Tinkerers’ Lab | Maker Bhavan Foundation

Student-Managed Makerspaces at Tinkerers’ Lab

24/7 open access, student-managed, faculty-guided
state-of-the-art makerspaces.

Knowledge Exchange Hub at Tinkerers' Lab

Over 1 lakh students have become skilled problem
solvers and creative innovators across 18 labs.

Cutting-Edge Facilities at Tinkerers’ Lab

In 2024, more than 1500 students visited our labs every week,
creating over 2000 project

Each Lab house Cutting-Edge Equipment

Tinkerers’ Labs are state-of-the-art, student-managed maker spaces designed to ignite creativity and drive interdisciplinary innovation. Our labs are equipped with the latest desktop manufacturing and fabrication tools—including 3-D printers, laser cutters, milling machines, vinyl cutters, and a fully outfitted electronics section—empowering students to transform concepts into real-world solutions.

Open 24/7 and managed by dedicated student teams under expert faculty guidance, these dynamic hubs foster hands-on learning through skilling workshops, project-based coursework, and prototyping for real-world solutions.

With over 100,000 students benefiting across eighteen labs in India, our mission is clear: to nurture inventive minds, bridge disciplinary boundaries, and equip future engineers with the practical skills needed to push the boundaries of creativity and problem-solving.

Our Footprint

Tinkerers’ Labs

21 TL Floor Space

40,000

Student beneficaries

1,00,000

Student users per week

1500

Startups

12 Our Labs

IIT Bombay

With 400+ projects and 1800+ course projects, inaugurated in 2014, Tinkerers’ Laboratory at IIT Bombay, is a solely student-run lab under the guidance of Prof. Ramesh Singh.

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IIT Gandhinagar

Fifteen per cent of the Institute’s population uses this lab, set up in 2018 with the aim of ideating, innovating and creating. This lab is managed by the students under the guidance of Prof. Madhu Vadali.

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IIT Hyderabad

For tinkering and skill-building activities, IIT Hyderabad’s lab, which covers 1,600 sq. ft, was inaugurated in 2018. The lab is run under the guidance of Prof. Sushmee Badhulika and Vishwanath Chinthapenta.

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Read More about our Other Labs

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"My first visit to Tinkerers Lab was in 2015, when my team and I were participating in a competition, since then I have known TL as a place where you can build anything and everything!
You get several resources at your disposal as well as technicians to help you Build whatever you want, that is how I have always known TL, a place for anyone to come and build anything they want.
Now I run my own engineering company and I have a lot of confidence in building and delivering products. Majority of it arises out of the exposure I have gotten while working on various projects at Tinkerers Lab."
Aniruddha RanadeCo-Founder, Strataroh Ventures

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"At IIT Jammu, we believe that authentic learning happens in experiential mode. It's not just about filling notebooks but building, tinkering, and solving real-world problems. That's why experiential learning is the core ingredient in every student's life cycle at IIT Jammu.
We commend Maker Bhavan Foundation, our steadfast partner in igniting this maker spirit at our campus. Together, we built the Tinkerers' Lab, a vibrant hub where curiosity takes flight."
Prof. Manoj GaurDirector, IIT Jammu

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“Building intuition is an important element when learning technical concepts. Through the Tinkerers’ lab, we have the opportunity to encourage our students to experiment hands-on with the ideas and concepts we teach them in class so that they really learn, by doing and making. This enhances the entire experience of education”
Prof. Madhu VadaliAssociate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, IIT Gandhinagar

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"Working in TL fulfilled the conception I had while preparing for JEE, about how engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology ought to be...It is true that most of the project done at TL are hobby projects, spontaneous in nature, not goal-directed and often unfinished. But that precisely is what makes TL so unique, so amazing. For every 1000 naive attempts, 100 may attempt turning it into a product, 1 may sustain and hit a jackpot. TL allows for those naive attempts in the first place by making it easier to build, by causing serendipitous events by inspiring.”
Chirag ShettyTL Alumnus, IIT Bombay &, Graduate researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Student Projects

Engineering Excellence through Hands-On Projects

Our collaborative environment fosters the formation of organic project groups. Whether it’s an individual student working on a small-scale endeavor or a diverse team of 10-15 students from different disciplines, they all have access to our facility and its resources.

A novel Falling Thin Film Electrolyzer was designed to tackle scalability and cost challenges in hydrogen production. By utilizing a thin liquid film for enhanced gas-liquid-solid interactions, the device improves reaction kinetics and mass transfer. The electrolyzer features a TPMS (Triply Periodic Minimal Surface) structure, 3D-printed with ABS and made conductive through a custom spray-coated paint, followed by copper and nickel electroplating for durability. A precision-etched acrylic distributor ensures uniform electrolyte flow across the electrodes. Ongoing efforts focus on optimizing gas evolution and refining the design for efficient, large-scale hydrogen production

ICT Mumbai TL

Agastya 4.1 is a next-gen ROV developed by Team Nirma AUV for AMUROV 3.0. With eight thrusters enabling six degrees of freedom (DOF), it ensures precise underwater navigation. Its lightweight, hydrodynamic design, built using laser cutting, 3D printing, and sheet metal bending, integrates O-ring waterproofing and buoyancy adjustments.

Powered by a Teensy 4.1 microcontroller and Jetson Nano, it features real-time sensor data, AI-driven object detection, and PID-controlled stability. A ROS-based GUI provides seamless control. Designed for navigation, object detection, and manipulation, Agastya 4.1 showcases Team Nirma AUV’s expertise in underwater robotics.

Nirma University TL

The team from Tinkerers’ Lab, IIT Jammu secured 6th place nationally in Flipkart GRID 5.0’s Robotics Track. They built a hardware-software solution using advanced computer vision, motion control, and robust hardware to tackle real-world industrial challenges.

After clearing multiple evaluation rounds, including a proof-of-concept and final review by Flipkart experts, the team fine-tuned their solution with mentorship and industry insights.

Their success reflects the innovation and hands-on problem-solving culture at IIT Jammu, making Flipkart GRID 5.0 a journey of growth and applied engineering.

IIT Jammu TL

See More Student Projects

Tutorials

History

The alumni of IIT Bombay, graduating class of 1975, recognized the need for a dedicated space that would inspire creativity, provide round-the-clock access to resources, promote learning, and foster a strong sense of community among the students of IIT Bombay. In 2014, they initiated the establishment of the first Tinkerers’ Lab (TL) as a legacy project within IIT Bombay, occupying an area of 750 square feet.

In 2019, a group of alumni from the class of 1975 came together to form the Maker Bhavan Foundation. They strongly believed in the concept of tinkering, which embraces a learn-by-doing philosophy and aims to push the boundaries of India’s education system. Their vision was to extend this concept to other educational institutes across the country. They aimed to nurture engineers and technologists who could effortlessly traverse the twin world of theoretical knowledge and hands-on practice.

To achieve this goal, the Maker Bhavan Foundation funded dedicated labs that aimed to cultivate an innovative mindset among students. These labs aimed to encourage students to tackle real-world problems and to invent the future by solving problems that are yet to be imagined with technology yet to be discovered.

Create your own Tinkerers’ Lab

Online Resources

OUR PARTNERS

Empowering Youth through Partnership

At Tinkerers’ Lab, we strongly believe that partnerships create lasting impact on students’ learning outcomes and future employability. We extend our gratitude to our ever-growing community of partners, whose support allows us to make an even lasting impact.