Proofread by Thomas Hopman (Amsterdam)

¡Hola a todos!

For the rest of the first week, pretty much nothing happened. I dropped by to the lab few times to check what’s going on but pretty much nothing was going on there either. So instead I signed up for a Spanish class and went house hunting. Finally I found a loft two blocks away from the school.

Home sweet home. 

 So once again it was Wednesday. Luckily nothing had happened to Neil so we could see him on the video today. Today’s lecture was about project management.  Especially about a piece of software called Mercurial.

 ”Mercurial is a cross-platform, distributed revision control tool for software developers. It is mainly implemented using the Python programming language, but includes a binary diff implementation written in C. It is supported on Windows and Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Linux. Mercurial is primarily a command line program but graphical user interface extensions are available. All of Mercurial’s operations are invoked as arguments to its driver program hg, a reference to the chemical symbol of the element mercury.” Says Wikipedia.

What I’ve understood so far is this. There is a server in MIT Center for Bits and Atoms where all the students upload their weekly progress. But in case of server failure or a problem in internet connection, we could lose all the data or be unable to check the previous progress. So the idea is to make a back-up on every participants’ hard-drive every time they upload something.

original image

But at the moment, it seemed quiet irrelevant to what we are supposed to learn at the Fab Academy. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention. And I couldn’t imagine the consequences of what was about to happen to me…

 After the lecture, everybody briefly introduced oneself again. Total 9 people are participating in Barcelona this year. 

 To run Mercurial in Windows, you first need to install Cygwin. Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and a command-line interface for Microsoft Windows (thank you again Wikipedia). I already felt smart to install something with commend line, so I even posted something like this on my Facebook.

In Barcelona, we decided to use WordPress blog to create the students pages. To do this, you need to install a plug-in called ’WP Static HTML Output’, which generates exact copies of every file in your word press page on your hard drive.

 I touched html scripts a little bit to change frame size and add some links and widgets. And Tomas helped me a lot with Mercurial, but I still couldn’t totally understand how Mercurial works. 

 The next Tuesday Anna sent an email saying that all the students have to change their directories in the archive. I wanted to prove myself that I can do it by myself. So I tried. 

  Me try Mercurial. Me try in me room. Me no happy. 

But it didn’t work. Error messages saying ‘something is colliding’ kept appeared.  Mercurial asked me whether I want to force upload. As a big fan of Star Wars, I said yes. But it didn’t work. So I forced again. Again. Again. Again. And gave up.

Then I got a new mail from Neil.

…

It was so embarrassing.

In fact, after being so motivated by his book, I tried to send emails to Neil several times. I still have 2 unsent emails in my mail box. And this was my first encounter with Neil after all those years? Oh come on…

Moreover, that morning I discovered I payed nearly 600 euros for commission when I exchanged a traveler’s check to pay my rent. I felt like I was the dumbest  person in the world.

Tutorial : Using Cygwin and Mercurial in Windows with WordPress static HTML 

Here is more detailed description of what possibly caused the problem that night. 

On the next day, I felt much better. ‘Nobody got hurt, data restored. It’s just a natural process of learning and nobody got hurt so no big problem.  At least now everybody got familiar with my Asian name(It takes time to memorize).’ And I headed to the lab imagining people’s reactions.

“Hey! I saw your name on the email last night!”

“Yeah… haha… I’m the most famous student for now.”

This time each student had 1 minute to introduce oneself. I was quite (quiet is silent) relieved when I heard someone saying “Sorry for messing up with the server last night” over the video. Apparently I wasn’t the only person.

Now It was my turn and I started with the same thing. “I also want to apologize for what happened last night…”

Then Neil interrupted. “You don’t have to apologize. Just learn.”

Yeap, right. That’s what we are all here for.

To be continued…

Providence

Amsterdam

Barcelona

Urbana

Vestmannaeyjar

Soshanguve

NASA

Century College

Incite Focus – Detroit

Lima

FabLabDC

Toulouse

Nairobi

TIE Project Boston

manchester

Fab Academy 2011 program. Projects presentation and exhibition. Open House at the Fab Lab.

15 Labs around the world shared the last 6 months on projects from Circuit production to Furniture design. More than 8 countries such as Iceland, Kenya, the Netherlands, Spain or United States participated in the second edition of the newly created academy, directed by Neil Gershenfeld and supported by the Fab Lab Network.

Join us at:http://mcu.cba.mit.edu/ID: 1

Or check in your local lab:

- Providence
- Amsterdam
- Barcelona
- Urbana
- Vestmannaeyjar
- Soshanguve
- NASA
- Century College
- Incite Focus – Detroit
- Lima
- FabLabDC
- Toulouse
- Nairobi
- TIE Project Boston
- Manchester

The Fab Academy 2011 is under developement through the Fab Lab Network, and projects are starting to be shaped and prepared for the final presentations and exhibition to be held in the videoconference system on June the 1st. The majority of the modules have been completed, which come across different digital fabrication techniques, from microcontroller programming to 3D scanning and printing, using inputs or outputs to talk with the world, to fabricate our own machines. To learn more about Fab Academy modules, please go to: Fab Academy

Please check the evolution of people’s projects at the following list of participating labs:

• Providence
• Amsterdam
• Barcelona
• Urbana
• Vestmannaeyjar
• Soshanguve
• NASA
• Century College
• Incite Focus – Detroit
• Lima
• FabLabDC
• Toulouse
• Nairobi
• TIE Project Boston
• Manchester, UK

Professor Neil Gershenfeld (Director of CBA at MIT), leads the second year of the Fab Academy.

50 Participants from 14 different sites. The Fab Academy 2011 has started on January 19th, 3pm Barcelona, 9am Boston, 6am California, 11pm Japan. Students from countries such as South Africa, United States, Iceland, Netherlands, Peru and Spain are participating in the Diploma Program offered by the worldwide network of Fab Labs.

The Fab Academy is a distributed education program, the campus is the planet, and classrooms are in the Fab Labs, where also lies the subject content of digital manufacturing, its implications and applications.

Students will be encouraged to follow a 6 month intensive program on all digital fabrication techniques and tools, which will be embeded in final projects to be presented on June 2011.

Fab Boot Camp

January 10- 14, 2010
One week crash course in fab lab tools and processes by the gurus of the fab lab network.  For new fab lab managers, teachers, and people who want a fast training course.

Participating labs:

AS220 Fab Lab  in Providence, Rhode Island, USA  (contact Shawn Wallave / shawn [at] AS220 [dot] org)
Lorrain County Community College Fab Lab in Elyria, Ohio, USA (contact Scott  Zitek /
Barcelona Fab Lab in Barcelona, Spain  (contact Tomas Diez / tomasdiez [at] iaac [dot] net)
Solvik Gard Fab Lab in Lyngen, Norway (contact Haakon or Jorgen Karlsen,  jorgen [at] fablab [dot] no , haakon [at] fablab [dot] no)
Vestmannaeyjar  Fab Lab in Iceland (contact Frosti Gíslason, frosti [at] nmi [dot] is )

Price of attending is determined by the local fab lab.   Plan to pay a tuition as well as transportation and living expenses.

The week-long, intensive course will cover:

1A day of 2D Design & Fabrication plus documentation

2A day of 3D design, molding and casting

3A day on ShopBot, plus start electronics and documentation(collaborative project management, version control —mercurial)

4Electronics continuesand integrated final project work

5A day of overall lab considerations (management, business, networking, IT, etc.)

Presentation of final project tonetwork.

Here is the updated program of the Fab Academy 2011.

Applications are open until December 24th. Please check application procedure HERE

The Fab Academy provides instruction and supervises investigation of mechanisms, applications, and implications of digital fabrication.

Just as communications and computation went from analog to digital, resulting in PCs and the Internet, the digitization of fabrication is leading to personal fabricators that will allow anyone to make almost anything, anywhere. The development of digital fabrication is based on creating codes that don’t just describe things, they are things, much as proteins are coded in molecular biology.

This research roadmap is ultimately aiming at a Star Trek-style replicator, but prototype versions of these capabilities are already available in field “fab labs“.

Fab labs began as an outreach project from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), and spread around the world. The Fab Academy was launched to provide access to advanced instruction for students in these labs exceeding the educational resources locally available to them. It links groups of students and instructors in fab labs, with online video collaboration and lectures by a global faculty. Unlike remote instruction from a central campus, the digital fabrication tools in a fab lab effectively allow the campus to come to the student, for distributed rather than distance education.

The Fab Academy offers Certificates on relevant technical topics, and a Diploma aimed at vocational and technical training for employment and investment (along with assistance to its graduates in those areas).These are accredited by the Fab Academy; it is anticipated that they will by followed by a Bachelor’s degree to be offered under applicable regional accreditation, along with post-graduate study.

Fab Academy Certificates provide familiarity with technical options and capabilities, hands-on experience, and direction for further study. Each requires, and is evaluated by, developing and documenting projects. They are periodically renewed to reflect best practices. The Certificates typically require 1-2 weeks. They are combined in the Diploma, which is roughly comparable to completing MIT’s rapid-prototyping course “How To Make (almost) Anything”. Progress is evaluated by skills and projects rather than time or credits.

Following an initial trial in 2008, the Fab Academy accepted the first Diploma students in the Fall of 2009. Admission is limited by available space, and based on balancing the students’ backgrounds, interests, and experience, as well as project portfolios. Fab Academy tuition is priced to cover the local costs of instruction, facilities, and materials, as well as global capacity. Where possible, support is sought for needs-based tuition assistance. The Fab Academy application is available here.

The Fab Academy is directed by Neil Gershenfeld, produced by Vicente Guallart and Sherry Lassiter, and coordinated by Tomas Diez. Fab Academy faculty who are leaders in their respective fields provide global video lectures, supervise academic content, and guide research. Hands-on instruction in the labs is provided by instructors who supervise and evaluate Certificates, develop and disseminate instructional material, and assist with projects.

The schedule for the Spring of 2011 will be:

• boot camp (Jan 10-14)
• digital fabrication principles and practices (Jan 19)
• collaborative technical development, documentation, and project management (Jan 26)
• computer-aided design, manufacturing, and modeling (Feb 2):
• computer-controlled cutting (Feb 9)
• electronics production (Feb 16)
• computer-controlled machining (Feb 23)
• electronics design (Mar 2)
• 3D molding and casting (Mar 9)
• embedded programming (Mar 16)
• 3D scanning and printing (Mar 23)
• interface and application programming (Mar 30)
• input devices (Apr 6)
• composites (Apr 13)
• output devices (Apr 20)
• embedded networking and communications (Apr 27)
• machine design Wed (May 4)
• digital fabrication applications and implications (May 11)
• invention, intellectual property, and business models (May 18)
• digital fabrication project development (May 25)
• final project presentations (June 1)

Global lectures happen on Wednesdays at 9:00 on the US East Coast (ranging from 6:00 on the West Coast to 23:00 in Japan), with lab sections at the same time on Mondays and Fridays.

The Fab Academy will be differed from October 2010 to January 19th 2011. According to the network plans, some of the new participating labs need to be setup and prepared for another year of the Academy. Program’s structure will be re-defined but keeping the essentials on the most complete program in Digital Fabrication principles, implications and applications.

Fab Academy 2011 key points are:

- Start date is January 19th, final class  June 1st.
- There are going to be 20 topics (units/certificates) to cover. The two week cycle will now be a ONE week cycle, with more topics than previous year (16), but adjusted for content complexity.
- The lectures will take place the same day of the week (Wednesday), and same time (9:00am Boston Time). We will keep the lab sections on Mondays and Fridays, which will be led by tutors at every lab, and will be offered online through the video conference.
- Lab confirmation deadline is December 15th.
- Application deadline for students is December 28th.

Fab Academy previous projects can be found at:

- Fab Lab Providence at AS220
- Fab Lab Barcelona at IaaC
- Fab Lab Shoshenguve in South Africa
- Fab Lab Iceland

Fab Academy program will start next 6th of October with the participation of the Fab Lab Network around the world. Year two will consists in the same basic structure of previous edition, with slight changes to be updated soon. To apply check with your local Fab Lab about program availability. Profesor Neil Gershenfeld, together with the international faculty and gurus of Fab Labs, will be driving this second edition of principles, applications and implications of digital fabrication.

To apply please download the application form at: http://fabacademy.org/index.php/form, and send it full filled to: coordination@fabacademy.org

Fab Academy previous projects can be found at:

- Fab Lab Providence at AS220
- Fab Lab Barcelona at IaaC
- Fab Lab Shoshenguve in South Africa
- Fab Lab Iceland