WASHINGTON, D.C. June 18, 2014 – The Fab Foundation today
announced that it will open up to 10 fabrication laboratories
(Fab Labs) across the country in the next three years based upon
a $10 million grant from Chevron Corporation.
The new Fab
Labs will be located throughout the U.S. in areas where Chevron
operates, including the first two facilities in Bakersfield and
Richmond, California. When complete, these facilities will
provide approximately 20,000 students and adults a hands-on
science and technology experience.
This new grant is part
of Chevron’s recently announced $30 million commitment and
call-to-action to support STEM education and project-based
learning methods.
The announcement was made today during the first-ever White House Maker Faire. There, the Fab Foundation and Chevron partnered with the MIT Mobile Fab Lab to demonstrate how students, faculty, tech enthusiasts, and engineers use digital fabrication tools. Innovations shown include: 3D printed guitars, a cargo bike with a mobile solar charging business onboard, Machines that Make Machines, a prosthetic foot,, and a desktop stereolithography 3D Printer. The Mobile Fab Lab is a computer-controlled design and machining fab lab housed in a trailer. This first mobile lab was built in August 2007 by the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The mobile lab includes the same computer controlled fabrication machines found in fab labs world-wide such as laser cutters, 3D Printers, and CNC milling machines.
“Along with launching new fab labs, Chevron’s grant will help build the Fab Foundation’s capacity to provide access to digital fabrication across the country and around the world,” said Neil Gershenfeld, chairman of the Fab Foundation’s board. “At the White House Maker Faire we’ll be celebrating how makers are using these […]