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394 FARRITOR

proof-of-concept product that could then be used can be accomplished with the physical design and/
to pitch to investors and to secure more substantial or location of the space. Policies and programmatic
funding. details should be examined with respect to how they
A more in-depth approach would be for a maker- impact the characteristics that support innovation.
space to incorporate or partner with a start-up busi- Finally, mechanisms can be put in place to make
ness accelerator. Start-up business accelerators can new ideas come together and grow. For example,
come in many forms, but they provide education design competitions, hacker weekends, or message
and assistance in areas such as market research and boards can be used to make ideas connect, while
customer validation. Some business accelerators use a techniques such as seed grants or business accelera-
“boot camp” period to move an idea forward quickly. tors can then help these fledgling ideas grow.
A partnership between a university makerspace and a
business accelerator that focuses on hardware-based ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
innovation would be a strong source of innovation for The author declares no conflicts of interest.
any community. One strong example of this type of
collaboration is think[box] at Case Western Reserve REFERENCES
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BASED MAKERSPACES AS SOURCES FOR McGraw-Hill Education; 2013.
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This paper presents characteristics of a makerspace arts? The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2015
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