FabLab Brno & FABWorld

Imagine the world where everyone can create almost anything. Anything that come up into your mind is easily transformed into physical objects. Young and old, men and women, everyone can unleash their creativity, solve day to day problems or one or two of the global challenges.

This is the place that we are building in Brno. We are doing it by bringing digital fabrication tools and digital fabrication education closer to the people.

It started back in 2017 with the first and for a long time the only FabLab in the Czech Republic. FabLab was founded by and also in the building of regional innovation centre JIC and also close to the campus of the Brno University of Technology.

FabLab Brno is a digital fabrication laboratory – set up to inspire people and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into new products and prototypes by giving them access to a range of advanced digital manufacturing technology.

The idea was conceived by renowned inventor and scientist Professor Neil Gershenfeld at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His idea was a simple one: to provide the environment, skills, advanced materials and technology to make things cheaply and quickly anywhere in the world, and to make this available on a local basis to entrepreneurs, students, artists, small businesses and in fact, anyone who wants to create something new or bespoke.

FabLab Experience is a full size trailer with foldable side, which can become both a classroom for 15 students and fabrication laboratory equipped with an engraving machine, 3D printers, a CNC router, an electron microscope or robotic arm.

Every week at a different spot in the region we want to

• Support creativity and dedication to make ideas of our younger generation come true

• Increase the popularity of STEAM education and hands-on education

• Inspire teachers

• Break the barriers that might be in front of our youngsters

• Openly discuss about the STEAM education around the region

It was made for schools in the way, they can easily put this informal educatoin activity to the fomral educational system. As an informal education, it can be adapted to the new technologies and new formats in no time.

HQ PICTURES: LINK
HQ EGYPT: LINK
HQ EGYPT2: LINK

Two months after the FabLab Experience “departure” we got in contact with Czechitas. Finding out that they are about to open a house of informal IT education for women. We became attracted by their vision very soon and in just a few months we equipped a FabLab corner with a 5 days a week operation and the aim to connect both communities around Czechitas and also around FabLab.

We built a FabLab, hundreds of people started to use it but we found out that there is much deeper mutual benefit in connecting prototyping, open digital workshop like a FabLab with services for innovation agencies. For the sake of setting this cooperation right we got together another two partners from Technoport Luxembourg and Brigk Germany that are also innovation agencies with their own FabLabs and started a project called FabLabia.

In the end we are not enriching just ourselves or a our partners but we are aiming to help hundreds of European FabLabs and business innovation centres to set the services in the way that will support entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in the best way.

HQ PICTURE: LINK
HQ PICTURE 2: LINK

We identified that it is easy to attract people that are makers in their nature and that are interested in hi-tech and new tools. But it is difficult to attract newcomers that might think it is not for them. For this purpose we saw the most inspiring the story of someone who is involved with all his energy he can share and we got in touch with Maker More initiative and started the first Maker Faire in Brno. Maker Faires usually starts small and than grow bigger. Maker Faire Brno was not this case, during the weekend there has been 7 000 visitors! Many of them visited both days.

Maker Faire is the world's largest show of innovation, creativity and ingenuity for the whole family. It is a meeting of creative and inquisitive people who enjoy trying new things and informally sharing knowledge and experience in a friendly environment.

The uniqueness of the Maker Faire Brno is that it is organised hand in hand with Festival Prototyp which brings also on board!

HQ PICTURE: LINK
HQ PICTURE2: LINK
HQ PICTURE3: LINK

Since the Covid-19 outbreak of the schools in Czech Republic. FabLab Experience crew had a time to focus on other projects that would help full fill the vision that everyone in the South Moravian region has an opportunity to meet and master digital craftsmanship. Two problems have been identified:

1. Students get excited by the presence of FabLab Experience for a week, but there is no place and knowledge for them to realise their ideas for the rest of the year.

2. Teachers that are open to adapt the digital craftsmanship tools to the educational process has not enough time or knowledge to just do so.

Both problems are addressed by FabLab University – online platform for both teachers and students. Teachers are provided with step by step guides that they can just take and put it into lessons. Students can easily learn a how to use various software and hardware for digital fabrication and they can attend competitions.

We have not find a platform like that with that level of detail and preparedness for the teachers anywhere in the world.

https://www.fablabuniversity.com/ (link will be activated in 11/2020)