Make To Innovate (M:2:I) is an exciting new program in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University.
M:2:I engages students in hands-on projects to augment their understanding of engineering fundamentals. In recent testimony to Congress, Regina Dugan, the DARPA Director, spoke of one of our Nations biggest challenges: the decline in our ability to make things. Simply stated, “to innovate, we must be able to make”. We intend to re-energize our approach to design by introducing “Make to Innovate”,
11/06/2025
Help Make to Innovate’s Design Build Fly team get off the ground and soar to competition. This team is working so hard this year and we would love to make sure they can enjoy showing off their plane at competition this April, please visit https://fundisu.foundation.iastate.edu/project/48467
12/10/2024
Come see all the hard work our projects have been working on this semester! Chat with teams about joining for the Spring Semester! Everyone is welcome and see look forward to seeing you in the Howe Hall Atrium tomorrow at 4-6p.
11/11/2024
Want an insider edge on how you could work for SpaceX? Join us Wednesday for this special event!
09/16/2024
Department alum and NASA Flight Controller Dillyn Mumme came back to "Howe Home" to present a Make to Innovate - M:2:I UNICOM Talk. He discussed the NASA Gateway project, humanity's first space station around the moon. He's shown with M:2:I Director Matthew Nelson. NASA Iowa Space Grant Consortium
09/05/2024
Come join us with our Alumni Dillyn Mumme, talking about Gateway!
𝘜𝘕𝘐𝘊𝘖𝘔 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬: 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘺: 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺'𝘴 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘖𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯
𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟮 𝗮𝘁 𝟲:𝟭𝟱 in the Lee Liu Auditorium in Howe Hall to hear a UNICOM talk from 𝗗𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘆𝗻 𝗠𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲, ISU alumn and flight controller at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Make to Innovate - M:2:I
ISU AERE
𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝘿𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙮𝙣:
Dillyn Mumme is a Flight Controller for NASA, at the Johnson Space Center. He supports the International Space Station (ISS) and Artemis program as part of the ISS and Gateway Mission Planning groups. Dillyn grew up in Mount Pleasant Iowa; he attended Iowa State University and graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering in 2019. He participated in the Make to Innovate (M2I) program and Iowa State Dance Marathon for five years. As a part of M2I he started Eagle Eye and served in the Project Lead role before transitioning to a consulting role for Eagle Eye and HABET. He started at JSC as a USRA intern in 2017 and worked two tours before he was selected as a Pathways intern and completed five work tours between both programs. As an intern Dillyn worked in both the Flight Operations and Engineering directorates at JSC. He worked in Planning and Procedures for the Commercial Crew Program and ISS; Then in Extravehicular Activities (EVA) Operations and EVA tools for ISS and Lunar operations. Since coming on fulltime in 2020 he is certified at three console positions in Mission Control for Mission Planning. Supported the planning and ex*****on of five US Spacewalks (EVAs), private astronaut missions AX-1 and AX-2, and served as the Lead Realtime Planning Engineer (LRPE) for Expedition 68. In his current role he serves as the Backup lead Flight Activities Officer (FAO) for the Gateway program.
08/20/2024
And with that, L-167-A is back in the lab. We have successfully recovered the payload launched at the Iowa State Fair. Thank you to everyone who helped with the launch! Keep an eye out for more pictures, data, and our YouTube links of the videos to come.
ISU AERE
NASA Iowa Space Grant Consortium
Iowa 4-H
Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council
08/06/2024
Now to wait for September to have CySat-1 pushed out of the ISS!
Launch...check! Successful docking to ISS...check! The boxes are being checked off for deployment of the Make to Innovate - M:2:I student-built CySAT-1 cube sat. The Cygnus spacecraft was successfully captured and installed with the International Space Station at 2:10 a.m. CDT Tuesday. View the stream as it happened live: https://go.iastate.edu/HZS2AC CySAT's deployment into space will be forthcoming. Look for further announcements. NASA Iowa Space Grant Consortium
08/04/2024
It was an amazing day for a launch! AstroCy enjoyed watching from OSB II taking it all in and having our launch narrated for SpaceX by a ISU Aerospace Alum!
08/03/2024
It’s a great day for a launch at Kennedy Space Center!
07/08/2024
Make to Innovate student team is first-time finalist in NASA’s RASC-AL competition - College of Engineering News The Make To Innovate (M:2:I) program’s RASC-AL student team was selected as a finalist for the first time in the recent NASA-organized national collegiate competition.
06/11/2024
M:2:I CyLaunch rocket team turns in best-ever performance in national competition - College of Engineering News The Make to Innovate (M:2:I) program’s CyLaunch student rocketry team achieved unprecedented success at the recent NASA Student Launch Competition in Huntsville, Alabama.
Make to Innovate is a project based learning classroom that introduces students to solving real world engineering problems through hands-on learning. Make to Innovate, or M:2:I, began in the Fall 2011 semester with the goal to get students involved in engaged in problem solving, building professional development skills, and to network with ISU Faculty and industry experts. To accomplish this M:2:I uses project based learning and pairs students with both a faculty advisor and technical advisors from industry. Several sponsors such as Boeing and Rockwell Collins have their talented engineers work as technical advisors which not only allows students to learn from experienced engineers, but also network with them which may help with the students move towards a career.
Today, Make to Innovate has grown to over 270 students spread across several departments and with 16 different projects. These projects range from sailboats, UASs, rockets, high altitude balloons and even space. While housed in the Aerospace Engineering department, we have students from Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, as well as others. We also have students from Meteorology, Kinesiology, Business and other departments on campus. The projects that we are involved in are heavily multidisciplinary, so these students serve critical roles in making the overall projects a success.
Students at Iowa State University that are interested in becoming involved with Make to Innovate should speak to their advisor or please visit our website at https://m2i.aere.iastate.edu for more information.