Pratt Atlas

Centralized Directory for Makerspaces at Duke University

The Atlas is a website made to unify all the information about spaces for physical prototyping at Duke University's campus. For each makerspace on campus, the Atlas explains how to get there, who should have access, and which tools and assistance are available.

Duration

May 2023 - Aug 2024

Team Size

2

Technologies

WordPress, NodeJS, PHP

Technical Details

The first iteration of the Atlas website was developed using NodeJS and PHP, and was backed by a MySQL database. It was largely focused on displaying detailed information about the tools available in different spaces, so that prospective makerspace users could find an appropriate location based on the specific needs of their project. Due to issues with hosting custom websites with the desired features in Duke's network, as well as the challenge of getting consistent information about tool availability in each makerspace, this version was set aside.

Keeping the original design as inspiration, the current version of the Atlas was developed using Duke's native WordPress engine. A variety of plugins were included to make the website more interactive, such as dynamically updated calendars to display the availability of helper staff in certain labs, and live maps of the makerspaces on campus.

My Role

I was part of the team which came up with the idea for the Atlas, and laid out all of its main features. I was responsible for reaching out to lab managers across campus, and gathering the information that would be displayed on the website.

I was the sole developer of the NodeJS-based iteration of the website, and regularly met with Duke's IT staff to try and integrate my work with the university's network.

In the WordPress iteration, my main role was developing the database-like structure to store data, and writing up all the documentation for making updates to the website.

Rodrigo Bassi Guerreiro