Fab Academy 2019
19 weeks of digital fabrication at Fab Lab CEPT, Ahmedabad. Each week is a new topic, a new machine, and a build that has to be documented to count.
Fab Academy is a distributed programme run out of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. Neil Gershenfeld teaches the main classes live each week; local instructors run things on the ground. I did the 2019 cycle at Fab Lab CEPT. My local instructor was Ohad Meyuhas (Stratasys); my global instructor was Francisco Sanchez (TECSUP).
My final project was PixelFace, a volumetric persistence-of-vision display. It has its own page; most of the weeks below fed parts into it.
Machine design week was the other one worth singling out. Five of us from very different backgrounds built two marble mazes with servo-controlled tilting mechanisms, one driven by an accelerometer glove and the other by a joystick. I was notionally on electronics and embedded, which escalated to CAD for the mechanism as the week went on. Everyone ended up doing everyone's job.
I graduated in 2019. The intention was to bring Fab Academy back to Fab Lab IUB and run it there; bureaucratic issues blocked that, and I left IUB shortly after.
The weeks below are the full build logs — scraped from the original submission and re-hosted here because the source CSS broke. Content is mine; the Fab Academy programme is by the Fab Foundation.
Weekly assignments
Principles & Practices — Project Proposal
Plan and sketch a potential final project.
Project Management
Work through a Git tutorial; build a personal site in the class archive.
Computer Aided Design
Model a possible final project using raster, vector, 2D, and 3D tools; explore at least two new tools.
Computer Controlled Cutting
Characterise a laser cutter; cut something on the vinyl cutter; design and cut a parametric press-fit kit.
Electronics Production
Make the FabISP in-system programmer; mill, stuff, test, and program it.
3D Scanning & Printing
Design and 3D print an object that can't be made subtractively; 3D scan an object.
Electronics Design
Redraw the echo hello-world board; add a button and an LED; mill, stuff, and test it.
Computer Controlled Machining
Make something big on a CNC router.
Embedded Programming
Read a microcontroller datasheet; program a board using multiple languages and environments.
Molding & Casting
Design a 3D mold, machine it, and cast material in it.
Input Devices
Measure something; add a sensor to a microcontroller board and read data.
Output Devices
Add an output device to a microcontroller board; write code to operate it.
Applications & Implications
Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered.
Networking & Communications
Design and build a wired or wireless network connecting at least two nodes.
Mechanical & Machine Design
Group project: design and build a machine including mechanisms, actuation, automation, and application.
Interface & Application Programming
Write an application that interfaces with a hardware input or output device.
Wildcard Week
Use a digital fabrication process not covered in another assignment.
Invention, Intellectual Property & Income
Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project.