About

Texas Inventionworks is a department of the Cockrell School of Engineering within The University of Texas at Austin. We are located in the Engineering Education Research Center (EER) building on the main campus.

Our official logo:	Our Patch and Motto: Change the World

Texas Inventionworks first started in the summer of 2014. Dr. Kovar and Steve Ferraro obtained a location and created the first iteration of TIW which at that time was called the Maker Studio. The location of the 'Maker Studio' was in the basement of the ETC building. It was a well-equipped room of 1750 sq/ft with tables, stools, a number of FDM 3D printers, a couple of SLA printers, and a multitude of hand tools, soldering tools, and woodworking tools. Other equipment also included: laser cutter, sewing machines, plasma torch, CNC mill, scanning units.

In September of 2018, when the EER building had finished construction we moved our facilities to the 1st and second floor (0 & 1) of the EER. We were transformed from a one-room space to a 15 room/lab area which also included 3 classrooms and three offices for a facility size of 23000 sq./ft. We currently have 13 rooms/labs and three offices. We transformed the old 'Maker Studio' into a first-class machine shop with several mills, two lathes, and a number of support equipment and tools. TIW is currently in the process of moving our machine shop from our old 'Maker Studio' location in ETC to a new location (B300) at level zero (basement) of ECJ. We are looking to have the new machine shop operational by summer 2021. The new machine shop will have new machinery added to enhance the learning and breadth of machining capability for a complete machine shop experience.

Our permanent staff

Scott Evans: Ph.D. Director of TIW.

Scott has worn many hats in his career: mechanical engineer, materials scientist, R&D director, entrepreneur, consultant, and teacher. Each of these experiences provides a unique perspective in his position as director of Texas Inventionworks. Scott became the director of TIW in March 2016.

Evans received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Cockrell School in 2005. As the leader of one of the most innovative spaces on campus, Evans is enthusiastic about interdisciplinary opportunities, research, commercialization, and challenging students to realize their potential, in part by building prototypes early.

Steve Ferraro: Assistant Director.

Roger Rose: BSET Facilities Operations Manager.

Roger has also worn many hats in the commercial world. Some being a hardware design engineer, electromechanical engineering, project and program management, and product development. For the last several years Roger has been the director of product development and engineering. These positions also included global operations and offshore product development and manufacturing. For seven years during the 1990s, Roger had a company called Precision Modeling Products. He also has been a pilot, AMT (Aircraft Maintenance Technician). Owned and flew a Citabria and Cherokee PA160, and built and flew a Kis Cruiser Tr-4. Roger Joined TIW in May of 2017.