Alyson Lam on Working at The Hive

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: The following interview is conducted as a part of the Georgia Institute of Technology's Empathy Bytes interview project. Today is October 1, 2020. The interview is taking place on BlueJeans. The interviewer is Jocelyn Kavanagh. The interviewee is Alyson Lam. Alyson Lam is a third-year Industrial Design student at Georgia Tech. And she serves as the director of communications for The Hive. Thank you for participating in this project.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah, no problem.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: So I want to start with some background questions. Where were you born? Where did you grow up? What were your childhood experiences?

ALYSON LAM: I was born in Louisville, Kentucky. My parents lived in Louisville for a little bit because my dad is an immigrant from Vietnam. My mom lived in Cincinnati, which is about two hours away. They met, and then they got together. They ended up having me, I think, a year or two after their marriage.

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And then when I was younger, around 2, they actually moved back to Cincinnati. Since then, I've lived in a city called Mason, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cincinnati.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: And what were some of your educational experiences, early educational experiences that have shaped your life?

ALYSON LAM: My parents own a nail salon together. They've owned a nail salon since 2003 or so. I think that was probably something that really shaped a lot of my experiences, just because being in that environment, talking with people and customers and stuff like that. But through that business, they actually met someone who had founded a Christian private school in Cincinnati. And through knowing him, I was able to attend a Christian private school for the first four years of schooling, so kindergarten through third grade.

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From then, I actually transferred over back to the public school that was in my area called Mason Intermediate School. And that was some of my elementary experience.

I was in Mason until high school. And I graduated in 2018. I actually was accepted into the Ohio State University Industrial Design program, but then I transferred after a year to come to Georgia Tech.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: And then have you had any career or project experiences that have kind of shaped your outlook on life?

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. One of the big projects that I've been able to work on is a project that was a Georgia Tech VIP project, so a vertically integrated project, which is available to students from the freshman year up to graduate level, just 00:03:00depending on whether you're interested or not. And these are just research projects. They kind of vary in topic.

The team that I was on was called Design Bloc, which is a subsection of a small teaching group on campus that deals with design thinking workshops and classes, and stuff like that. This project specifically dealt with improving and redesigning the MARTA bus stops in the upper West Midtown area, just because there's a lot of growth that's happening here. I live here myself now. And there's a building that's right next to where I live that wasn't there a couple of months ago at all. I don't even remember if there were foundations or anything.

There's a lot of development happening in this area, which is right next to campus, actually. And so one of the things that we wanted to do was try to provide a way to encourage people to take the bus as a way to take alternative modes of transportation in the area just because the roads are a bit smaller all the way up towards Howell Mill to the Kroger and the Walmart. Because the roads are kind of small and they expect such a large increase in residence, they're 00:04:00expecting a lot of traffic issues, and bottle necking, and stuff like that. So by encouraging people to take a bus, we kind of are able to eliminate some of those problems.

It was also a community partnered project, which I think was extremely valuable. There is no way that you can do something like that, that is so integral to a lot of people's lives-- transportation, getting to work, getting to restaurants and things like that-- without actually having the perspective of the people who live there and the people who are going to use it. So through that project I was able to get in contact with a lot of people who live in this area. And we were able to uncover their needs and stuff like that, which I really valued.

I also think it's a very interesting project just because a lot of the projects that Georgia Tech works on sometimes are very community involved. But I think as 00:05:00a designer, you need to have a built relationship with the community that you work with, and you can't just abandon it. And so I think there's like a prolonged relationship that we developed through that project. I don't think I would've been able to do a project like that anywhere else, so I'm very glad that I was able to do that.

And that kind of put me on my path toward an interest in user research because I was also taking a curriculum class called User Research Methods, taught by Wayne Li, who also is the head of Design Block. He focuses a lot on teaching those different ethnographic research techniques so that we can understand the people that we design for better.

So there were those two things, the class and the VIP project. I really liked that kind of aspect of design, so. So sorry again for the background noise.

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JOCELYN KAVANAGH: No, no. It's all right. Yeah, that sounds really interesting. Especially I can kind of see this combination of the community involvement with your parents' nail salon, moving into now your future career pursuit. So you would say that's probably a pretty significant passion now, this user design?

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. So going back to the idea of being in my parents' nail salon, a lot of that is-- because they bought it when I was younger, and they got into it when I was quite young, I spent a lot of time, a lot of my childhood, actually sitting in that nail salon and also talking to the different people, the clientele that would come in. As a kid, I was always super into just having a conversation, trying to know everything about that person. That's kind of something that I look back on now and I realize that that shaped a lot of the way that I like-- I'm just, I guess, kind of nosy. But the way that I kind of want to know people better.

Another thing is being able to help them choose nail polishes, which seems 00:07:00really mundane. But the idea of finding the right color, understanding what their needs are, understanding how do they feel about how they present themselves, and how do they want to present themselves in general. How can that make them feel better as a person. Even if it's a small thing, there are reasons why people take care of themselves in that way. So, yeah, being able to have that experience, it's also really interesting looking back. [LAUGHS]

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: That's definitely really interesting. And I guess that kind of moves me into my next section of the interview. Maybe that's why you started getting involved in The Hive and the Interdisciplinary Design Commons, this feeling of community. Could you briefly describe what The Hive and the Interdisciplinary Design Commons are?

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. The Interdisciplinary Design Commons is a maker space located on campus, connected to Van Leer, the Electrical and Computer Engineering School. It initially started as a space for students to come in and work on 00:08:00different projects with an ECE focus.

Right now, we're kind of evolving it into-- we have a lot of different sections in the space. We have a workshop. We have a laser cutting room. We have a 3D printing room. We have a bunch of different resources between those three on the first floor. On the second level, we have a bunch of bench tops, so students can come in and solder different projects. Also work on classwork, but also work on projects outside of class.

And that kind of is the thesis of our entire operation is that we want to allow students to come in and work, but also come in and explore. Part of that is also being able to give them the skills and the resources. The skills part is that The Hive-- The Hive is the student organization that runs the IDC. And so as we go through and hire PIs and stuff like that, the main thing that we look for is 00:09:00the ability to connect with students and teach.

The idea of being able to teach students is one of the main driving points of our entire space. It's just a maker space on campus, but it has become, I think, a larger community within the PIs, but also within all the students that come in.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: I think you touched on it a little bit with this, but with it being so student driven, would you say that's one way that The Hive community is different from other college maker spaces or other spaces on Georgia Tech's campus?

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. In all honesty, I haven't really looked into other spaces like, say, the Invention Studio or the Aerospace maker space. But I know the Invention Studio is one that is really ME-focused. And that, again, is tied to the school. The Aerospace maker space, specifically, I think is mostly limited 00:10:00to Aerospace majors. But the IDC itself is open to all majors. A lot of the other ones are-- I think we kind of really try to push the idea even if a lot of our equipment is ECE-focused.

Being a student run organization, there's a lot of different input that you'll have. And we do try to bring in, obviously, a lot of different perspectives because, for one-- I'm not an ECE major. I really had no interest in ECE going into college. But just through the fact that I am in this environment at Georgia Tech that is a little more STEM-focused, having the opportunity to interact with ECE majors, and also bring me on to the leadership position, it helps diversify, I guess, the resources that we have and the mission that we're trying to achieve.

Yeah. I don't know. I guess it's kind of weird. Being student run, there's 00:11:00obviously a lot of things that could be better, but since we are always learning, it is a really interesting experience. Even today, we had our executive board meeting. And even though we've been open since 2018, there's a lot of things that we still need to hash out. So, yeah. It's always fun. [LAUGHS]

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: [LAUGHS] So I guess that moves me to what would your ideal Hive be in the future? What are some goals that you'd like to accomplish, or that you'd like to see accomplished after you leave?

ALYSON LAM: I think one thing is, despite the situation surrounding COVID and stuff like that, I think that we could have more in-person workshops and strengthen that bond between the community and the PIs. There are about a 00:12:00hundred or so PIs that just work under The Hive. Because of that, there can be a bit of a disconnect between the older generation of people who have worked there and the newer generation.

And that's true of any school organization, I believe, just because connecting people across grades is really important, but the way that we kind of structure our organization, there's not, I guess, a mentorship type of program. It's more of like you meet and interact with the people who are on your shift. So I think, moving forward, that's something that we can definitely work on, through either socials or just encouraging PIs to also come to workshops and stuff like that.

Regarding workshops and stuff, I think that we should be bringing in more students and try to reach as many students as possible, because there are a lot of things in the space that I think a lot of students don't even realize are available to them. And the fact that they have so many-- there's so many choices 00:13:00on campus, it's hard to choose one and focus on one thing. But I don't really want students to miss out on the opportunities that they have here either.

A lot of the equipment we have is, thankfully, sponsored by a bunch of different companies and given to us. But it's also top-of-the-line type of quality equipment that you might not even be able to see in your workplace as you go into industry and stuff like that. So furthermore going into including more students, bring in more students into the space safely, and all that.

Another thing, again, is the idea of diversity. Right now, I'm not exactly sure of the statistics of Georgia Tech's campus, but there is a large portion of international students, where maybe their English might not be their first language. And so bringing those people in and connecting the different facets in the student community into that space and having them work together I think is 00:14:00also really important. Just the idea of having different perspectives in life.

And again, I think those are some of the things that we really want to focus on is improving diversity, improving I guess the number of students coming into the space and being able to utilize it, and then bridging the gap between some of the older and newer PIs.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Yeah, I really love that point about diversity. Diversity, especially. Always something to strive for.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. It's been on our list for a while. [LAUGHS]

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Well, we can always keep working.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Just kind of a follow-up, going back, could you kind of clarify what a PI is, and what their role is?

ALYSON LAM: A PI is a Peer Instructor. So like I mentioned, one of the things we look for is that students who apply to become a peer instructor have experience in teaching or have the ability to communicate with other students. They are 00:15:00students who come into the space and work the shifts.

They're part of The Hive, which is the community organization. And then the IDC is the actual maker space itself. But we kind of use them interchangeably.

Any student who's a PI is a member of The Hive. And so, as a PI, they have to work at least three hours a week. And they'll have a three-hour shift, whether that's on the same day or across different days. And the idea is that they'll be able to run the space, be trained on all the equipment, and help any end users or any other students who come into the space that might not be as experienced.

And again, the idea of being able to teach them, being able to give them those resources and disperse the information that they have and the skills that they have to be able to carry it on for other students. They are pretty much the reason why we even exist. If we didn't have our peer instructors, there would be 00:16:00no Interdisciplinary Commons. For one, the diversity of people there in terms of their ideas and perspectives and stuff like that. Also their expertise in the resources and equipment that we have, and also their expertise in their respective fields. Peer instructors are a very important part of our entire operation.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: And I think I saw on your website-- can anyone become a peer instructor? Is there sort of training to get into that? Do they have to be a part of the community in the beginning? Or what's the process for that?

ALYSON LAM: You actually don't really have to even be an active member coming into the maker space or anything like that. It's something we do encourage, but it's not necessarily a deal breaker. Any student can become a peer instructor. All you have to do is apply when we open the application, so usually sometime in the middle of the semester.

And then, after you submit your application, including a resume, different 00:17:00interests and stuff like that, and just a general, basic check, we'll go through an interview process. There's an interview process. You talk with someone that is either on the exec board or is an MPI, which is a Master Peer Instructor.

Master peer instructors usually have a very specific focus in the space. So they're either on 3D printing. They're on our embroidering machine. They're on embedded systems or anything like that. They're the ones that are actually maintaining the equipment. They get a really close, intimate knowledge of that specific piece of equipment or that area. And then they're able to be the touch point for a lot of PIs, as a resource, so talking to them, helping to learn about specific things as well.

But in the interview process, you go through that. And then, from there, we go through a selection process. So usually in normal years, we kind of try to bring 00:18:00in as many people as we can, just because, again, as people graduate and new people come in, we kind of want to maintain our numbers. But because of COVID, specifically, we conducted all of our interviews remotely. And all of our application process is remote.

We were also reducing the number of people that we were bringing on as PIs, just because we already kind of knew that we would have a shorter staff, and reduced hours, and things like that just because of wanting to keep everyone safe and trying to limit the exposure, and stuff like that.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Yeah, I think that's really interesting, with this whole idea of diversity and interdisciplinary, that any major could become a PI, and that you're encouraging so much student leadership.

So when you walk through the IDC, what does a typical day look like? What would you see? What would you hear? Maybe you'd feel things. What does that typically 00:19:00look like?

ALYSON LAM: It's kind of hard to say because everyone has their own specific thing that they gravitate toward. As a peer instructor, there's not really any guarantee of what your day will look like. You'll come in. You'll sign in. You'll sign in as a peer instructor specifically through SUMS and our card scanners. And then you kind of have to ask the other PIs on shift where are people right now. Is there a need for-- where do I need to be? That can either be in the 3D printing room, the laser cutting room, or sitting at the front desk to greet people and direct them through our inventory and stuff like that.

But, again, depending where you are, the things that you see and overhear is very, very different. We have a few grad students who are PIs as well, who sometimes are working on their research. We have people who come in for senior 00:20:00design working on things, especially at the end of the semester when it gets to crunch time for a lot of EC majors working on Senior Design Create-X that type of thing.

There's people who are just working on creating little works of art for their dorm or their apartment, whether that's an entire scene of animation, or panel of wood that's laser cut with an anime character or something like that. There's also people printing out little slugs on our Ender machines that can fully articulate and sticking them around the space.

Then, during certain seasons, there's people who come in and also laser cut their fraternity paddles, and have a place etched in, like the dates, and the names, and stuff like that. There's really such a wide variety of things that we can see in the space just because of the nature of the space being open to so many people.

We recently got in embroidery machine plus sewing machine, which is always 00:21:00pretty cool. I think we're going to see a lot of people coming in for that, as well, because I think that's-- it's not necessarily like, oh, it's engineering, but it's a really interesting space that I think could be explored more, a lot of people could explore it more.

The smells-- I don't know. Sometimes our conference room smells a little bad because sometimes people sleep in there. I don't know if you want to advertise that, but. Some of our PIs, yeah, they are pretty committed to the space so they spend a lot of time. There's a couple exec members who-- not because they're doing Hive work, but just because they're doing school work, they stay until 12:00 or 1:00. I know I've stayed that long before, working on school projects.

And again, because it's not limited to any major or anything like that, people like me, who-- like you said, I'm an Industrial Design major. I've worked in The 00:22:00Hive on a lamp, which is one of the bigger projects in the program is making a metal lamp. If I didn't have The Hive, I probably wouldn't have been able to complete that, just because they were able to put me into touch with people in Bunger-Henry who were-- you could teach me to weld. They had different workshops for that to get people familiar with welding, and kind of have a space over there to work in, stuff like that. It's just amazing.

I know when I was working on my lamp, there was also another PI in there who was making a Go board. And she was spray painting all these pieces of acrylic black and white so that she could play with other PIs, and also her friends, and stuff like that. So, its a lot.

And then, in a normal semester, there's also food a lot of the time. There's people holed up in corners again. We have a balcony, which is pretty nice. But 00:23:00since coming back it's been a little dusty. Sometimes it can be dirty, although we try to keep it as clean as possible.

Yeah, there's so many different things that you can see. One day from the other is not the same. As a PI or as an end user, when you come into the space it's a really great time. [LAUGHS]

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: It sounds like there's so many opportunities. If you were to pinpoint one tool, could you pinpoint one tool that is maybe the most popular, or the most useful, that's available in the IDC?

ALYSON LAM: I think probably the laser cutter. A lot of people just come in for the laser cutter. They cut things that they're probably not supposed to cut on the laser cutter. It's so straightforward. And we have the software and stuff to make different designs. Whether you're etching a design on your phone or you're cutting something out to hang on your wall, there's so many things that you can do with a laser cutter.

I think, other than that, probably the 3D printers. A lot of people can have a 00:24:003D printer in their dorm, but having people who will deal with your prints, and going through and actually making sure that they're properly scaled and things like that, and properly set people come in a lot for that, as well.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: So I guess now we can move into more of your personal experiences with The Hive. So being an Industrial Design major, how did you get involved as a director on the officers board for The Hive?

ALYSON LAM: I guess my first introduction to The Hive was-- one of my first experiences at Georgia Tech, like I mentioned before, I was actually a transfer student. And so I came from a pretty large school that had a lot of different majors and stuff like that. And they specialize in a lot of different things, but they didn't really have maker spaces or anything like that for students to 00:25:00come together. A lot of it was just social clubs and things like that.

So coming here, I was really excited about all the different resources that I'd have at my disposal, just because, again, four different maker spaces on campus that we have access to. You also have access to a lot of really bright people, just because of the nature of our school. It is an engineering school with a lot of different other majors out here, like Industrial Design, or LMC or English, and stuff like that.

Sorry. That was kind of a tangent. One of my first studio projects was to create a toy for four to five-year-olds to facilitate a learning experience. So in the initial design phases of that, you go through a lot of prototypes. You want to 00:26:00bring some of those prototypes and concepts to life, to a higher fidelity, that you're able to properly test it, either with your user group or talking to your professor to show that this is where I'm going. Can you give me feedback and give me critique?

So I had this idea of making a little maze that you'd be able to reconfigure every time that you wanted to play, and that you'd be able to sit in the back of a car and kind of sit there and move it around. It wasn't a great idea, but it was one of the things that I had thought of.

One of the issues around that was because the entire sophomore class was trying of work on these prototypes-- there's only two laser cutters available to us as design students within our building. So I was like, all right. I can't wait. I have to go somewhere else. I have to find somewhere I can actually make this thing because I'm not going to fail. I'm not going to fail my first project . 00:27:00And this entire [LAUGHS] It was like starting here. I was like, I can't be embarrassed like that.

So I went over to The Hive. And I was like, OK, I need to laser cut this. Can you guys please help me? Or I had heard about The Hive. Someone was like, oh, yeah, there's a maker space across the street or something. It's that big circle thing. I've never been there myself, but I heard you can cut stuff there. They have laser cutters or something. I was like, OK. That sounds fine. I'll go over there. I don't care. I'm desperate.

So I went over there. I cut my polycarbonate, which you should not cut on a laser cutter. It's kind of toxic. We're a little bit more lenient about that because we do have a lot of upkeep with it. But I went over there. I was like, wow!

Before I'd come here, I also heard about peer instructors at-- or peer leaders or whatever. No, not peer leaders. Whatever. [LAUGHS] At the Invention Studio, I was like, wow, I'm definitely going to train to be a PI at the Invention Studio. That's so cool! It's crazy that you have 24-hour access to this thing. I was 00:28:00like, hey, I will do it. And then I got here, and I realized that it was actually a very long, arduous process. And I was like, uh, OK. Never mind. I'm going to abandon that idea forever.

But then, as I went into The Hive, I realized, oh, there's peer instructors here, too? I didn't even realize that this was a thing on campus. The person that was helping me with the laser cutter, I was like, so how do you become a peer instructor because I would like to get in on that. He was like, yeah, I'm not even sure when the applications are open, but I'll just let you know. Here's my Snapchat. And I was like, OK, let's go!

So I applied in the fall. I went through the same process I mentioned earlier of applying with my resume, going through the interview, and eventually getting this position in spring. And then in the spring, despite not being an ECE major, I kind of clicked pretty well with a lot of the other peer instructors and such, 00:29:00just because I did a lot of science Olympiad-type things in high school. So I was always surrounded by STEM-minded people.

So I really clicked with the environment. And obviously, I really loved being able to have access to those resources. But also, the aspect that I really didn't anticipate was being able to have such a wide access to all the students that come in, and being able to try to help them. All these different projects that they were working on was very interesting. I was like, oh, wow. Maybe I should try to get more involved.

One the things that came up was running for a position on the exec board, which was the Director of Communications. The Director of Communications, what that role entails, specifically, is creating different promotional materials, and 00:30:00also communicating with not only the PIs internally, but the student body that comes in, like our end users and stuff like that, but also different companies and stuff like that. Different companies that we work with, we partner with, whether that's through workshops or different events.

And I thought it kind of aligned with my interest as someone who's into the visual design of things, but also into communicating and talking to people, being able to understand who they are. I just wanted to be able to use my skills to improve or help drive The Hive's purpose. That was one of the things.

I think, even through I was an Industrial Design major, because the environment was so accepting, despite my major. No, but.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: [LAUGHS]

ALYSON LAM: It was so accepting that it didn't even matter if I was Industrial Design or not. I think, despite that, obviously, coming here you have a working 00:31:00knowledge of the things-- and as a PI, you have a working knowledge of the things that you're encountering every single day. So it wasn't so bad, getting through that transition period.

The only time that being an Industrial Design major did come up while I have been the Director of Communications at The Hive was when I was nominated by the school chair of ECE to be a part of the College of Engineering Undergraduate Student Advisory Council. And I was like, oh, OK. I saw this in my inbox, and I was like, you know, this doesn't seem very relevant to me because I'm not a part of the College of Engineering. So I completely ignored it.

And it turns out that they actually thought that I was ECE and that they wanted me to be an advocate for ECE students. And I was like, um, I'm not sure I can do 00:32:00this because I have no real experience in the classes and stuff like that. So that was an interesting time.

It actually happened yesterday and earlier today. I was talking to some of the people that organized that. And I was just like, yeah, I don't think I should be the person to do that. That was the only time it actually came up.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Sounds like your industrial design experience has helped you, though, with the communications role, these visual design aspects and that nature. This kind of circles back a little bit, but you touched on at the very beginning of answering that question. So was the maker space culture at Georgia Tech one of the reasons why you decided to transfer? Or were there some other reasons that you'd be willing to share?

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. Not to get too much into the personal details, but the program at the school that I had gone to previously was-- their Industrial Design program is a lot smaller than the one here. Where there is, in each class of 00:33:00Industrial Design students, there's 80 students at Georgia Tech, at Ohio State there's actually 80 total. So in each class there is pretty much around 60 students.

Sorry. I'll explain this better. In the first year, you are a part of a foundational design major. And so you take foundational classes. At the end of the year, you apply to get into the major itself, so the Industrial Design program, or the design major, Interior Design or Visual Communications.

I, personally, didn't really like the research and the focus of that specific program, and also the fact that it was so small. It felt quite limited in the things that you could do, even though it was another research university where 00:34:00they have faculty doing research and stuff like that, as we do here.

I just felt like, for me, I wanted a bigger program with a larger diversity of students. So coming to Georgia Tech with a much larger program, and having a bunch of different research to do, stuff like that, and connecting to different professors, not just the same three or four professors, I felt would be a very valuable experience for me.

And also, coming from a pretty large suburb in Ohio, my school district was the largest school district in all of Ohio, with around 10,000 students or something across K through 12. A lot of the students that went to my high school actually also went to Ohio State. So I didn't really want to go to a school that felt like High School, Part 2.

It was also an interesting experience putting myself outside of my comfort zone. 00:35:00I think that was a lot of the reason why I also wanted to leave. Even though I had a year spent there, and it was a good year, I think I wanted something different. And even though I was kind of scared to do it, and obviously it's kind of a big decision to make, I am glad that I did it because of people I've met here and the things that I've been able to work on.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Yeah, it sounds like you've had a lot of great opportunities since coming to Georgia Tech. Speaking of the one. So what is your role as the communications director look like? What are some of the specific tasks that you've done or that you've allowed to happen, that kind of thing?

ALYSON LAM: The main thing as Director of Communications is, again, like I said, to send out promotional materials and make sure that students throughout Georgia 00:36:00Tech are aware of the different things that we have available at the IDC, whether that's our resources or different workshops that we're holding. And so what that means for me is that I'm sending weekly emails. I'm coordinating with the PIs who might be interested in developing or conducting a workshop.

I also make the TV ads. So if you've ever passed by the space and seen the TVs hanging in the space, also facing outdoors, where there's ads for these COVID resources, or a survey that we want you to take, or a workshop sign-up link, that type of thing. That's the thing that I mainly focus on.

But it also extends into helping coordinate some events. I work with the Director of Events a lot on making sure that what we are putting out there is aligning with the other things that we care about, whether it's making sure everything runs safe, making sure that we're tapping things and making sure that 00:37:00it's all out there for people to come in and do.

I think one of the things that as the Director of Communications, communicating The Hive and The Hive's message, part of that also comes through in the branding. So one of the things I really do want to work on in the later semesters that I will be here is establishing a very definitive brand for The Hive and making sure that everything that-- there's things called design systems, and branding systems, and stuff like that.

So being able to have a very clear visual persona is something that I think is important to a space like the maker space, just because across the years it will evolve, but we want to stay true to our core beliefs. You can do that through visual language or visual design. It's something I want to work on. I'm also 00:38:00updating the website and making sure that our digital presence is cohesive.

Those are kind of the areas that I'm focusing on right now. And to be totally transparent, a lot of the work that I do is really just some cascades from the person who was in this role previously. This position opened up in spring. That's because the previous Director of Communications, Emma Hammer, she actually anticipated being abroad and studying abroad this semester, so she thought that she wouldn't be able to fully fulfill her role, so she gave that up and made sure that there was someone who could be in that position before she left.

Because of COVID, she's actually still here, but I think that she's OK with where it's going. But a lot of the things that I do are stemming from her and the things that she's worked on previously. So I definitely want to acknowledge 00:39:00the work that she's done, because she's definitely done a lot for The Hive as well, whether that's communicating to companies, maintaining those relationships, and also again, talking about the things that I had mentioned, like establishing a brand identity and stuff like that. I just want to help take it and evolve it.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Very cool.

ALYSON LAM: Thank you. Thank you. I know. It's so cool, right?

[LAUGHTER]

Sorry. Oh, my gosh.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: So have you done any specific work with corporate sponsors? Or what has that looked like with The Hive?

ALYSON LAM: Right now, I haven't been the point of contact. A lot of it, because we're still kind of getting used to everything, there's a bit of a transition period. We're still on the tail end of that. But a lot of that is still being handled by Kevin Pham, who is the director of The Hive.

But as we hash out specific details of what do we want to do moving forward, like whether it's a workshop or something like that, that's where I come in and 00:40:00kind of help mitigate the needs of the sponsor and the corporate partners, but then also the needs of The Hive and what do we want to do, whether that's developing the communications, if they want a specific layout and things like that. But also being able to make the workshops and establish the workshops to have the content that they want to promote and stuff like that. I haven't done that personally yet, but I think that will come later, as things kind of settle down on campus regarding COVID and stuff like that.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: So what's your favorite part about working at The Hive? And what are your most favorite things that you've done working there?

ALYSON LAM: I guess it's coming in and being able to have a built-in friend 00:41:00group, again, the idea of having a community at The Hive, between the different members and stuff like that. I think when you come in, it is like a friendly space, whether you're there to actually work on your shift or actually just work on homework. There's always there who are super friendly, there to help you, there to study with you, or work with you, or just have a chat. It's probably not the same for any other club where you can just come into the space and just hang out.

Working at The Hive has offered me the opportunity to connect with all these different people that I probably wouldn't have otherwise, just because we all want to be in this space. And we all care about the intent of serving a larger community. And I think that's also another part that's been fun. We haven't really done it this much this semester, but being able to connect with students off campus, as well, whether they're in high school, or middle school, or stuff 00:42:00like that I think has been really fun experiences.

Having different events in the space, as well. One of the things that we were going to do last semester was have a-- I forget the exact organization, but it was almost like a hackathon for people who were paraplegic, in wheelchairs and stuff like that. That's something that was not something that is a very popular thing on campus, I guess. But bringing in different community members is also an interesting aspect of the job as well.

Yeah, there's a lot. I mean, that was kind of a wish-washy answer. But there are a lot of different-- I think I've touched on them in all my other answers, so it's kind of hard to pick one specific thing.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: No, that was a great answer. I think it sounds extremely fulfilling. A lot of great work that you've done. I guess you kind of touched on 00:43:00this with this answer, but maybe if you could synthesize it--

ALYSON LAM: A little more, yeah.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: --clearly. I understand The Hive slogan is, "Creating Communities and Building Dreams." Could you describe what that means to you?

ALYSON LAM: I suppose the idea of building a community. Again, bringing students in. I think at Georgia Tech, sometimes it can feel really easy to not be seen, or feel like you're alone. Coming into a space like The Hive or the IDC, you're kind of surrounded by like-minded people, whether or not you really want to talk to them, whether you're too scared to talk to them, or whether you're a social butterfly who really wants to engage with all these different people.

I think having a space to facilitate these different meetings is really what it means to be a part of building a community. And that's the reason why we want to keep bringing students in as much as possible, because we feel like the IDC is a 00:44:00resource in terms of equipment, but also a resource in terms of having that friend group, having those people that you can always come and talk to, and stuff like that.

There's also the aspect of building a community that is-- if you have a club or something that you're a part of and you need to work on a specific project, you can also come in and do those things. You can come into The Hive and use that as your space to kind of establish a community, like a subset outside of the PIs and stuff like that.

It really is just a way to facilitate building the community, this idea of creating dreams, or, yeah, creating dreams, right? [LAUGHS] Creating communities and building dreams. But the idea of building dreams is like, again, providing the equipment, resources, and stuff like that.

I think one of the things that we also try to push a lot is building skills and 00:45:00developing these skills. It's like you can give a man a fish. If you can teach a man to fish, he can feed himself for an entire year, or his entire lifetime. Oh, my gosh. Totally botched that.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: [LAUGHS]

ALYSON LAM: But the idea is that coming into this space, we don't want you to leave with just a one-time experience, leave without actually knowing how to do those things yourself. When you come in, it is to learn. Or we hope that it is to learn, that we can give you those resources and stuff like that, so that eventually you can go on to reach whatever goals you have set for yourself, whether that is a startup that you want to create versus surrounding a product, or having these different skills to obtain different jobs and internships and stuff like that. That aspect of it is a little bit more literal, even though 00:46:00it's like dreams and stuff like that. But I feel like it is more literal, having those concrete skills.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: So with the COVID-19 environment, I understand that your operations are a little bit limited. But how has The Hive been able to impact the Georgia Tech community or off-campus community during this COVID-19 times?

ALYSON LAM: So in the first couple of weeks-- we opened a little bit later this year. We opened on the 9th. But that was because we were hashing out a lot of our COVID-19 policies, talking about whether we really wanted to do things like contact tracing or not. Also just making sure that the IDC itself would be able to operate, even at a smaller capacity, but still would be available to students.

But a lot of that, initially, was how many seats are we going to have in the 00:47:00space. Are we going to do temperature checks? Or are we going to kind of let people come in as they please, making sure that they always wear masks, making sure that they are constantly sanitizing, giving them the resources to wipe down equipment and stuff like that.

As an indoor space, it is kind of difficult to be like-- we want to bring people in, but we also want to keep them safe. So it was a lot of grappling with those specific details, because we don't want to be responsible for an outbreak, or we don't want to be responsible for getting people hurt or sick, and anything like that. So it was a lot of time to prepare for the people that would come in.

Again, we are trying to give people the resources and facilitate these connections. And in a remote sense, it's kind of more difficult to keep that 00:48:00connection with non-Hive members. So we are doing things like having virtual workshops and virtual trainings and stuff like that.

But we do have a few actual in-person workshops lined up, just because since we've been open for a month or so now, a little less than a month, we've heard the feedback that we want in-person workshops and stuff. So we're trying to ramp those up so that we can keep those people safe who are coming in, but also give the people the resources and experience that they want when they come into The Hive, whether that's learning a specific skill and sitting there talking one-on-one with a peer instructor or it's coming into a workshop and being able to laser cut their own planter for a succulent, or something like that.

So we're maintaining workshops. And we're trying to adapt a lot of the skills and training that we have into a remote format. That also comes along with can 00:49:00we shift the PI training to a remote format where we have a series of online videos that we're doing, specifically created by our staff so that PI instructors can either brush up on their skills or get completely trained like that, and then do a certification so that they prove that they can have those skills.

There's not much happening, really, off campus because of some-- personally, I'm not the one that's totally familiar with this aspect of it, but Georgia Tech has a couple of guidelines where we can't really go off campus as an organization. I know that's true for athletic organizations because I'm also part of archery. We can't really go off campus, and we can't really bring too many people on campus, just because it's harder to know what their testing background and stuff is.

So there hasn't been much in terms of off campus, in terms of outreach right 00:50:00now. But I think, now that we've settled into the semester, we're definitely going to pursue those opportunities next semester, just because we'll have a very set routine and more experience dealing with a remote situation.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: So I guess going into the next semester, and as the IDC starts opening up more and more, what kind of impact would you like to see from The Hive on the Georgia Tech community, outside communities, during the pandemic?

ALYSON LAM: Because one of the things that-- if you look on the Georgia Tech Reddit, a lot of the posts are about how people really feel disconnected. They don't really feel that they have a set friend group, or that they have opportunities to meet people, just because, again, we need to keep a social 00:51:00distance, and be able to quarantine, and be able to do all these different things to keep each other safe.

But I think coming into next semester, as we're more familiar, as people are more comfortable with these different rules and stuff like that, I think that The Hive can become a place that can once again facilitate these different operations and facilitate people having a place to be outside of their dorm room. They can be outside. We do have some outdoor spaces that aren't specifically limited to The Hive. But our entire building and stuff like that, there are a lot of different places that people can meet up, and also just hanging out in a safe manner.

In terms of a larger scale impact off campus, I think in the initial weeks and days of the pandemic there were a lot of efforts to create PPE and stuff like 00:52:00that, and have those-- like 3D printing face mask brackets or braces, and having a sheet of polyacrylic or so. While I think those were really important efforts, I think that we could probably do more than that. I know that, as a maker space, we kind of have that idea that we need to be making these things and be a resource for people to make things.

I'm not necessarily sure that was the best solution, just because on our scale, it wasn't the most efficient use of resources and time. I think you could turn to other places. But because we have such a large community of people, whether that's people in The Hive or the end users coming in, I think we could probably run some things that-- we could make donations like the Atlanta Food Bank. Or have a fundraiser and things like that to help aid people who have been severely impacted by COVID, whether they're front-line workers, or essential workers, or 00:53:00things like that. Try and do fundraisers to make students aware of the people that contribute to the Georgia Tech community, whether they're students but also the people off campus. So I think there is definitely things that we can do in that sense.

I think there's also-- because we have the resources and, I suppose, some interest in mentoring other students, being able to have more programs that maybe might be more academically-focused. I think that's partially the workshops again, but teaching them the specific skills that they would need to have in class, but also the skills that they might not really realize that they wanted, like sewing, or something like that.

That's not completely COVID-related, but giving people an alternative to schoolwork, and giving them a chance to take a break. There's a lot of things 00:54:00that I think we could be doing. But hopefully we will be able to do that next semester, if not in the remaining semester.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Yeah, I think it's great. The assets of The Hive seem really surrounded by community building and providing this safe environment, which really resonates with me.

I guess my final fun question would be, do you have a favorite story, a favorite project that you've worked on, a favorite workshop from The Hive?

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. One of the ones that I mentioned earlier was [LAUGHS] the succulent workshop. It was limited to around, I think, 20 end users that could come in. And then a couple of the PIs would actually get a succulent they'd be able to take home after they'd made a planter for it. I thought that was a 00:55:00really great idea.

It was also really fun because everyone was sitting down in the laser cutting room, trying to tie together their little planters and stuff like that, trying to make sure that wood glue wouldn't leach into the soil or anything, making sure that they'd be kind of watertight but also not detrimental to the plant. That entire night was just really fun, being able to work on that.

Also, people were really excited about making little hangers and stuff like that for their plants, trying to peel apart rope. I don't know. It was a weird time, but yeah. That was definitely fun.

I don't know. One specific project that I really liked working on was the lamp project that I mentioned. That was just because while I was working on that lamp, I was able to enlist the help of just some random people that were there, like I said, making a Go board.

00:56:00

I was just trying to hang a lampshade. And I was like, please, can you please, please, help me try to keep this thing aligned and stuff like that. And I was standing in my lampshade because it was a giant cube and stuff. It was like a cube, and I was standing inside the cube and trying to attach it to these two metal poles.

It's a weird place. Because I was also like, OK, I'll work on it down there. And then I came up to the balcony. I was taking pictures of it, trying to get really nice specific shots. [LAUGHS] The Hive is a weird place, but.

Yeah, those two projects, I think, stand out in my mind the most, just because one was a school project, but one was also just a really fun workshop that we hope to bring back.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Those both sound like really awesome projects. And I'm glad that you had such great experiences and that you continue to have good 00:57:00experience at The Hive.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. Thank you.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Do you have any other experiences that you would like to share, or stories that you would like to share?

ALYSON LAM: I guess the first time that I came into the conference room, I looked at one of the whiteboards, and it was just a Smash bracket, like ranking. It was one of the exec board members at the top. And I was just like, oh, that makes sense. That totally makes sense. It was the person that had actually interviewed me. And I was like, oh, OK. This is just how it is. It was just very funny.

They said that they're going to redo it that time as they brought in new PIs, but I don't think they ever did. So, yeah. Smash is a very big thing within the Hive community, which is like yeah. Take it or leave it, I suppose, but.

Another weird thing is I really like doing the end-of-day announcements or 00:58:00end-of-day closing announcements. We have a microphone system. And it was just like, oh. Hello, everyone. The Hive will be closing in five minutes. Please leave kind of thing. It was just very, very quirky, very interesting. But I'm very glad to be a part of it.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Yeah, it seems like a really fun environment, and just a great place to learn and create a community.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. I wish I had more interesting stories to tell you, but I am a relatively new PI, despite being on the exec board and that kind of stuff. If you're able to talk more members, I think they would have a lot more unique stories to tell you, or more interesting stories. [LAUGHS]

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: No, I think you had some great stories and shared some really great perspectives about the community.

ALYSON LAM: Hopefully. Hopefully, yeah.

00:59:00

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: Well, if you have nothing else, I'd like to thank you for participating in this research project and sharing your story with us.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you interviewing me and taking the time to do this. Like I mentioned in the email, it seems like a really interesting project. And I kind of wish I had seen it or I had looked into it because I was like, oh, very interesting.

Oh, I guess, really quick, one more thing I think I would like to mention about The Hive and that kind of stuff. I think one of the things that could probably be pushed more in general and become more ingrained into Georgia Tech DNA is exploring the artistic sides of science and engineering, and stuff like that.

As an Industrial Design major, there are things that people might deem as quite silly. One of the classes I'm taking is a craft exploration class. And we learn 01:00:00knitting. But it's not just sitting there and knitting scarves. It's also using things like Grasshopper and Rhino, which is like general design and stuff like that. I think

The Hive has the opportunity to build an appreciation for the artistic side and the human side of things, the human side and the effects of science and engineering and stuff like that. I think we could probably do more to help expose people to that and help people realize that they can take the different skills that are outside of engineering, outside of things that they learn in school and apply it to a more artistic side of themselves.

| just one thing I was also thinking about for going into this interview, and I totally forgot to mention it, but yeah.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: No problem. No, I'm glad that you mentioned that.

01:01:00

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

ALYSON LAM: --design major has to advocate, so.

JOCELYN KAVANAGH: [LAUGHS] Yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned that there at the end. So I would like to thank you just once again for participating and sharing your perspective with us.

ALYSON LAM: Yeah. Thank you.