FabTafel

De FabTafel van 10 augustus vindt plaats in Amersfoort bij FabLab Amersfoort.

FabLab Amersfoort heeft een nieuwe locatie, maar op hetzelfde adres. Kleine Koppel 40 te Amersfoort. Een hek verder dan de vorige locatie.

Het programma is als volgt: 15:00 – 16:00 Ronde tafel bespreking van onderwerpen die aanwezigen inbrengen. 16:00 – 18:00 Informele gesprekken onder het genot van een drankje en nootjes.

Data FabTafels 2011

De volgende FabTafels, na 10 augustus, zijn op 21 september (in FabLab Arnhem), 2 november (in FabLab Utrecht), 14 december 2011. Telkens vanaf 15:00 uur. FabTafels gaan altijd door, ongeacht het aantal deelnemers.


English version

FabTable

The next FabTable is taking place on August 10th in FabLab Amersfoort.

FabLab Amersfoort has a new space at its disposal, but it’s still at the same address, at Kleine Koppel 40, Amersfoort.

The programme is: 15:00 – 16:00 Round table conversation on topics participants put forward. 16:00 – 18:00 Informal conversations, with drinks and snacks provided.

Other FabTables in 2011

The next FabTables, after August 10th will be September 21st (FabLab Arnhem), November 2nd (FabLab Utrecht), and December 14th 2011. They always start at 15:00 and always take place, regardless of who comes.

Tot ziens op de FabTafel! See you at the FabTable!

Construction of GKN sponsored ‘Finishing School Project’ is in final stage now. Given below are some of the photographs and updates-

1. Civil work- Plastering and windows remaining to do.

2. PEB- PEB sheets are fixed from all sides except front portion.

-Mukesh Bhavsar

Around September 2010 FabFi version 4.0, which included billing capability, much improved networking monitoring, and the use and testing of Ubiquity devices, was deployed last year in pilot in a community in Kenya. The pilot aimed to establish a self-sustaining-with-growth business that would build and maintain a free-to-fee network. Free-to-fee means their network was designed so that basic access to the internet and educational materials are free and they collect fees only for high speed unrestricted service. They have reached a critical mass of subscribers for self-sustainability and are now tackling growth. In the ensuing months our networks in Afghanistan and Kenya received much press and we have gotten a lot of technical volunteers to develop the system further.

FabFi version 5.0 (slated for late fall 2011) is predominately focused on scaling (to tens and hundreds of thousands of nodes and several hundreds of thousands of devices) and locally hosted educational/informational/contextual content. We’re expecting to host a final integration workshop in late August, probably in Peru just after the annual global Fab conference in Lima. We’re expecting to exit that workshop with fully working and configured testbeds which can be immediately used to seed a network – meaning we’ll get everything configured and working then carefully bubblewrap everything, ship to another location, then install permanently on rooftops and water tanks. New devices to grow the mesh only need to be copies of the parts of the test bed.

The code name for the version 5.0 project is “schoolnet” (no one likes the name but no one has a better idea – the next closest is free-edu-net). The software and system architecture allows anyone to connect for free for either low-speed, local, or educational content (that you can select and change as a community or a managed operator) while allowing people to chose to pay by-the-hour or by subscription for high speed unrestricted access. The hope is to be able to pay for the “free” with the “fee” parts.

With FabFi 5.0 we’re expecting to have a pretty great infrastructure but we haven’t forgotten that it’s only as good as the content and services available in the network. A substantial part of the development work has to do with the technologies of local caching and mirroring as well as the pedagogical aspects of the content itself.

FabFi's still beaming out in to Jalalabad

Right now we have (tentatively?) organized funding for second city in Afghanistan and we’re just getting started pursuing South Africa’s CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) to fund a deployment in Soshanguve, a large township with a FabLab, near Pretoria. These deployments will not only seek to establish businesses as in the Kenyan pilot, but a key goal of the Afghanistan deployment is to train massive numbers of Afghans in wireless and mesh technologies, servers, and power systems (ie solar PV, charging & protection circuits).

Sandstorms or insurgents might bring down a node, but people don't unlearn what they know.

Finally, we have recently become connected with OLPC (the “one laptop per child” program) to mutually help with scaled deployments. There may be strong opportunity to concurrently provide connectivity AND devices.

FabFi trying to contact the ISS during the last space shuttle mission.

This is a small device developed at Vigyan Ashram FABLAB to detectpresence of liquids.This device is basically intended to find low cost solution for detecting water overflow from tanks,leakages in pipes,leakages in taps.In rural areas it is a common problem that water timetable is uncertain.If this device installed at community water taps can save time i.e people wont have to wait for long hours at common taps. Also wastage of water can be avoided.

This can also be used for irrigation purposes.It is being used as a sensing device in an upcoming project  at Vigyan Ashram FABLAB related to irrigation.the probes when inserted at the root zone of the plant can detect presence of even slightest moisture.

The device works via resistive and capacitive method.  As a stand alone device it gives  alarm. It can be easily interfaced to a micro controller.

A small student activity for DBRT was held at FABLAB conducted by Mr. Siddharth to make students understand fundamentals of DC motor. The students were made understand the basics of electromagnetism.Some students also also made their small DC motor toys after understanding the basic concepts.

Dear CISE Community,

On Friday, in a speech at Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama
announced the plan for major federal investments in next-generation
robotics. The National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is a bold program that
supports the development and use of robots that work beside, or
cooperatively with, people and that enhance individual human capabilities,
performance and safety. NSF is the lead agency in this multi-agency
program that also includes NASA, NIH and USDA. NRI calls for cross-agency
investments of up to $70 million in the first year with anticipated growth
in funding as other agencies and industry partners emerge. NRI is part of
the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national effort to enhance
job growth and global competitiveness.

The initiative is based on a definitive report, A Roadmap for US Robotics
– From Internet to Robotics, developed by more than 100 robotics experts
from industry and academia as part of the Computing Community Consortium
(CCC) study on robotics. The computing community also played a critical
role in contributing to the PCAST report Designing a Digital Future:
Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information
Technology, where the impact of R&D in robotics is predicted to have
dramatic benefit to productivity and sustainable economic growth.

NSF issued a press release on the initiative on Friday, entitled NSF Leads
Interagency Collaboration to Develop Advanced Robotics. CISE is taking the
lead on this program at NSF; we will work with our colleagues in the
Engineering, Education and Human Resources, and Social, Behavioral and
Economic Sciences Directorates to jointly manage the merit review process.
We welcome your participation in this exciting program.

Best Regards,
Farnam

—————————
Farnam Jahanian
Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)
National Science Foundation

                       Minuets of meeting – PAC meeting dated 19.06.2011.

Planning action Committee (PAC) meeting was held on 19^th June 2011 at Vigyan ashram, Pabal. This was regular quarterly meet of PAC, for taking review of Vigyan ashram’s works and deciding further action for next three months. The main agenda of this meeting was –

• To discuss current status of student Hostel building construction work.
• To decide about proposal of staff quarter building.
• To decide about Tulsi Cultivation & oleoresin extraction project proposal.
• Any other point with permission of chair.

For discussing above points, following PAC members and VA staff  was present for this meeting as –

1.   Mrs.Mira Kalbag.

2.   Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni.

3.   Mr.Ashok Kalbag.

4.   Mr.Sunil Kulkarni.

5.   Mr.B.R.Arbad.

6.   Mr.Ranajeet Shanbhag.

7.   Mr.Mukesh Bhavsar.

At first Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni briefed all about on going activity going on in Vigyan ashram and work progress of Finishing school project. Then following were important decisions made after discussing above points in detailed as –

1.   Student Hostel building construction –

PAC members discussed civil plan in detailed directly on construction site and suggested few corrections in plan as –

• Approaching way / road on first floor should be out of build-up area/carpet area of rooms.
•  For safety / emergency purpose it better to provide extra staircase from south side of building.
• Making plan ready for future expansion of same building as Phase II plan.

2.   New staff quarter construction –

• At first Mr.Mukesh Bhavsar showed site selected for staff quarter construction and explained construction plan in detailed. After discussing plans and looking the site of construction Mr.ashok Kalbag and Mr.Sunil Kulkarni suggested that it more relevant to make plan with future expansion details for avoiding further mess.
• In the meeting it is decided that construction of staff quarter will be done with help of VA students as a part of civil construction training.
• The requirement of construction quotations as per rule is also discussed and decided that there is no need to collect formal  multiple quotation’s , tenders etc as we are going to construct it as a part of training only.
• It is also decided that to take help of Mr.Vijay Kumar sir’s daughter and Mr.ashok kalbag sir’s daughter as project Architect. For detailed Architectural drawing even if we required paying consultancy charges, instate of paying on % basis VA will pay lump-sum amount only.
• So only Architectural drawings / BOQ are outsourced and other things will be done by Ashram students.

3. Oleoresin Project –

Mr.Sunil Kulkarni sir explained overall project objectives, present scenario, need of project and technology involved in this project.

• Mr.Ashok Kalbag suggested meeting Dr.Kanne before finalizing separation procedure so as to make it more cost effective, sophisticated and replicable.
• Mr.Sunil Kulkarni also explained about role of VA, Mr.Anil Gadhe (VA), Mr.Vijay Kumar in fabrication and installation of dryer and separation unit.
• Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni asked role of Mr.Girish Gatpande and Mr.Rajiv Gandhi in project implementation and its cleared by Mr.Sunil kulkarni that the whole project will be technically and financially supported by Wealth Creation Pvt. Ltd a joint venture of Mr,Sunil Kulkarni, Mr.Rajiv Gandhi & Mr.Girish Gatpande.
• Mr.Ranajeet Shanbhag is appointed as Project Manager for this project and project is sanctioned by PAC for further implementation.

Vigyan ashram is please to inform that we are going to start new project on production of oleoresin from local crops capsicum , merry gold , chilli etc and with same special crops like Tulsi , beet root (natural color ) etc. This unit will be low cost and affordable for rural enter-pruners . VA will design and manufacture this unit in pabal & conduct initial trials on Tulsi and locally available crops.Idea is to mount this unit on small vehicle like TATA-407 , so that it can directly move to farmers field. With this unit we are also designing one dryer-cum-ripening unit with 1000 kg raw material . This dryer can be used as ripening chamber for all crops.

Talasari Visit Report – 25-26^th June.

Talasari is small tribal village on Mumbai-Ahmadabad high way (about 90 Km from Mumbai). Talasari holds one of very well managed IBT School under Plan-100 project. This school is residencial school for trible community established and run by Vishva Hindu Parishad (Vanvasi Kalyan Mandal).There are about 250 residential students (from Nursery to 10^th class) those requires around 900 Kg of fresh vegetables per month.

This school also hold around 7.5 acre of good fertile agricultural land with round year irrigation facility. We decided to introduce one practical agriculture course for all hostel students which will not only achieve agricultural self suitability but also give some short of income for these students (which ultimately leads to agricultural entrepreneurship in them.

After visiting to agricultural land and problems they are facing in developing agricultural productive plots. We decided to make group of 10-15 students with group head and allotted them around a plot of 1000 sq ft. In this plot students will cultivate vegetable crops of short duration and keep its detailed record (VA agri record sheet provided) and share profit among group.  A group head will monitor whole group and check record periodically. This whole project will be part of their hostel curriculum so students will get marks for whole project. Students will protect their crop from all pests (Including human) and school/hostel authorities will provide required infrastructural help for this. I also gave them a set of Agricultural documentaries ( about 18 documentaries ) from IBT CD library .

In the same visit , I also guide them (social activity staff) regarding farmers club movement and given required set of documents for NABARD submission .

Design an in-line circuit to detect low-power condition on a 12V line.

Background: many of the routers and similar devices enter a “hung state” if power dips then comes back up, if the dip is not so low that the entire device turns off. The circuit here needs to detect that condition and remove power all together, preferably holding power off until the input level comes back up to nominal.

email fabfi at fabfolk.com for more details. This project will also require you to find the minimum voltage/current values for design parameters.

FabFi Afghanistan is looking for dev/test help for an upcoming new deployment and upgrade. If you know Linux, C, networking, and/or PV solar power electronics, please email fabfi at fabfolk dot com.

Also needed is Fab Lab make-able weather enclosures. Architects – hate how engineers keep making “boxes”? Now’s your chance to make something iconic for years to come.

Het is weer tijd voor een nieuwe FabTafel! (english below)

FabTafel

De FabTafel van 29 juni vindt plaats in Enschede bij FabLab Enschede in de Saxion Hogeschool.

De locatie is FabLab Enschede, M.H. Tromplaan 28, Enschede. Het FabLab is op loopafstand van het NS station Enschede.

Het programma is als volgt: 15:00 – 16:00 Ronde tafel bespreking van onderwerpen die aanwezigen inbrengen en aankondigingen vanuit de stichting. 16:00 – 18:00 Informele gesprekken onder het genot van een drankje en nootjes. Uiteraard is er alle gelegenheid kennis te maken met de mensen achter FabLab Enschede, en uiteraard het FabLab zelf.

Data FabTafels 2011


De volgende FabTafels, na 18 mei zijn op 10 augustus, 21 september, 2 november, 14 december 2011. Telkens vanaf 15:00 uur. FabTafels gaan altijd door, ongeacht het aantal deelnemers.

English version

FabTable

The next FabTable is taking place on June 29th in FabLab Enschede at Saxion Hogeschool in Enschede.

The programme is: 15:00 – 16:00 Round table conversation on topics participants put forward and announcements from the Dutch FabLab Foundation. 16:00 – 18:00 Informal conversations, with drinks and snacks provided. Of course there will also be ample opportunity to get to know the people behind FabLab Enschede, as well as inspect the FabLab itself.

The location is FabLab Enschede, M.H. Tromplaan 28, Enschede. The FabLab is within easy walking distance of the Enschede railway station.

Other FabTables in 2011


The next FabTables, after May 18th, will be on August 10th, September 21st, November 2nd, and December 14th 2011. They always start at 15:00 and always take place, regardless of who comes.

Tot ziens op de 29e! See you on the 29th!

How about freeedunet? (That’s free-edu-net).

I’ve got my fingers crossed for a latest crazy plan. Imagine this: there’s a bunch of kids at a school somewhere in Afghanistan. The kids are using “Made In Afghanistan” OLPC XO laptops (that were manufactured in country, by Fablabbers or locals as part of a suite of technology education training, but that’s an aside). While at school, the XO’s are connected to a local schoolserver which is also a mirror of everything educational we can think of.

When the kids leave the classroom and return home, they can connect to the schoolserver via FabFi wireless intranet connections. (That’s the “schoolnet”). Anything from wikipedia to peer-to-peer chatting, being at home is like being at school. And since we’ll have things like MIT’s OpenCourseWare on the schoolserver, everyone in that kid’s home will benefit. Regular computers with wifi can connect to schoolnet too.

There’s a carefully maintained backbone among schools with their own schoolservers and ad hoc (hardware device agnostic) fabfi filling in the interstitial spaces organically, following those who want access to knowledge. The schoolserver(s) will have an internet connection to stay up-to-date. Expect aggressive proxying (memory is super cheap!) at the schoolserver and liberal interpretations of the content that should be available for free on the schoolnet.

Now, building on JoinAfrica work in Kenya, we’ll further allow people to use the infrastructure to connect through to the bigger internet for a fee. In Kenya, it was easy to integrate into the MPESA system which is banking via SMS text messaging. We’ll have to figure out how to deal with banking in Afghanistan; I’m rather hoping to spawn a company where these fees help cover their maintenance of the schoolnet, but that’s also an aside.

(An aside that goes with the first aside, those fabfi’s and solar power installations to power them are also part of the suite of technology education seminars. And of course, everything all-Afghan as soon as possible.)

Everyyyything would continue to be open source like it is now, and hopefully we’ll have contributed with a big leap forward in village/community telco.

This brings back happy memories of Carl’s dreams for South Africa.

Well, we’ll see.

And for other reading, see this report hot off the presses about a Codesprint in South Africa in support of Meraka Institute’s “Broadband For All” project.

Fab Academy 2011 Project: Data Tree_Sensor Bricks
Areti Markopoulou
This Fab Academy project was created for implementation at Can Valldaura, the site of the future Green Fab Lab, located in Collserola Park just outside of Barcelona.
The project features artificial fruit that cling to trees containing sensors that monitor moisture, light, and temperature as well as smoke detectors. The fruit sends data wirelessly, via a radio frequency antenna, to a data processing apparatus at the Can Valldaura house. From here the data is uploaded and processed in Pachube which gives a real-time visualization of the environmental conditions around each tree in relation to time and position.
This test data can be found on the Green Fab Lab website.

More information about the entire production process can be found here.
This is open source project. All information from the project (files, materials, programming codes, circuit sensor boards) can be found and downloaded here.

Last week I went up to Haystack Mountain School of Craft to train and work in their Fab Lab. Haystack is an international craft school located in Deer Isle, Maine - a beautiful area of Maine. They offer workshops in traditional crafts - blacksmiting, woodworking, pottery, metalsmithing, jewelry making, painting, and other very cool crafts! They also happen to have a brand new fab lab (see the photo below). And as AS220 is part of the Fab Lab network, Haystack reached out to our lab and asked for support this summer.

I went up to Haystack on a mission to learn how to use the ShopBot - a 4'x8' CNC Router (seen in the photo below) that can cut wood, plastic, and aluminum materials very precisely and automatically. It is the missing ingredient in our AS220 Fab Lab, and we are anxious to get our hands on it as the months go by without having one. Going up to Haystack was my opportunity to use and learn the machine in a similar environment to AS220, and I took full advantage of it.

I was partnered up with ShopBot Guru & MIT Brainiac, Nadya Peek - check her work out here. She showed me everything I needed to know to safely and successfully operate the machine. Together we consulted with Haystack Artists and Staff on their projects and helped them make things - a whole week of making things for artists! It was an amazing learning experience.The photo below is of Nadya and Stuart Kestenbaum, the Director of Haystack.

During my time there in the fab lab, I made a wide range of things for both artists and myself. The best way to learn a machine is just to use it as much as possible, so I just kept making stuff. I started out with simple furniture designs and then got into some sign making. Although I am no furniture designer, I was able to make a pretty functional stool and chair. Once you have the basic operating procedures down, it is a fairly simple machine to use, because it does all the work for you!

As for the artists, the fab lab was an absolute hit. Most people accepted the modern digital fabrication tools as just another tool in their shop. It allowed them to experiment and learn more about their own craft too. Once we put them behind the wheel of the machine, it was all over for them. We helped artists make bats for throwing clay, dies for jewelry making, stencils for decorating, precision cut finger joints, laser-cut felt shapes, and woodblocks for printing. We even had an artist mold and cast a dinosaur army!

Besides training on the shop bot, I was also learning how a different fab lab operates and interacts with an artist community. There was a lot of similarities to AS220, which allowed me to take away a lot from the experience and bring some new ideas back to labs. Two other key members from the labs, Anna Kaziunas France and Elliot Clapp, will be heading up there to train on the ShopBot later this summer. Aside from that, the lab is still looking and working hard to acquire one of these machines. So if you know of someone with an extra ShopBot lying around, send them our way!

Stayed tuned! I am going to be making video tutorials on the ShopBot and posting them online. Also, check out the slideshow below for the full Haystack experience.

This weekend’s New York Times has several photos of FabFi Afghanistan in this piece on subversive community communication networks. (We’re in the slide set). To be clear, the FabFi project in Afghanistan was not one of those secretly funded projects described in their article (see here where I itemize the bulk of the costs and how they were funded – mostly through personal savings accounts of those who participated and in part through a National Science Foundation grant.

New York Times July 12, 2011.

However, the urgency and significance of the project are the same. As long as there’s pressure from those seeking a reasonable life where they can go about their business, there’s hope we can throw a lifeline with these so called undermining capabilities.

As the director of the Jalalabad Fab Lab and Fab Fi project lead, I’ve been asked several times about how to scale the Fab Lab and Fab Fi experiences to more fully saturate a city, as well as spinning this off into more cities. While I can provide a technical, programmatic answer, Fab Lab/Fi doesn’t solve everything. It’s only one piece: the rest have to develop at the same time. Infrastructure like roads, power, water, schools, teachers, and systems maintenance as well as the user terminals (laptops and computers), people who use them, and the content they’ll consume. It’s crazy to think that there was no cell phone service in the country in 2002 and now it’s pretty solidly working in every major population center (at least when the tower isn’t turned off or bombed). From roads to power to water, the task at hand (officially US or not) was to set off a program that could go from zero to servicing 30 million people in a few years. Imagine colonizing Mars by sending 30 million people first, ahead of the infrastructure.

I think there are maybe three kinds of places in Afghanistan:
1. There are safer, quieter places that have known better times and whose residents are working to get back to those better times. There’s still crime and killing but it’s a shocking event when it occurs. 2. Poor, forgotten places that have never known modernization and are harder hit by economic problems (some of which we’ve unwittingly caused). 3. Places like Kandahar with an almost insidious infestation of crazy. Remember those boys you grew up with that would pull the wings off of bugs and set ants on fire? Beliefs aside, an environment like Kandahar doesn’t provide the social pressure that prevents them from growing up into full fledge people-hurting psychopaths.

In the first group are cities like Herat, in the western sector of Afghanistan. It’s plainly ready and asking for a Fab Lab and associated wealth of possibilities. You could imagine a Fab Lab and Training Center there augmenting and strengthening the communications infrastructure with a parallel or overlaid “subversive” mesh, perhaps through the school system which I hear is quite healthy and respected.

The second group of towns, like Jaghori in Ghazni province, need only to follow the good examples of the first – so much the better if there is strong municipal leadership that both welcomes business activities while keeping them in check.

The third are places like Kandahar, which is our biggest opportunity. Mel King, famous community organizer in Boston, often says that “the wheels in the back of the bus never catch up to the wheels in the front unless something extraordinary occurs”. Fighting over raisins, road tolls, heck, fighting over fighting, these are the things that they know about. “New” doesn’t always mean good on it’s own right, but in this case “new” can simply bewilder long enough for the skinny gimpy-legged kid to grab the football and run. Mixed metaphors, I know. It’s late. Another recent article from educators highlights how the labs are excuses to try something new with rewarding results.

In a recent round of catch-ups with the Afghan collaborators who helped start Fab Lab and the Fab Fi projects in Jalalabad (many of whom were university students when we met), I’m thrilled to tell you that all are gainfully employed in technically enabled positions. A (surprising?) majority have taken the plunge to starting their own technology, logistics, or consulting companies, bravely negotiating the bewilderingly paperwork intensive contracts with ISAF and providing jobs to Afghans. I believe in the need for the private sector to create jobs.

With the depressingly slow rate of new job creation at home in America, it’s hard not to be extra proud and amazed at their optimism and willingness to give it a go and make forward progress in their little corner of the world. I won’t take credit for their success – they were shaped by a long chain of parents, family, teachers, and other opportunities – but at least one was nice enough to say that it was his experiences of previously unexpected self-enabled successes in the Fab Lab that was his inspiration.

Thanks to edits by Kanani Fong of the Kitchen Dispatch.

There are exciting, awesome things that you Fabbers are doing and maybe you’re wondering why the rest of the FabUniverse hasn’t adopted your process too. While no one owns the path to something becoming a standard process, it can be a daunting job to share your new technique widely.

Leading up to Fab7, I want to invite everyone to submit and present a process or capability you think should be added to all labs. We’ll share them all at Fab 7 (physically and virtually) and vote on which process to add to the “standard inventory”.

There are only two rules:

1) the process needs to be documented in a digitally distributed format so that it can be learned and replicated by others. Any text needs to include English copy, but if you have difficulty here we can help make a translation.

2) any special materials or equipment not currently in the inventory are something that we could immediately buy sufficient quantity of and ship to all existing and future labs. Because, if your process is selected by Fab7 attendees, that’s what we’ll do!

Submit in any way you are comfortable. It can be a document, video, instructable, fabwiki entry… However you are able to make your project understood. You do not have to physically attend Fab 7 to share your project.

Add a link to the comments on this post or send me an email so I will know to find your contribution! (You can also suggest other people’s processes, duly attributed.)

I visited OLPC’s new Grendel’s Den style offices on Third Street and saw the new blue XO-1.5. I took a photo but somehow the eye.fi hasn’t uploaded it yet and the effort of reading the memory card directly is an unacceptable task.

Here’s a photo from their site:

http://blog.laptop.org/2010/09/01/the-new-xo-1-5-hs/

Compared to the very early model of XO-1′s we used in Bagrami, Afghanistan, these are waay faster. But the most exciting detail was the bigger keyboard with clicky keys!

Yes, I realize that this is pretty much old news for those actually following OLPC. They (jokingly?) told me that they usually have people sign a “DA” – the opposite of a NON-disclosure agreement – and encourage people to blog about their visit.

       DST review meeting – 17^th May 2011.

Chair person – Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni .

Member’s – Mr.Ranajeet Shanbhag .

Mr.Sidharth Kulkarni .

Mr.Mukesh Bhavsar.

Mr.Sachin Chavan (On phone)

Mr.Avinash Dhobale (On Phone)

DST review meeting as conducted at VA for discussing post DST expert visit issues and further targets . Before starting meeting Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni formaly welcomed Mr.Sidharth Kulkarni in DST group and explained him objectives of DST support and role of Fab-lab in DST work. Following were important topics discussed in this meeting and decision were taken as-

• Mr.Sachine chavan will update www.techshalla.org & One new blog will be created for Suzlon school & HKM schools activities .
• One design library will be prepared and made available with publication department including all designs made during last two tears as fabrication designs , LED , Akash Kandil etc
• Pedal operated Fodder cutting machine will be designed and tested as DBRT student project .
• For Bio-gas-to-electricity project – Ranajeet & waghole will co-ordinate further &  multification of existing Napier grass will be done in coming rainy season on 0.5 acre land .
• ITC based application – Updating VA website , updating other e-containt will be done shortly by out sourcing it . At the same time fusibility of appointing one new IT engineer will be checked – further co-ordination by Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni .
• Do it your self – website will be designed for all tech problem with the help of INDUSA – further co-ordination Dr.Yogesh Kilkarni .
• Fab-lab projects – New hobby kits for conducting Fab-camps and preparation for FAB7 are the main targets for Sidharth Kulkarni for next two months.
• Developing business models on Solar gadgets and developing new commercial products in Food lab will be main targets for Mr.Ranajeet Shanbhag & team .
• In Agricultural projects documentation of Farmers group activities will be done by Mr.Ganesh Pingle and Ranajeet Shanbhag jointly .
• Scouting and adopting technologies developed by other DST group will be the work of whole DST group and review will be taken periodical .
• Developing gadgets for Elderly peoples will be done by giving projects to EWB / SP Jain students.

El Fab Academy 2011 ha contado con la participacion de mas de 12 laboratorios en mas de 8 paises del mundo, con un total de 30 estudiantes, quienes presentaron el pasado 1ero de Junio sus proyectos finales.

El Fab Lab Barcelona ha contado con 5 participantes, quienes mostraron sus proyectos principalemente orientados en los siguientes temas:
- Fab Energy > monitoreo en tiempo real del consumo energetico dentro de un Fab Lab, por Guillem Camprodon
- Data Tree > frutos digitales embebidos en arboles para monitorear las condiciones ambientales, por Areti Markopoulou
- Inflatable furniture > mobiliario urbano hinchable que tiene caracter y acepta o no a usuarios, por Luciano Betoldi
- Reactive lamp > lampara que se mueve e ilumina dependiendo de la presencia de personas, por Carlos Castro

Los proyectos seran publicados progresivamente en nuestras diferentes plataformas online.

El Fab Academy Barcelona es coordinado por Tomas Diez.

El Fab Academy ofrece los principios y aplicaciones de la fabricacion digital. El Fab Academy ofrece un diploma de 6 meses, enfocado en las diferentes tecnicas de fabricacion que se encuentran en un Fab Lab, al mismo tiempo es una plataforma de investigacion y desarrollo de proyectos aplicados a realidades locales de cada laboratorio en cualquier parte del mundo.

El Fab Academy es dirigido por Neil Gershenfeld, director del Centro de Bits y Atomos del MIT, y consta de 20 modulos enfocados en tecnicas como diseño y fabricacion de circuitos, corte controlado por ordenador, impresion 3d, entre otros temas relacionados a la fabricacion digital.

Buscando nuevos emprendedores: Diseña – Fabrica – Distribuye

El Fab Lab Barcelona del Instituto de Arquitectura Avanzada de Cataluña (IAAC) en colaboración con el Instituto de Cultura del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona (ICUB), convoca a cuatro (4) premios para diseñadores y creadores de Barcelona y Catalunya, para el desarrollo de productos o inventos, que puedan ser producidos y comercializados en un Fab Lab usando máquinas de fabriación digital.
Los productos podrán pertenecer a cualquier ámbito del diseño (mobliario, moda, iluminación, utensilios, robótica, comunicaciones, electrónica, etc) y deberán ser fabricados localmente a través de máquinas de fabricación digital como corte por láser (peq y gran formato), fresadora digital (para electrónica y gran formato), impresora 3D, bordadora digital y cortadora de vinilo, las cuales están disponibles en el Fab Lab Barcelona.

Bases:
- Abierto a creadores residentes en Barcelona y su área metropolitana, provenientes de diferentes disciplinas como el diseño, ingenieria, o cualquier otra disciplina creativa.
- 4 proyectos serán seleccionados para ser desarrollados en el Fab Lab Barcelona. Cada proyecto contará con 2.000 Eur para su desarrollo, que se entregaran por partes: 500 Eur por mes en tres meses (desarrollo del proyecto) + 500 Euros en el cuarto mes una vez finalizado el prototipo final y habiendo completado el proyecto documentado, y con un plan de distribución online a través de una plataforma web.
- Los beneficiarios recibirán entrenamiento en el uso de máquinas de fabricación digital durante el desarrollo de los productos.
- Una vez finalizado el proceso de desarrollo y prototipado del producto, se establecerá un acuerdo para la comercialización del mismo mediante la red mundial de Fab Labs, existente en mas de 20 países, o a través de las empresas asociadas al Fab Lab Barcelona.
Mas información en: http://www.fablabbcn.org

Para Aplicar: Enviar a fabdesign@fablabbcn.org:
- Curriculum Vitae en formato A4 y portfolio online.
- Propuesta de proyecto en un documento en tamaño A4 con un máximo de 8 páginas con texto e imágenes, donde se explique el proyecto, tecnologías a utilizar y resumen de propuesta de comercialización.
El Jurado se reservará el derecho de dejar plazas sin ocupar si las propuestas no cumplen con el nivel exigido. El premio se entregará en las fases descritas, siempre y cuando el beneficiario cumpla con el acuerdo previamente firmado entre las partes.
Los paneles de los proyectos seleccionados, que podrán ser escritos en Catalán, Castellano e Inglés serán expuestos en la séptima conferencia mundial de Fab Labs, Fab7, en Lima, en Agosto de 2011.

Fechas clave: Envio de aplicaciones: hasta el 25 de Julio de 2011. Selección de ganadores: 17 de Agosto durante el Fab7. Inicio de desarrollo de productos: 1 de Septiembre. Presentación final de producto + plataforma de comercialización: 16 de Diciembre de 2011.

Jurado:
- Vicente Guallart, Director IAAC
- Ramon Prat, Representante del ICUB y del DHUB
- Javier Nieto, Presidente Santa & Cole
- Marta Malé-Alemany, Co-Directora del MAA – IAAC
- Tomas Diez, Project Manager Fab Lab Barcelona