What is DesignHub?
About Us
DesignHub is a student-led team of engineers and designers that helps clients within the Duke community fulfill their design and prototyping needs. DesignHub can help you make your idea reality by providing tool training and prototyping assistance.
Our Services
CAD
We produce computer modeled 3D files ready for manufacturing using 3D printing or conventional subtractive manufacturing.
Prototyping
We use rapid prototyping technologies including 3D printing, laser cutting, water jetting, and more to generate prototypes and iterate on designs.
How it Works
DesignHub is a subsidized service provided to the Duke community by the Innovation Co-Lab. The only cost is material charges for any materials necessary to fabricate the prototypes (if fabrication is part of the project). We scope our projects to stay well within twenty hours of design and build time. Most projects will leverage 3D printing or other digital fabrication tools, and pricing for these tools can be viewed on the Bluesmith page.
Getting Started
If you have a problem and an idea for how to solve it, you're halfway there! Working through the list below will help get your project moving.
Identify a Problem
The world is abound with problems. Even small optimizations can lead to drastic improvements in performance. Pick a problem that is personal to you and we can help you solve it.
Work together to Solve the Problem
Our staff will help you turn your vision into a tangible outcome. Try to think of a few potential solutions. Often the prototyping process will be iterative and adjustments will need to be made but we will look to you as the subject matter expert that guides our work. Frame your problem and solution in terms of working backwards from the desired outcome you would like to achieve.
Schedule a Consultation and Get Started
Reach out to our team by emailing designhub@duke.edu or heading to our Booking Calendar to get started. You will be introduced to your student designers who will work with you through the course of your project. They will assess your idea in relation to the realities of design and building. You will serve as the subject matter expert for the project and work in tandem with our design engineers. At this point your work will begin and with any luck, together we will have solved a problem!