What is a Fab Lab?

Fab Labs are a network of digital fabrication facilities. They’re typically run by a community who share their expertise to create new products. The main difference between a Fab Lab and a Hackerspace is that, while Hackerspaces are more oriented toward computing, Fab Labs focus on digital fabrication (hence the name Fab Lab). This process combines 3D modeling or computer-aided design with additive and subtractive manufacturing.

When asked to describe what a Fab Lab is, the original founder, Neil Gershenfeld, said to MIT News, “A Fab Lab today fills a room, weighs about 2 tons, and costs about $100,000. That includes 3-D scanning and printing, large-format and precision machining, computer-controlled lasers and knives, surface-mount electronics production, embedded programming, and computing tools for design and collaboration. With these, it’s possible to locally produce and customize products that are mass-produced today, such as consumer electronics and furniture.”

How did they begin?

Gershenfeld is also the Director of The Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. After the success of MIT’s course “How to Make Almost Anything,” he realized the benefits of creating a network of small workshops that would be made accessible to the public. These space would contain a collection of commercially available fabrication machines as well as an international network of open workshops where people could share tools, software, tools, materials, etc.

What makes a Fab Lab?

There are a few different traits that qualify a space as a Fab Lab, a primary one being the scale. As opposed to other Makerspaces and Hackerspaces which operate independently of one another, Fab Labs have a centralized organization and operate on a national scale. Their organization is coordinated by what is called the Fab Foundation. This organization not only helps to facilitate growth but also sets the standards and requirements for Fab Labs across the globe. One of their requirements is that each Fab Lab space must have the bare minimum of the following supplies:

• Basic electronic equipment
• Laser cutter
• Vinyl Cutter
• CNC precision milling machine
• CNC router
• 3D printer

Essentially, the goal of Fab Labs is to have a common set of software and tools across their many facilities around the globe. This way, people can work collaboratively on a national or international scale. According to the Fab Foundation website, “The idea is that all the labs can share knowledge, designs, and collaborate across international borders. If I make something here in Boston and send you the files and documentation, you should be able to reproduce it there, fairly painlessly. If I walk into a Fab Lab in Russia, I should be able to do the same things that I can do in Nairobi, Cape Town, Delhi, Amsterdam or Boston Fab Labs.”

Other requirements include subscribing to the Fab Lab charter, participating in the global Fab Lab network, and making the space publicly accessible for little to no cost.

What do people gain from them?

To answer this question, we spoke with Justin Papariello, the Fox Chapel Area High School’s Fab Lab Manager, who said, “The FabLab brings together students from all walks of life, with the goal of engineering solutions to unique problems. Students are excited to design, prototype, redesign, and test all while collaborating with different peer groups. During this process, they attain skills in communication, debate, and compromise, in addition to spatial awareness, engineering principals, and STEM-related skills.”

We also spoke with Connie George, Senior Director of Marketing and Community Relations at the Carnegie Science Center, who stated, “Fab Lab attracts a diverse audience, from adult professionals who are interested in the maker movement to creative children interested in hands-on coding, building, and engineering exploration that will guide them to a career in a STEM profession. We even train educators, who in turn teach their students…Our program is about making makers – engineers, builders, artists, technologists, manufacturers, and problem solvers. Both adults and children alike learn to use equipment such as 3D printers, laser cutters, computer software, ShopBot CNC milling machines and mini-mills to build, play, create, learn, and invent, and they are inspired by what they can achieve.”

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What’s the difference between a MakerBar and a Hackerspace?

In short, there really isn’t one. Think of a Hackerspace as a smaller subsection of the Maker movement- something that is a Hackerspace can also be called a MakerBar, but the reverse isn’t always true. Essentially, a while a MakerBar focuses broadly on any DIY project, a Hackerspace focuses solely on DIY projects involving technology. So, while a MakerBar may include woodworking, a Hackerspace will solely include things like 3D Printing, Laser cutters, programming, digital art, etc.

Where did they come from?

According to Makerspaces, the origins of hackerspaces can be traced back to 1995 Berlin where the world’s first hackerspace, C-Base, was launched. It was originally started as a community for computer programmers to come together and meet, work, and share infrastructure. At the time, “hack” originally referred to making technology do something it wasn’t meant to do. Over time, however, 3D printing and CNC routers became more affordable to the point where these spaces became part of the Maker Movement.

What are the benefits?

There are several benefits to the spread of these spaces. The first was shared among their original founders at C-Base: these spaces create a community. It allows programmers or digital artists to share their interests and ideas with one another in a safe space. It even allows them to collaborate with one another on projects and learn new skills. In a New York Times piece, Mitch Altman, founder of Noisebridge in San Francisco, states of his hackerspace: “It’s a community supporting people in exploring and doing what they love. That’s the main thing, and you can feel it.”

Mr. Dougherty, of Make magazine, echoed the same sentiments on the benefits of hackerspaces. “The big value is community. A hobby starts as a very personal thing. As soon as you express that interest, you begin meeting people who share that interest. It can really help with motivation.”

Not only do Hackerspaces provide a much-needed sense of community to tech workers, but it also saves a lot of them time, money, and space. When the Hackerspace community originally began to spread, they weren’t popping up in rural areas with large houses and plenty of space. They were solely popping up in urban areas. This is because Makers in Urban areas are severely lacking the space to create. The ideal situation is to be able to tinker away in one’s garage, but people in Urban areas like New York City barely have enough living space for themselves, let alone all of their various tools.

A lot of Hackerspaces operate similarly to how a gym will. You can sign up and pay a monthly membership fee for unlimited use of the facility and its tools. This gives a lot of city Makers not only a space to work in, but also access to all of the tools they need without having to actually go out and purchase them themselves.

In addition, these spaces also serve as great networking opportunities for engineers and inventors. They’re great places to meet like-minded individuals and find others to collaborate with. In fact, business-like Pinterest and MakerBot have grown out of Hackerspaces.

Root Access, a hackerspace that runs out of Fresno, CA, it an excellent example of all of these benefits at work. The space is open for members to use freely and they also teach beneficial classes such as Electronic Hobbyist, Intro to Soldering, 3D Printing, and more. Andrew Runner, an employee with Root Access, spoke to us regarding the benefits of Hackerspaces, stating, “We see a group of people that haven’t had a space to meet besides work or tech conferences. People who do net security, robotics, and cutting-edge tech but didn’t have a venue to meet people of shared interests. People gain skills that are obscure and difficult to learn on your own. Our community provides friendly help in a not usually social scene. Jacob Joaquin has dazzled us with his group, Art Code Tech, fusing code and creativity on a monthly basis.”

Along with the Maker Movement itself, these spaces continue to spread through urban and rural areas, bringing a much-needed sense of community, collaboration, and resources along with them. And the owners of these spaces continue to work hard to teach new skills and pass their expertise along to their fellow creative professionals. Say what you will about Hackerspaces and the Maker Movement in general, but they certainly aren’t hacks.

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It’s a chain reaction! Once some of our Inventionland Creationeers got a look at the crazy contraptions students came up with for the Chain Reaction Contraption Contest (CRCC) earlier this year, there was no doubt they’d be excited to see what the next contest would bring.

The contest, sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Company and presented in cooperation with the Carnegie Science Center and the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania, is a creative competition geared towards students in grades 9-12 that challenges them to create a machine that will accomplish a task using a unique series of steps.

The 2016-2017 theme of “UNLOCK and LOCK IT UP” fostered many unique submissions from talented student groups and individuals, all of which Inventionland Creationeers got to view and judge at the Carnegie Science Center event earlier this December.

For our Creationeers, it was a fun opportunity to attend as a group to offer a professional maker and inventors’ take on all of the students’ contraptions.

“I was very excited about leading this team of people on this fun adventure,” said Creationeer Michael, better known as “Spicey,” who has participated in the event before. “It was nice having several of us from the Inventionland team there this year.”

Spicey was joined by fellow Creationeers Shannon, Megan, Chris and Jon whose first time participating was an experience that impressed.

For Creationeer Chris, the Chain Reaction Contraption Contest fell right in line with his fascination with Rube Goldberg’s contraptions. Reuben Garret Lucius “Rube” Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor. “He’s kind of the guy these contraptions are based off of,” said Chris. “He made overly complicated machines to do something really simple.”

These “overly complicated machines” were created with so much detail that Creationeers couldn’t help but take notice.

“There was a wide range of contraptions. Overall, the creativity was impressive. Some of them had a real attention to detail. That was probably the most impressive thing that some of them accomplished was their attention to detail,” said Chris.

One student from Leechburg Area High School won the “What Will You Create?” award, sponsored by Inventionland, which was presented by Spicey.

“The detail of the different things she did brought it together,” said Spicey. With her jungle-themed contraption, Spicey said, “She did a great job laying out the story with such creativity. She did an excellent job of creating a story about the way a tiger was going to be captured. The whole contest is about ‘unlock and lock,’ so the ball – in this case, a tiger – traveled down the path, activating each cage that would come down to trap the tiger again. So, once the ball gets to the bottom of the contraption, it traps it! It was very well done and uniquely made,” commented Spicey.

“Everybody’s contraption was really different even though they were trying to accomplish the same thing,” said Creationeer Shannon.

“I was very impressed,” said Creationeer Megan. “I liked to see what they came up with. Whether they worked or not, it was cool to see the effort the students put into it.”

Creationeer Jon was equally impressed. “It was really cool to see the enthusiasm of the students. I was impressed with the creative ways that they came up with to make their contraptions work…It was cool to see their teams work together,” said Jon.

Participation in the contest aligns with Inventionland’s educational offerings. “We’re well on our way to promoting our education offerings to schools and I think this fits right within what we’re doing with all the schools. The students are learning new things and being creative!” said Spicey.

“They’re definitely going to be the inventors of the future!” said Chris.

Congratulations to all of the 2016-2017 Chain Reaction Contraption Contest winners and participants!

Copyright Inventionland, 2016

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