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A frustrated Texas A&M University engineering freshman, Ismail Hozain, wrote a blog post in November of 2022 questioning why he had to work out of a storage unit to build his rocket engine while attending one of the top engineering schools in the nation. Two months and $26,000 later in donations, Ismail and two of his rocket teammates opened Starforge Foundry, an educational makerspace.
“My post showcased what we had built in two months in a storage unit,” Ismail says. “I encouraged the community to imagine what we could do in a larger space and ask for funding to open the makerspace and people responded.”
A makerspace is a public workshop where students pay a monthly fee to use the equipment for projects. During his first semester, Ismail had been turned away from RELLIS, the Fisher Engineering Design Center and the Department of Aerospace Engineering for workspace so he opened Starforge in January of 2023.
The makerspace is 2,000 square feet and has tools for welding, 3D printing, woodworking, metalworking and more. Ismail says their equipment is made possible from a mixture of donations and loans. Starforge offered two welding classes in the spring and are looking to add more in the fall.
“Most of the classes, they're very hands-on and it's almost like a tutor type thing,” Ismail says. “We're gonna have a soldering class, a welding class, a woodworking class, 3D modeling and 3D printing class. Eventually, I want to offer a machining class, but we want to start offering longer term, more in-depth classes. I want to make a multi-week class on how to build your own electric skateboard.”
Members don’t have to attend a class to work on what they want, however. Ismail says that they see both school and personal projects at the makerspace.
“Really popular projects are gas bikes and electric bikes,” Ismail says. “There's a guy who wanted to work on a scooter. The guy came in and built a little tank with an airsoft gun — that was remote controlled.”
A staff of seven students help run the space, two of them including co-founders Michael Frost and Matthew Steil, both A&M engineering students. Ismail says it was hard scheduling to make sure someone was at the makerspace during opening hours at first, but there’s always at least one of them there.
“The social group just kind of evolved over time,” Ismail says. “A bunch of people started hanging around and they got along. So a friend group came out of it. People don't always build things together, but they're building around each other. It’s fun to see what people come up with.”
Membership is $40 a month for students, $50 for non-students and $25 for students who are signing up through an organization of 10 or more. Aggies Create is an organization Starforge works closely with the most, who Ismail says they have an excellent relationship with.
“We’re pretty flexible and negotiate with student orgs,” Ismail says. “We're trying to reach out to project based student organizations. Less social, more, ‘Hey, we build things,’ and ‘Hey, we can help you to build things better.’”
Meet the staff of Starforge at Howdy Week this fall, where Ismail says they’ll likely be driving a trackless train around that they’re currently working on.
“I really want to thank everyone who has helped us along the way whether that be financially or just support actually being there,” Ismail says. “I don't want this to sound like it was a me project. It really wasn't, it was a team effort. I just happened to be there.”
Starforge Foundry’s fall hours are noon to 9 p.m. every day of the week. They are located at 311 College Ave next to Hurricane Harry’s.
