Students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa now have an enticing space to get together, kick around ideas and hatch creative solutions. The UH iLab, or innovation lab, officially opened this week.

“With this project, we want to touch every undergraduate student at UH-Manoa,” Vassilis Syrmos, UH vice president for research and innovation, said Friday. “We just want to expose them to innovation and entrepreneurship, and what they do with their life is up to them. At least they’ll have the experience.”

The iLab has an open floor plan that is geared toward sparking imagination and teamwork, with floating whiteboards and movable tables and chairs. It features visualization equipment, 3-D printers and laser cutters to help turn ideas into working models.

“We have a tantalizing amount of equipment, but the focus is not on the equipment,” said Peter Crouch, dean of the UH-Manoa College of Engineering, who spearheaded the iLab effort. “I think the equipment is, in a sense, to lure the students into the space.

“What we are trying to do is create an environment where our students don’t have such a structured curriculum, an environment where students can come from disparate disciplines to work together on various projects,” he said. “The place is basically a meeting space, it’s a collaboration space, it’s supposed to be the focus of innovation on campus.”

While innovation and entrepreneurship are already woven into the schools of engineering and business, the iLab is a way to get a broader cross-section of the university community involved, from arts and humanities to tropical agriculture.

The 3,500-square-foot, stand-alone building is in the middle of the campus, making it readily available to everyone. Also known as Building 37, the facility had been largely dormant since UH staff moved from it into the new Information Technology Center that opened in 2014.

“It is like a hub in the middle of campus, so the location is very strategic,” Syrmos said. “It’s equidistant to a lot of the colleges.”

The colleges serve as the spokes to the hub, providing tools and expertise to further develop the concepts hatched in the iLab. The lab was inspired by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, also known as the d.School.

The calendar for UH iLab is filling up with workshops and classes during the day, such as “Startup 101” and “Design Thinking.”

Four hours a day are set aside as “open time,” 4 to 8 p.m., when students can walk in and use the space as they please. The iLab is managed by Bob Nakata, who grew up in Hawaii and became a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley before returning home. Student monitors are also on duty.

“I thought it was a great opportunity for students to just come in here and work on their own, do whatever they want — whether it be 3-D printing, 3-D scanning or digital drawing,” said Aaron Nagamine, an iLab student monitor. “They can come here and collaborate on ideas that they think are good and start their own company or work on their own school projects.”

It cost $100,000 to create the iLab, including gutting the building, updating the power supply, replacing windows, buying equipment and furniture, and painting the facility, according to Syrmos.

“The space is very cool but it is inexpensively done,” he said.

UH President David Lassner called the lab “another facet of our aggressive and comprehensive efforts to develop and build a thriving innovation, research, education and training enterprise at UH.”

Soon the iLab will be throwing out challenges to students via various design contests, in an effort to focus their creative talents toward real-world problems.

Syrmos has one in mind already.

“I hope they tell us how to fix parking at Manoa during school sessions,” he said with a laugh.