Faculty Profile - Ann LePore, Associate Professor of 3D Design and Animation

A quick glance at Professor Ann LePore’s lab and office says a great deal about her commitment to technological innovation and exploration. Spread across the table are microchips, computer parts, wires, and tools. We caught her on a day when she was in the midst of building a 3D printer from scratch. It goes without saying that Professor LePore is adept with technology, but it is her creative and artistic approach to technological tools that is most impressive.

“We’re really good at pushing buttons, but I want my students to think about the gestures and meanings behind technology. We spend time exploring ‘the why’ of physical computing,” says Professor LePore. This often entails taking things apart and putting them back together in a different way to explore the outcomes and results. Her physical computing course draws a mix of computer science majors and visual arts majors, who come into the course with different sets of expectations and concerns. Professor LePore says, “It’s magical when they come together and support each other.”  

Professor LePore builds student confidence and self-agency by giving them the basic building blocks for design and letting them discover new ideas and methods. It is important to her that students understand they can have a role in the world beyond just that of consumers. Her students become creators of objects and products, and they help each other demystify the tools that we use every day: microprocessors, electrical circuits, computers, mobile devices, and more.

One of Professor LePore’s goals for the future is to establish a makerspace at Ramapo as an integral part of the new Library and Learning Commons. A makerspace is where innovators gather to create, invent, and learn, usually with tech tools like 3D printers, software, electronics, hardware supplies and tools, and more. She hopes that the makerspace at Ramapo is a flexible space with tools available faculty, students, staff, and eventually the public.  

Even if your course is not related to building interactive processor-art in class, there are many things that other faculty members can learn from Professor LePore. She offers, “Failure is an important part of the process. If you are afraid to fail, you can’t take any risks, you can’t experiment, and you really can’t learn. To make the best of a failure, document it, figure out why it happened, and then to move on from there; it’s the best thing that can happen to you.”

Come learn some great tech ideas directly from Professor LePore on April 18 from 1:00-1:50 pm, when she will lead a workshop on 3D Printing in ASB 223 (the new IDC lab).

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