Introduction
The Bechtel Center contains many useful machines which, when used correctly, are a powerful tool. Used improperly, however, and the machine becomes a danger to the user and those working nearby. As such, it is the Center’s first and foremost desire to see that each student user is made aware of the hazards, prohibitions, and requirements of each space before they even set foot in the lab and that they’re thoroughly trained in a standardized manner before utilizing the Center’s resources. Student training is done through a combination of the Center’s Passport group and standardized in-person training.
New System Rollout
Originally, a student looking to use the Center had to engage with Passport several times throughout the duration of working on their project. From overall lab safety badges to badges for a singular machine or process, students had to work through multiple quizzes which could often be confusing, misinformed, or not up to date. Furthermore, students would then come to the Center for their reservation and receive in-person training on the machine they would be using anyway, making the Passport trainings redundant while the in-person trainings themselves were inconsistent depending on the different Peer Mentors training the users.
In an effort to correct this, the Passport safety badge system is being entirely redesigned and standardized across the entire Center. Once completed, student users will take the following general steps to work on machines in any lab:
- Passport Badge – Center Membership: A single, general badge trains and informs the student user on the general expectations, policies, and requirements for being in the Center as a whole
- Passport Badge – Lab Safety: A single passport badge for each individual lab which trains and informs the student user on the hazards, prohibitions, and requirements of the space
- Machine Training Video: A basic tutorial video for each machine which addresses the basics of operating the machine as well as safety aspects relevant to the specific machine being used. These videos are based on operation instructions/checklists developed for each machine
- Student consults and schedules their reservation
- In-person Review: Student user knowledge compared to machine checklist to review their knowledge
- Student awarded machine training badge and able to continue with full reservation
This entire effort will be rolled out in two phases, the first of which will only include the two passport badges and in-person training with the checklists as opposed to training videos. The videos will be included when Phase 2 is rolled out.
New System Labs
To best monitor the transition from the old system to the new system, labs will be switched over to Phase 1 of the new system one at a time until all labs have been switched over. Phase 2 will then be implemented in a similar fashion. As of right now, the following labs observe the new system as the standard for machine training:
- Printing & Prototyping Lab
- Assembly Lab
- High Bay Lab
- Electronics Lab (Coming Soon)
- Soft Materials (Coming Soon)
