This story looks at the “fab lab”.So nicknamed by it’s inventor,Dr Neil Gershenfeld,the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Centre for Bits and Atoms.The “fab lab” is a “collection of commercially available machines that can be used “to make just about anything with features bigger than those of a computer chip”.The article says that “the fab lab’s purpose is to endow inventors‚Äö√Ñ√Æparticularly those in poor countries who lack a formal education and the resources to implement their ideas‚Äö√Ñ√Æwith a set of tools that can translate back-of-the-envelope designs into working prototypes.And it works.In Pabal,an Indian village with a population of 5,000,a dairy farmer’s income is tied to the fat content of his cow’s milk.Students at the nearby Vigyan Ashram science school are using a fab lab to build a sensor that will give Pabal’s farmers a precise measure of that fat content.In Takoradi,Ghana,people have used the labs to produce a cassava grinder,jewellery,car parts,agricultural tools and communication equipment such as radio antennas.Solar-powered items to harness the relentless local sunlight are in the works.In Norway,Sami animal herders‚Äö√Ñ√Æwho are among Europe’s last nomads‚Äö√Ñ√Æare using fab labs to make radio collars and wireless networks to track their charges.And in Boston (admittedly not part of the developing world, but conveniently near MIT),the residents of a mixed-income housing complex are using one of Dr Gershenfeld’s labs to create a wireless communication network.”
Fabulous fabrications
- March 24th, 2005
Comments
@ 23:51
Here’s the Fab Lab Central.
@ 16:04
Thank you for that link Peter
@ 10:17
I have been a licensed Ham Radio Operator since 1951. I want to bring up the subject of “build it yourself” which is relevent to the concept of Fab Labs.
Before the HF Single Sideband transceivers became popular, Hams usually built their own radio transmitters. In the days before WW2, there were lots of “build it yourself” articles in the popular mechanics and popular science magazines, which enabled many people of the depression era to build their own radio receivers. Hugo Gernsback popularized what we might call “Build It Yourself for Dummies” booklets. Many of the early experimenters went on to be not only Hams, but professional technicians and engineers.
In recent times Hams, like CBers, just buy commercial equipment from Japan or China. Even Heathkit, a company that produced build it yourself electronics kits has gone out of business, because the kit builder market is too small. This is because in my opinion there has been a great distain for amateur experimenters by academic organizations and by the IEEE. The college academics can not realize the importance of home lab work or hands on experience. Even the vocational schools have not emphasised modern fabrication. It is also because there are no mothers at home to prevent kid experimenter from fighting with razor knives, sniffing model glue, burning down the house with soldering irons or eating lead solder. Fab Labs? You can’t even sell chemistry sets anymore!
I believe that Fab Labs are a great idea and we should all give credit to Dr. Gershfeld…BUT the fact is that Americanbs have been spoiled by outsourcing fabtication to China and it might take another great depression to make them want to build anything themselves again.
Bob Wexelbaum W2ILP
@ 23:00
FAB : Gershenfeld’s Book on Future Fablabs
Neil Gershenfeld, the director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT and professor of the widely reported ‘How to make almost anything’ class, has a book coming out on April 12, 2005 called FAB : The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop–From Person…