People Have Ideas: In Conversation with Parisa Khashayar and Professor Taylor Caputo

People Have Ideas: In Conversation with Parisa Khashayar (BA Engineering 2026) and Professor Taylor Caputo (Director of the Engineering Studios @ Venture Lab)

How did you two meet?

PK: In Taylor’s class! During my freshman year the engineering department let us know we had access to the Engineering Studios @ Venture Lab, but I never really used them until last semester when I took the class with Taylor— How to Make Things. In that class we had a bunch of small projects that teach you how to utilize the 3D printers, the laser cutting machines, casting materials… which is super cool, because I was a little intimidated to come into the space, despite how welcoming it is. So the class itself was how I got introduced to the space and how I met Taylor.

TC: Some context might be helpful here. The Engineering Studios are powered by the School of Engineering. They work in partnership with Venture Lab, which is powered by the Wharton School. So we work together to further entrepreneurship at Penn, both curricularly and co-curricularly. These studios exist as a vehicle for prototyping, fabrication, and building hands-on literacy across the whole university, and especially through the class Parisa mentioned, How to Make Things. I created that class to get students comfortable with using these types of studio spaces. My whole educational background—at Tyler School of Art at Temple University where I majored in metals, jewelry, and CAD-CAM— was built around studio culture, and I wanted to bring that to the larger Penn community.

How long has the class been in existence and who takes it?

TC: The class is almost six years old. It started the first semester that Venture Lab and the Engineering Studios were open. It was created as an opportunity to really leverage all the capabilities we have here. Before that, there wasn’t a central place to prototype and make things. I taught Product Design with Professor Karl T. Ulrich at Wharton, and he saw a need for a central fabrication space. So since 2018 I’ve been involved in the planning and design of the Engineering Studios, pulling on the curricular knowledge I had from teaching Product Design. I wanted to create more curricular pathways for design, for prototyping and hands-on making.

In How to Make Things, it’s about half engineering students and about half other people from the university: students from Wharton, Education, Architecture, and more. It’s very interdisciplinary, and the larger studio population is anywhere from 300 to 400 members every semester. Those members are also about 50% engineering, 25% Wharton, and 25% from the other nine other schools at Penn. That’s really one of our big goals here in engineering: to get all these interesting, different people together to collaborate and share ideas. We’re able to really serve the engineering population well but also be available as a low-barrier resource to the larger university community.

PK: I think one of the main appeals of the Engineering Studios is that it isn’t engineering specific. It’s fun to meet other people from other departments! As an engineering student, you don’t really meet a ton of people outside of your major. For my final project, I had two non-engineers in my group, and that was instructive—to see how they think, how they work. We created three lamp designs: a fun little geometric house, a pomegranate-style house, and one that was inspired by the South Philly row-home architecture. We made them out of the eco-friendly eucalyptus boards that Taylor stocks for laser-cutting services. While I was doing work for the class, I had some great conversations with people I never would have met elsewhere, when I was waiting to laser cut or in line for the 3D printers. It’s a community-oriented space. Tangen Hall, where the Engineering Studios exist, is one of the best places I’ve found on campus: I go there to study, to eat, to do literally anything. If I don’t know where to go and I have a few hours, I go to Tangen Hall.

Wow, those houses are beautiful! Tell us a little more about them.

PK: Sure—we sold them at the “How to Make Things” Holiday Market. This was the first class I’ve taken at Penn that was oriented towards product making. Some Wharton classes are geared toward that, but I’ve really focused on engineering, so I haven’t been asked to think of design in terms of keeping prices low, being reasonable about cost, profit, revenue… things like that. One of the requirements for this project was to make from 12 to 24 items in total, which means thinking about replicability and durability. My group wanted to create a gift that you could give to literally anybody. Everyone needs a cute lamp in their house, their room: it’s functional, it’s beautiful, and we packaged it so it was ready to be given as a gift. I do think the process really changed my mindset after that semester. We sold all of them in the first 30 minutes, and I think we made $400 in revenue… it was great for me, to take money home.

TC: I always say it’s a visceral entrepreneurial experience. The overarching framework of my teaching is to push theory into reality. That, and giving the students some stakes. When you actually have to sell a product to real people for money, there’s an incentive to invest your energy. It has to function, look good, and you need to set a price that’s reasonable. These are constraints—and just like understanding your materials and the machines, you need an understanding of what the market is, and who you’re going to sell to. Parisa’s team did so well in the fall semester because they thought hard about creating a really great gift. And they sold out immediately, because it was just so beautifully packaged and presented.

How do you both feel about the intersection of art, design, and engineering?

PK: I’ve been doing art ever since I was a little kid, so I think that engineering and art need to intersect. You can’t really do a lot of engineering if you don’t have a creative instinct. Some of the engineering places on campus are really centered around technical knowledge. But good products don’t come if you don’t think outside the box.

TC: I fundamentally believe that to create a good engineer is to help them to be more creative, to help them think more like artists. I also talk to students like Parisa who do art that brings them joy. I try to cultivate that sensibility and help them to integrate it into their engineering practice. Part of the course design of How to Make Things is focused on developing a creative practice. I’m also trying to get the designers from other classes to think more like engineers, and I’m helping them to get the necessary technical skills. All of these things—art, design, engineering—exist on overlapping, messy spectrums. But students, when they first come to Penn, can have this idea in their mind: “I can only be an engineer.” In this class and in the Engineering Studios, they can explore how engineering can allow them to express themselves.

Our Studio Technician program is a great example of how this works. Anytime we’re open, there are people here to help you. And it’s an amazing co-curricular experience for the mostly grad students who are the studio technicians. We now have students coming to Penn specifically to do this program. They run all the machines—these are real-life skills they learn. And having the techs means not only are they available to run the jobs, but also to answer questions. They really help to create that great low-barrier environment, making the labs more welcoming, less intimidating. And I think people are getting really excited about it—because it is so low barrier… everything is. Even the materials are free. The process and the space, all of it together is really empowering and enabling. So there’s excitement, absolutely. Because people have ideas.