Escape Room – Lab 217

Banner reading "Molecule Maker Lab institute presents: Lab 217 Escape Room" featuring the MMLI logo and Lab 217 logos.

The MMLI Escape room is a labor of love between students in THEA 591: Designing Immersive Experiences and INFO 418: Makerspace – Escape Rooms at the University of Illinois. Course students took the Molecule Maker Lab on as stakeholders for the semester immersing themselves in the world of MMLI researchers, bringing researchers in to test puzzles, and ultimately creating Lab 217.

Lab 217 is setting up to settle down at its permanent at the Siebel Center for Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

If you are interested in participating in Lab 217, e-mail Sabrina at abdulla3@illinois.edu, or stay tuned for updates about public access.

images from lab 217: 2 rooms in an abandoned lab setting

What is Lab 217 all about?


Once upon a time, Lab 217 was a functional lab housing a team of enthusiastic scientists. Unfortunately, the team of scientists were unable to get along, arguing instead of getting anything done. With the emergence of AI, lab leaders removed humans out of the equation to replace them with an all AI research team. Looks like that didn’t go well either…
The year is now 2323, and you have been tasked with breaking into Lab 217 and restoring the lab into a functional space to continue their research. Can you learn from the original team’s mistakes, or will you face a similar fate?

Where in the world is Lab 217?

Creating the escape room

The science behind the escape room

Sponsor our escape room – have your name on Lab 217!