I was asked about what makes good fab lab spaces and thought that would be a good thing to ask everyone who is actually in a lab. (Despite building many many labs, I never actually get to pick a space, I’m just told to “make the best out of this”…)

So - what would you say are good features of a fab lab space (and bad ones?) What works really well in your lab that you would recommend to others? What do you hate about your lab?

There’s a lot of stuff here, in boxes… somehow this will all become a fab lab this week.

See also: DenokInn Blog.

So Haakon and Gunn went to Kenya by themselves on Thursday with 375 kilos of excess baggage and boxes.  They had to take apart the laser cutter and ship it in smaller pieces in the baggage (yikes).  But they arrived in Kenya  with everything in tact. They did not even have to pay excess baggage as Haakon pulled in some favors from friends at KLM. They were able to slip by customs without paying import duties, a pretty tough task with all that baggage and the boxes.  ARO met them at Nairobi airport with van and they drove to Kisumu from Nairobi.  Everything is in the lab and set up and working (whew!).   They are milling circuit boards today.  The computers work well.  They are headed into Kisumu proper to pick up a blower for the laser cutter and will test that on Monday.   Wow wow wow!!!!!  Kudos to Haakon and Gunn and Jorgen (for getting them ready and packed).  And welcome to the network KISUMU! Congratulations one and all!!!!

The internet connection doesn’t yet support the bandwidth needed to connect, but Haakon says they are working on it.  It’s odd that we did see and hear the Kisumu lab for a brief moment on Friday.  I wonder if it’s the Polycom settings maybe, rather than the bandwidth that is causing problems?

–Lass

Ready for some gossip on possible new labs?   Some upcoming labs coming on line within the year

Providence, Rhode Island, USA - run by AS220.  Moving into a renovated giant fabulous artists’ loft space as we speak!

South Bronx, New York, USA - SSBX will be moving into their new permanent fab lab by May. They’re not technically a new lab because they’ve been operating out of the mobile lab for the last year. But their new space is finally ready for them, and the mobile lab will be refurbished and move on.

Bilbao Spain - opening late May, early June. Run by the Innovalabs.

Guang Dong, China - opening in May. Sponsored by the Chinese government and run by an industry-government education initiative. First of an expected many all over China.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA - site scouting late March, opening around August through October. Sponsored by Spirit Aero and run by CAPS.

University of Nairobi, Kenya - currently unpacking, opening sometime late this summer

Manchester, UK - finalizing in March, opening TBD

Michigan, USA - finalizing details now, opening soon!

Champaign Urbana, Illinois - working out details now and finding a location.  A community services oriented center run by the University.

Nairobi, Kenya (off university grounds) - under works, expected to come online around late fall

Cripes, that’s a lot of new labs!

The 9th grade students the MC2STEM school in East Cleveland set the bar high for learning to use the fab lab equipment - making a Rube Goldberg machine that “cut a ribbon” at the school’s opening: breaking a fluorescent light tube.  Their Goldberg machine used every fab machine and process, and it worked!

Everett the dog can tell when Sherry and I begin scheming about travel. As soon as the American Airlines website came up, he ran off to find and leaned hard against Neil’s legs. Being a properly trained human, Neil petted him and told him it was ok…

He’s right.  I’m off tomorrow to help with Cleveland’s MC2STEM school’s opening on Friday Feb 20.  Kenny and Max from MIT are coming out mid-week and LCCC is sending a bunch of folks including Scott and Rita.

I don’t know much right now, they’ve moved into a brand new building on the GE Nela campus and much of the lab is nearly installed.  We’ll find out on Monday how close it is to operational.

One of the goals of the opening is to have real students and teachers able to show some of the capabilities of the lab.  At the same time we know it’s not possible to run a real “how to make” even super super condensed.  (The shortest HTMAA I’ve ever taught was 2 days long).

To get a fun sampling of everything, we’re going to build Rube Goldberg machines!  Each step of the machine will be a mini-project ideally using a different machine or process in the lab.  I’m very optimistic that a wide array of creativity will shine through.

Read the (rough) description of the demonstration project’s purpose and goals here: mc2stem_fablab_demo_project.pdf

Our meeting with Spirit on 1 October had a surprise in store - they’re not quite ready in various ways to go forward with Wichita, but one of their employees (and his wife) in Tulsa have reached out to grab them by the shirt-collar and are moving ahead full speed with planning a lab in Tulsa. 

Otherwise, Chris is still ravenous about labs and his a new pet city, a little one in the UK named “Manchester”.  Anyone heard of it?

Spirit Aerosystems has signed on as a CBA sponsor and approved the go-ahead to build a community-center style fablab in Wichita.  Amon and I are due to go out to Wichita some time in October to do a first pass site scout.

The road was completely anticlimatic after the stories we’d heard. Wide, smooth, utterly civilized. Ken and Tim keep saying that the old road was really bad and we were just really lucky to have come on the first day the new road was open.

(more…)

Matt B, who runs the career institute at Oak Hill, will visit SETC and SSBX next week.  Oak Hill Academy  grew into the Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools program.  Oak Hill itself  is the District’s long-term secure facility for youth who have been adjudicated delinquent and committed to DYRS.  (http://www.seeforever.org/OAKHILL/). They  very interested in incorporating a fab lab at Oak Hill.