The coming revolution on your desktop - from personal computers to personal fabrication It is said that personal fabricators are about to revolutionise the world, just as personal computers did a generation ago. With the help of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology`s Center for Bits and Atoms, computer-aided manufacturing technology is becoming personal and accessible.

The power of this idea is made real in MIT`s concept of a Fab Lab, or fabrication laboratory, essentially a minifactory that can fit into a small room.

And South Africa just got its very own one - based at The Innovation Hub, Africa`s first accredited science park, in the proximity of the CSIR, University of Pretoria and Tshwane University of Technology.

It was established and co-funded by the under the auspices of its Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy (AMTS) programme.

SA joins a network of just a handful of such laboratories, with similar facilities already established in inner-city Boston - the home of the concept, Norway, Ghana, Costa Rica and rural India, which boasts two Fab Labs.

"The Fab Labs are based in a mix of developed and developing nations, often with a focus tailored to the specific country. South Africa`s first Fab Lab will be employed to bridge the first and second economies present in the country, that is to transfer knowledge," explains AMTS technology manager Riaan Coetzee.

He notes that Ghana`s Fab Lab, for example, is housed in a high school, is open 24 hours a day, and is focused on solving community problems.

Ten Fab Labs are expected to be established in SA over the next three years, with the next two to be based at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in Cape Town, and a community centre in Soshanguve.

Coetzee is particularly upbeat about the potential for collaboration between Fab Labs, noting how SA could learn from India`s manufacture of low-cost light-emitting display (LED) lighting for shacks. "South Africa and India face similar issues in terms of electricity access for the poor, and the resultant safety issues when shack-dwellers accidentally knock over a paraffin lamp," he explains. The Fab Lab intends making the process to manufacture the technology, once it is perfected, available to entrepreneurs.

The AMTS Fab Lab is open to anyone eight years and older, Mondays to Fridays from 8am to 6pm, says AMTS Fab Lab manager Naas Zayman. Thus far, it has hosted school children, first-year engineering students and a host of entrepreneurs based at The Innovation Hub.

Before making use of the laboratory, participants undergo a one- or two-week crash course on the topic of "how to make almost anything", which broaches such subjects as product development using computer-aided modelling and design, to operating the laboratory equipment, and product assembly.

At the founding of the AMTS Fab Lab in July, MIT scientist and inventor Neil Gershenfeld said he hoped that the application of technology would enable the creation of small manufacturing businesses that can help alleviate poverty, while meeting local needs. "A goal of the fab lab project is to show that small-scale high-tech businesses can be sustainable," he added.

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