FAB ACADEMY 2011 THE CENTER FOR BITS AND ATOMS
FAB ACADEMY
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Central Fab Lab http://fab.cba.mit.edu
Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2011
Welcome to the future!
The Fab Academy provides instruction and supervises investigation of mechanisms, applications,and implications of digital fabrication. Just as communications and computation went from analog to digital, resulting in PCs and the Internet, the digitalization of fabrication is leading to personal fabricators that will allow anyone to make almost anything, anywhere. The development of digital fabrication is based on creating codes that don’t just describe things, they are things, much as proteins are coded in molecular biology. This research road map is ultimately aiming at a Star Trekstyle replicator, but prototype versions of these capabilities are already available in field “fab labs”. Fab labs began as an outreach project from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), and spread around the world. The Fab Academy was launched to provide access to advanced instruction for students in these labs exceeding the educational resources locally available to them. It links groups of students and instructors in fab labs, with online video collaboration and lectures by a global faculty. Unlike remote
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instruction from a central campus, the digital fabrication tools in a fab lab effectively allow the campus to come to the student, for distributed rather than distance education. The Fab Academy offers Certificates on relevant technical topics, and a Diploma aimed at vocational and technical training for employment and investment (along with assistance to its graduates in those areas).These are accredited by the Fab Academy; it is anticipated that they will by followed by a Bachelor’s degree to be offered under applicable regional accreditation, along with post-graduate study. Fab Academy Certificates provide familiarity with technical options and capabilities, hands-on experience, and direction for further study. Each requires, and is evaluated by, developing and documenting projects. They are periodically renewed to reflect best practices. The Certificates typically require 1-2 weeks. They are combined in the Diploma, which is roughly comparable to completing MIT’s rapid-prototyping course “How To Make (almost) Anything”. It requires about 1 year, with progress evaluated by skills and projects rather than time or credits.
Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2011
Distributed Campus
The Fab Academy is the spine of the Fab Education, it is the global university in Digital Fabrication, where the campus is the planet and the classrooms are the local Fab Labs. To be part of the Fab Academy, local labs should have trained and certificated tutors or gurus, which should be previously trained in the Fab Academy at any other Fab Lab. The Fab Academy will provide the human capital for the Fab Labs, who will be able to replicate the experience at their host labs. The Fab Education not only consists on Fab Academy Diploma program, but has the following possibilities (among many others): - Boot Camps - Local workshops - Specialized training for professionals, teachers and students - Special activities Fab labs have spread from innercity Boston to rural India, from South Africa to the North of Norway. Activities in fab labs range from technological empowerment to peer-
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to-peer project-based technical training to local problem-solving to small-scale high-tech business incubation to grassroots research. Projects being developed and produced in fab labs include solar and wind-powered turbines, thinclient computers and wireless data networks,analytical instrumentation for agriculture and healthcare, custom housing, and rapid-prototyping of rapidprototyping machines. The initial plan of the Fab Academy 2009-10 included the following labs: - Fab Lab Barcelona. Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. Barcelona, Spain. - Fab Lab Vestmannaeyjar Islands. Innovation Center Iceland. Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. - Fab Lab Nairobi. Nairobi, Kenya. - Fab Lab South Africa, South Africa. - Fab Lab Pune. Pune, India. - Fab Lab Amsterdam. WAAG Society, Netherlands. - Fab Lab Lorain County CC. Ohio, United States. - Fab Lab AS220. Providence, United States.
Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2011
courses
Fab Academy Diploma From January 19th 2011 to June 1st 2011
Fab Academy Certificate A week based modules
( ) Digital fabrication principles and practices (Jan 19)
( ) Interface and application programming (Mar 30)
( ) Collaborative technical development, documentation, and project management (Jan 26)
( ) Input devices (Apr 6)
( ) Computer-aided design, manufacturing, and modeling (Feb 2)
( ) Output devices (Apr 20)
( ) Computer-controlled cutting (Feb 9)
( ) Composites (Apr 13)
( ) Embedded networking and communications (Apr 27) ( ) Machine design Wed (May 4)
( ) Electronics production (Feb 16) ( ) Computer-controlled machining (Feb 23) ( ) Electronics design (Mar 2)
( ) Digital fabrication applications and implications (May 11) ( ) Invention, intellectual property, and business models (May 18)
( ) 3D molding and casting (Mar 9)
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( ) Embedded programming (Mar 16)
( ) Digital fabrication project development (May 25)
( ) 3D scanning and printing (Mar 23)
( ) Final project presentations (June 1)
Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2011
faculty The Fab Academy faculty is coordinated by MIT CBA's Director Prof. Neil Gershenfeld, and currently includes: Fab Academy Production Sherry Lassiter, Center for Bits and Atoms Program Manager sherry.lassiter@cba.mit.edu Fab Academy Production Vicente Guallart, Director IaaC Fab Academy Coordination Tomas Diez, Fab Lab Bcn Project Manager tomasdiez@iaac.net
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Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2010-2011 2011
local Fab Labs contact
Amsterdam: Alex Schaub alex@waag.org Barcelona: Tomas Diez tomasdiez@iaac.net Ethiopia(Addis Abeba): Aysheshim Tilahun, ayshtola@gmail.com Iceland: Frosti Gislason frosti@nmi.is India: COEP (in Pune) Professor Ahuja bba@prod.coep.org.in Vigyan Ashram (Pabal, near Pune) Yogesh Kulkarni (Director) vapabal@gmail.com Kenya: Kamau Gachigi kamaugachigi@yahoo.com Lima: Benito Juarez, beno@gmail.com Madrid: Shane Salisbury, shane.salisbury@absolut-lab.com Norway: Haakon Karlsen haakon@fablab.no Providence: Shawn Wallace shawn@as220.org South Africa: Bongani Mdluli bongani@fabfolk.com
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Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2011
Tuition fee and Scholarships
Tuition fees are variable according to local fab labs. Global Fab Academy fees are:
Fab Academy Diploma 5.000 (USD)
Fab Academy individual certificates 500â&#x201A;Ź (USD)
Complete scholarships: Local labs will determine different programs for scholarships: Internships, Special programs with other institutions and social organizations. To apply for a scholarship please send to your local fab lab a letter of intent (no more than 250 words), explaining the conditions and reasons to be the beneficiary of this program.
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Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
FAB ACADEMY 2011
graduation ceremony The last Fab Academy graduation ceremony took place at Fab6 World Conference in Amsterdam - The Netherlands in August 2010. This Fab Academy version is starting on October 2010. Fab7 Conference and Symposium will be held by Fab Lab Lima in Peru next August 2011. Following South Africa, Chicago, India and Amsterdam, the 7th Fab Conference will gather together the international Fab Lab community for first time in latin America. Different workshops, conferences and activities will be planned by the Fab7 team, with the support of Fab Lab Barcelona and Fab Foundation Spain.
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Fab Lab Network: http://fab.cba.mit.edu - Fab Academy: www.fabacademy.org
The seventh international Fab Lab conference LIMA 2011
THE CENTER FOR BITS AND ATOMS Massachusetts Institute of Technology
FAB LAB LIMA
Iaac Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia
Facultad de Arquitectura Urbanismo y Artes FAUA-UNI