Marine Maker Initiative

The USMC’s Marine Maker Initiative is seeking an innovative workforce development solution centered on digital design and rapid prototyping technologies. The successful solution for the Marine Maker effort will establish “makerspaces” at several USMC installations, furnish those locations with equipment, and provide rapid-prototyping training to uniformed Marines and Government civilians in United States and overseas locations. Additional support provided to Marines will be providing limited rapid prototyping support, managing skills-challenges for Marines, developing curriculum and teaching advanced rapid-prototyping topics, and providing occasional full-time-equivalent personnel in some established maker spaces. A makerspace is a community-operated workspace where people with common interests, such as additive manufacturing, computer aided design, fabrication, machining, electronics and programming, and other hands-on skills can meet, socialize, and collaborate. This effort supports the Secretary of the Navy’s 2015 Implementation Plan for Additive Manufacturing: a call to harness the collective energy of the Marines and the Government civilian workforce to provide hands-on prototyping, improve the use of advanced manufacturing, implement team innovation training, and champion creative problem solving. The most recent service level guidance and doctrine associated with Force Design 2030 and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations calls for Marines at the tactical level to be technically capable critical thinkers and improvisers. The Marine Maker Initiative builds off the global maker movement in areas such as digital design, 3D printing, 3D scanning, electronics building, computer coding, metal working, laser cutting, and digital milling.