Tom is director of The Making Rooms, a multidisciplinary makerspace in Blackburn England, featuring labs in ceramics, textiles, device repair, plastic recycling and a full Fab Lab that opens to the public for free every weekend. He is currently leading a £1.5m expansion of the building to support growing demand and further develop these labs.
Being involved with makerspaces since volunteering at the UK’s first Fab Lab, Tom has since visited over 50 makerspaces to share experiences. With a degree in Computer Science and background in educational electronics development, Tom helped to develop the BBC micro:bit, CodeBug, and PiFace platforms – supporting millions of learners worldwide.
He has since led his team in creating projects with university researchers, local and international partners. In the last 4 years, he has focused the space towards training and sustainability research.
In 2023 he led a week-long workshop in Blackburn for 15 ECHN hub leaders from 11 countries to learn from his team, their local partners and each other – distilling this into the ECHN Makerspace Toolkit. As an ECHN board member, Tom leads the Makerspace cluster.
Tom has led the development of youth makerspaces in 8 towns across England with more in development. He has long supported young people into making and sustainability, this forming the topic of his recent TEDx talk.