Tom Okite's trip to India
Tom Okite of ARO Fablab Kenya West together with other fab-labbers around the world attended
FAB5: (The Fifth International Fab Lab Forum and Symposium on Digital Fabrication in Pune, India for a period of one week, August 16-21, 2009.
The event gathered both field practitioners and laboratory researchers. The event was mainly for workshops and symposium on the principles and applications on digital fabrication. It was organized by a team including the College of Engineering, Pune, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Vigyan Ashram, the National Innovation Foundation, the Fab Foundation, the MIT-India Program, and MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), with support from DSIR and NSF. FAB5 follows earlier events in the US, South Africa, and Norway; there's background on fab labs and digital fabrication here.
Fab labs began as an outreach project from CBA, to provide access to prototype tools for personal fabrication. They've since grown into a global network, with the number of Fab labs doubling roughly every 1.5 years (here is the current lab list). |
To keep up with this growth, a non-profit Fab Foundation, for-profit Fab Fund, and educational Fab Academy are being established.
Bio gas plant ( A Fablab project in India)
The FAB5 workshops brought together fab-labbers from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia for tutorials, hands-on projects, program discussions, and research planning in areas including field fabrication and application of analytical instrumentation for healthcare and the environment, communications infrastructure, energy, housing, and rapid-prototyping of rapid-prototyping machines.
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These workshops were limited by available space to 100 participants, admitted by application to fab5@fabfoundation.org. The daily cost of accommodations, meals, and materials was $100, with support available to assist unfunded participants. ARO FabLab Kenya west was one of the beneficiaries from the funding as Tom Okite was sponsored both air ticket and accommodation to attend the conference. The symposium done during the workshop surveyed the science behind digital fabrication, and explored its social, economic, and educational implications. It featured presentations from academic, government, and industry leaders, as well as grass-roots inventors and organizations. This accommodated 1000 attendees. |
The following labs were represented; Ghana South Africa Spain Norway Iceland USA Japan Afghanistan The following were the items under discussion and participation: Lab Opening
Anil Gupta: Grass-Roots Inventors and Inventions videos |
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