Wilkins Plaza (including the memorial to the enslaved people of George Mason), a renovated Harris Theatre, new green space, and an upgrade to the university’s utility infrastructure.

Though there is still plenty of work to be done—the old Robinson Hall B must be torn down to make room for the terraced amphitheater and meditation garden—the opening of Horizon Hall represents a significant milestone, especially considering the challenges from COVID-19.

“As a result of COVID, we’ve had supply chain challenges. We’ve had labor challenges,” said Cathy Pinskey, capital program director in Mason’s Facilities department. “But we really stayed focused on trying to make up the time where we could, and because we opened up lines of communication with people really early, it helped to get to the goal to be open at the end of January.”

When students show up for classes, the only thing remaining to be completed should be some furniture installation to the upper floors.

Classrooms are spacious and can accommodate from 24 to 120 students, though COVID restrictions will limit class sizes to 30% or 40% of capacities, Pinskey said.

All classes are equipped for video collaboration and instruction. The Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) will also be located in Horizon Hall.

“Horizon Hall’s opening is significant because it successfully showcases our commitment to building classrooms and learning spaces that truly support active, engaged student learning in face-to-face and hybrid modalities,” said Kim Eby, Mason’s associate provost for faculty affairs and development. “This commitment was articulated in our most recent strategic plan and it’s incredible to see this come to fruition.”

“The entire building is designed to enable student engagement and opportunities for student learning and collaboration,” Ardis said. “There will be places for students to work by themselves or in small groups and study spaces where students can engage with faculty.”

She called the building a “game changer.”

“Bringing students to that building, and recruiting students to Mason by walking them through Horizon Hall and through Wilkins Plaza, that’s going to be such a positive,” Ardis said.

On a recent December day, workers were moving furniture and putting the final touches on staircases and rooms. There was the occasional rattle of a circular saw. Pinskey called it controlled chaos.

“I’ll be excited to see people in it, to see people using it. That’s the most rewarding part,” she said of Horizon Hall. “It’s nice to see it coming together. Yeah, it’s exciting.

Inside Horizon Hall, which will be the new home of Mason's College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services.

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College of Humanities and Social Sciences

The Mason clock is back on Wilkins Plaza

Damian Cristodero — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 19:34:13 +0000

The Mason clock is back on Wilkins Plaza Damian Cristodero Wed, 12/16/2020 - 14:34

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

The iconic Mason clock, a gift to the university from the Class of 1999, was reinstalled on Tuesday at what will be the center of the expanded Wilkins Plaza next to Horizon Hall, after a top to bottom refurbishment by the clock’s manufacturer, Verdin.

The entire exterior of the clock was cleaned. It also has new scratch-resistant lenses. Best of all, though, the clock’s electronics were updated, meaning you will be able to trust the time displayed.

“They were replaced with modern digital controls that will automatically keep the clock on time without it having to be manually programmed,” said Steve Vollmer, assistant director of operations for Facilities Management.

Vollmer said he was unsure when the manufacturer would make the clock operational.