The Marlon Family IDEAS Center
Bring Your IDEAS to Life.
Gould’s Maker Space, The Marlon Family IDEAS Center, inspires creativity and innovation, empowering students to explore new ideas, build technical skills, and express themselves in transformative ways.
The Marlon Family IDEAS (Innovation, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, Arts, and Science) Center is Gould’s dedicated maker space, where creativity meets real-world problem solving. It’s a place where students experiment boldly, follow their curiosity, and turn original ideas into functional prototypes, one iteration at a time. They engineer new products, design custom skis and snowboards, and build electric vehicles. Students learn by doing—and gain the confidence and skills to shape their own future.
The IDEAS Center includes three distinct workspaces: a Digital Lab equipped with 3D printers, a laser cutter, vinyl cutter, and design software like Adobe Creative Suite and Fusion 360; a Physical Lab stocked with woodworking tools including CNC routers, drill presses, mitre saws, and sanders; and a Studio with rolling tables and movable whiteboards for flexible collaboration space and breakout work. Our dedicated ski and snowboard building classroom in the Lieblein Performance Center, in the lower level of Ordway Hall, rounds out the robust space for students to innovate.
If students can dream it, they can prototype, test, and refine it here.
The IDEAS Center is the hub of Gould’s convergent learning—ideas from all classes and interests from any student find a place to learn new skills and gain support to make a difference in the world.” – Sara Whalen Shifrin ’88, P’19,’23, Associate Head of School for Strategy and Talent
FEATURed Courses & Programs
Custom Ski & Snowboard Building
Design it, build it, ski and ride it. In this hands-on, cross-disciplinary course, students create their own skis or snowboards from scratch—blending art, engineering, and craftsmanship into a high-performance ride they’ll take to the trails at Sunday River.
Electric Vehicle Engineering
This advanced IDEAS Center course blends design with sustainable tech. Students design and build electric bikes using digital tools like 3D printers and laser cutters, translating design studio learning into real-world prototypes. Students refine their designs through multiple iterations and test rides, learning the nuances of power transmission, analyzing data, and green technology. Engineering with purpose and an eye to the future.