Aditi Jain: Make-X

Located at Cubberley community center, Make-X is an all-access makerspace available to the community with tools such as laser cutters and a woodshop. As a mentor at Make-X, senior Aditi Jain holds many important responsibilities along with running the center with fellow teenage mentors.

Jain first became involved with the organization at the beginning of freshman year. “I joined the Rocket Club right after taking my photo at freshman orientation,” she said. “Their first meeting was at Make-X. I had never been there before, so the first day I came and saw the whole space and that’s how I originally got involved.”

Jain’s main role in the organization is helping the hacking conventions in the world. Currently, Petridis works as a security researcher at OtterSec, a blockchain security company, alongside one of his previous CTF teammates, but he sees himself potentially pursuing other career options in the future. “I’m going to continue working at the company I work at now to pay for university,” he said. “I probably would want to go into some sort of engineering job and keep hacking as a side hobby.” community start and complete their projects. “People come in with ideas and concepts and we help them flush it out,” she said. “We teach them how to use the tools, how to create their ideas, and we’re kind of just there step-by-step for them.”

Along with six other mentors, Jain keeps the space clean and organized as best they can. “Every winter break we do a deep clean where we literally take everything out,” she said. “We sweep, vacuum, recalibrate all the tools, so that’s a pretty big mentor job.”

After COVID-19, Jain has been working hard on boosting Make-X’s online presence and outreach. “I’ve been working a lot on our social media, especially after COVID-19 things slowed down, so I’ve been updating the Instagram and other platforms,” she said.

Through Make-X, Jain was able to explore her future interests. “I found out that in the future I definitely want to work with people,” she said. “I love to work with my hands and hope to do that in the future as well.” Jain will be continuing her education at Carnegie Mellon University studying electrical and computer engineering.

—Written by Hila Livneh