With so many things happening every day, this week has gone by incredibly fast. The fifth and last day of FAN2 is finally here, setting a sentimental mood for the last round of Fablab presentations. Below are some interesting tidbits of the day.
Mr. Takemura Takashi set up a small lab in his backyard. Smacked between rural and urban areas and surrounded by farming lands, people here often work with bicycles. For example, they made an pedal-powered ice-shaving machine. The lab is sustained by a membership structure.
Fablab Hamamatsu sits on the edge of urban areas
Located in Kyushu, this lab is privately funded and operated solely by the founder Mr. Kazuhiro Jinnouchi, who has 20 years experience in IT. Interestingly, Fablab Saga bills machine users in blocks of five minutes, but the fee is waived if the user cleans up the lab first before using the machines. In other words, clean-to-use, instead of pay-to-use machines!
Recently established in Tainan Digital Creative Park, Fablab Tainan is government-funded and has a special program called Maker-in-Residence. All makers from around the world can apply to this program for a free two-month stay in Tainan, in exchange for their workshops and expertise. Apart from free accommodation, the lucky maker is also provided with a bicycle to travel around and free materials and tools to work on his project in Fablab Tainan.
Keynote speech – From small sugar rockets to big hybrid rockets into unlimited space
In this fascinating talk, Professor Chongsin Gou from Advanced Rocket Research Centre (ARRC) shared his experience launching small hybrid rockets with some mind-blowing videos. Successful attempts in the past reached 10km up in the sky. Aiming high, Prof. Gou and his students plan to scale 100km in the coming year.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtnn4k-rz4s&w=560&h=315]
More than just a Fablab, Riddl is a technology innovation incubator in Mumbai, India. It boasts 20 startups in various areas in its incubator. One of the startups is developing an Automatic Chess Player system which can move real chess pieces to counter moves by a human player.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuFVDBDH0ys&w=560&h=315]
After lunch, we attended a Zen Chopstick workshop offered by Fablab Tainan. Our Taiwanese friends told us that the wood comes from Vietnam and has a nice fragrance. For me, chopsticks will never look the same, now that I know how much work goes into producing a decent and even-looking pair, let alone a beautiful one.
On the right are two raw sticks of wood.
The final product
We’d like to thank FAN2 organizing team for what has been an amazing five days with so much knowledge sharing, friendship making and cultural immersion. We feel very lucky to be part of FAN2.
