By Holly Jordan, reporter

Edited by Kat King, editor

MOUNT BERRY, Ga. – The creative technologies major and minor at Berry College provides students with many tangible and varied skills.

Within this major, students are challenged to create physical objects of their own creation. Students can do this by utilizing HackBerry Lab, a space where tools and machines are available to assist students while they create their projects. These projects can include anything, such as keychains, dresses, tables, robots, and anything in between.

The lab includes machines such as a 3D printer, vinyl cutter, a laser cutter, a sewing machine, and many more. Students can also learn how to create things in the woodshop and metal shop at HackBerry.

Ashley Moreno, a sophomore creative technologies minor, believes learning how to use all of the machines in HackBerry is valuable.

“You’re not just learning how to use a 3D printer,” said Moreno. “You’re learning how to use all these machines. You get a well-rounded knowledge of everything.”

The creative technologies major at Berry is known to be cross-disciplinary. Not only are students required to know how to use all of the machines, but they are also taught principles from multiple different disciplines.

Dr. Zane Cochran, the Clinical Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies, discussed the unique diversity of creative technologies.

“We pull a lot from a variety of disciplines,” Cochran said. “Creative technologies is the amalgam of different subject areas that someone could go into.”

This includes computer science, engineering, industrial design, and entrepreneurship. Students in creative technologies are required to take elective classes that reflect the major’s variety, such as courses in management, marketing, art, and computer science.

Cochran believes that it is important for creative technologies students to learn skills outside of the major, even if it does not seem relevant or directly related at first.

“We want our students to be at the intersection of all of these different areas of study,” Cochran said. “It uniquely qualifies them to be able to invent those new technologies.”

There are many career possibilities that creative technologies prepares students for. Many graduates in engineering end up in positions where they must create things, whether physical or online.

MJ Shaffer, a junior creative technology major and lab assistant at HackBerry, explained the prospective careers for students in her major and why she believes creative technologies students are so employable in the workforce.

“[Creative technologies] gives us a really diverse set of skills that a lot of employers are looking for,” Shaffer said. “We have a lot of people who go into user interaction and experience, graphic design, web design. People will go into software engineering fields, system development, and product design.”

Creative technologies students appreciate the diverse skills the classes and professors, like Cochran, teach them, and believe it uniquely prepares them for the workforce. There is no other major like it at Berry.

Moreno talked about why she thinks all students should try out HackBerry Lab.

“HackBerry is a really cool place because it allows people to be creative and to make whatever they want,” Moreno said. “You come in with an idea and then you just make it. You get complete freedom in what you get to do.”

Students are welcome and encouraged to utilize HackBerry Lab. The open lab hours are Monday through Friday from 6 p.m. until midnight. Students can come in and make whatever they want with the assistance of the HackBerry Lab assistants.