An aluminum chassis for a quantum computer. A pontoon raft for collecting geologic core samples. A skeleton key for an observatory’s 130-year-old locks.
These odds and ends have something in common: They’re all products of a secret weapon of Pitt’s research enterprise, a machine shop where staff members combine a technician’s knowledge with a tinkerer’s creativity to create custom tools and parts for scientists.
“We do consulting, engineering, designing and research. In industry shops, each of those is a separate position,” said Shawn Artman, supervisor of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ machine shop — one of three on the Pittsburgh campus (the others are housed in the School of Medicine and the Swanson School of Engineering).
Doing science requires real nuts-and-bolts infrastructure. And when you’re creating a next-generation quantum computer or testing the characteristics of a never-before-created substance, there’s no “buy it now” button. Instead, researchers in the Dietrich School look to Artman’s shop in Old Engineering Hall, which is equipped with milling machines, 3D printers and other tools in the hands of senior machinists Bill Strang and Jeff Tomaszewski.
The shop stands apart from those in industry for a number of reasons, Artman said. Over the past few years, the team has moved from a model where scientists simply provide the measurements for parts to one where the team collaborates with researchers, learning their needs and figuring out the most efficient and cost-effective way to meet them.
“We spend almost 50% of the time at our computers, designing and talking and doing our own research,” Artman said. And the team bills by the material cost rather by the hour. In most machine shops, these are rare practices — but they let the team take creative risks and take the time to do the job right.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy to get used to. New Dietrich School machinists invariably get to a point where a scientist hacks apart something they lovingly created to figure out what wasn’t working, Artman said. “They’re usually speechless. In industry, any time you’re scrapping something, it’s a waste of money. Whereas here, it’s what you have to do.”