Tulsa World: Science nonfiction: Creating the future with today's technology

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Science nonfiction: Creating the future with today's technology

By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Published: 9/27/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 10/23/2009 3:22 PM

Correction
This story originally reported the incorrect address for the Fab Lab Gathering on Oct. 5. The story has been corrected.

Jules Verne, the 19th-century French author and science fiction writer, imagined worlds before they existed and created fantastic tales about them.

In "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1869) and "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1873), Verne described space travel to the moon, life aboard a submarine and global circumnavigation 104 years, 31 years and 51 years, respectively, before they became nonfiction.

Today, physicists and engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with their collaborators around the world, are in the process of creating a new world out of 20-year-old science fiction fantasies.

With Fabrication Laboratories (Fab Labs), MIT officials are shifting computer and manufacturing capabilities to entrepreneurs, artists, farmers, craftsmen, villagers and educators from Norway to South Africa, Costa Rica to India, and Boston to San Diego.

Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in the 1980s imagined a "replicator" machine that could produce anything out of rearranged atoms and molecules.

MIT engineers and their Fab Lab counterparts are setting up $20,000 to $50,000 "desktop factories" throughout the world — connected via the Internet — to create computer networks,

locally needed tools and technology that are improving the quality of life and providing jobs.

Some of the products created in Fab Labs include a wireless Internet antenna and solar-powered electrical generator in Ghana, an electronic sensor to test milk quality in India, and radio antennas, electronic tags and a telecommunications network in Norway to track herds of sheep.

"They're being set up in these places because of an instrumentation and fabrication divide that lies beyond the digital divide, because of a desire to measure and modify the world as well as access information about it," said Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits & Atoms and author of "Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop — from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication."

"Fab Lab projects are developing antennas for wireless data networks, computer terminals to connect to those networks, solar and wind turbines to generate energy, and analytical instruments for agriculture and health care. Fab Labs are also attracting and training students and incubating businesses."

In the United States — and soon, it is hoped, in Tulsa — Fab Labs are poised to become non-traditional and informal educational institutions, community outreach centers and microbusiness incubators.

Matt Norris, CEO of Innovation Works in Tulsa, is working with MIT and officials at Tulsa's Kendall-Whittier Inc., Fab Lab Advisors, Community Action Project and the University of Tulsa to bring a Fab Lab to the Kendall Whittier neighborhood near First Street and Lewis Avenue.

"What struck me, as an engineer, was the novelty of the idea and the power the concept has," Norris said. "There is such an openness and the ability of people to experiment. It's such an exceptional opportunity."

Norris said there are half a dozen audiences for Fab Labs in Tulsa: businesses wanting training of employees or potential employees; students, from children to college-aged, who can receive hands-on experience with a variety of tools and technologies; inventors and entrepreneurs; artists, and people who "just want to tinker."

Trinna Burrows, executive director of Kendall Whitter Inc., said she envisions a Tulsa Fab Lab as a "fun, relaxed, accessible" catalyst for education, business and community involvement.

"In my mind, it brings some of the most educated minds together with the most creative minds in Tulsa," Burrows said. "I'm really interested in microbusinesses — what people in our neighborhood can create to create income for their families.

"Because I am a social worker, I look on it as safe activities that engage our neighbors. I hope it helps keep kids in school. It's hands-on learning. It's individual empowerment. And it builds communities."

Kendall Whitter Inc. and the other organizations are holding an orientation and demonstration meeting early next month to introduce the concept to interested people, Burrows and Norris said.

"A Fab Lab Gathering" will be held at the Educare facility, 2511 E. Fifth Place, at 7 p.m. Oct. 5.

For more information, contact Trinna Burrows at (918) 743-9559 or on the Web at fablab@kendallwhittierinc.org or www.kendallwhitterinc.org.

The 35 Fab Labs around the world and the dozens more in the planning stages evolved out of a $12.5 million grant to MIT by the National Science Foundation in 2001.

"The National Science Foundation grant required an educational outreach component, which means sending people out into the environment with computer skills," said Sherry Lassiter, program manager for MIT's Center for Bits & Atoms. "We took a slice of industrial processes ... and we found we were being pulled by the lapels to rural and developing countries. They are extremely interested in having these capabilities."

After a few years, schools in the developed world became interested in Fab Labs.

"We're absolutely excited about the schools — the hands-on learning, problem solving," Lassiter said. "It inspires people to get into science, technology and inventing themselves."

Rebecca Howard, a Kendall Whittier board member in Tulsa, said the Fab Labs are great opportunities for kids who don't learn well in the classroom to have another educational outlet.

It also comes at a time when U.S. students are lagging in math and science, and aerospace companies are having a tough time retaining employees.

"Math and science are still great challenges to American youth," Howard said, "and this can be a fun and participatory way to gain exposure not only to the technology but potential mentors."

What’s in a Fab Lab?

Fab Labs (Fabrication Laboratories) are inexpensive clusters of tools, machinery and software that function as mini-factories. A Fab Lab might include:

A computer numerically controlled (CNC) milling machine for making precision parts.

High-energy laser cutter.

Vinyl cutter (razor blades or similar).

Soldering iron to build electrical circuits.

Tin snips to cut copper to build circuit boards.

Oscilloscope to visually monitor electrical current.

Voltmeter or ammeter to measure electrical current.

Source: The Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The coming revolution

“At the intersection of physical science and computer science, programs can process atoms as well as bits, digitizing fabrication in the same way that communications and computation were earlier digitized. Ultimately, this means that a programmable personal fabricator will be able to make anything, including itself, by assembling atoms....

“In ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ the replicator is an essential plot element that is capable of making whatever is needed for each episode.

It looks like an overgrown drinks dispenser, but it has the useful feature of being able to dispense anything.

In theory, it does this by following stored instructions to put together subatomic particles to make atoms, atoms to make molecules, and molecules to make whatever you want.

For Capt. Picard, that was frequently a steaming mug of his preferred tea, obtained from the replicator with the command, ‘Tea, Earl Grey, hot.’ ” — Neil Gershenfeld, “Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop —from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication” (Basic Books, 2005).

Fab Labs around the world

Fab Labs can be found across the world, including the following countries:

Afghanistan — Taj Mahal Guest House, Jalalabad.

Cost Rica — Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, Cartago.

Colombia — Fab Lab Medellin, Medellin.

Ghana — Takoradi Technical Institute, Takoradi.

Iceland — Innovation Center Iceland, Vestmannaeyjar.

India — National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad; Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi; Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; Vigyan Ashram, Pabal; and College of Engineering, Pune.

Kenya — ARO, Kisumu; University of Nairobi, Nairobi.

Netherlands — Waag Society, Amsterdam; FreeFormFab, Eindhoven; CabFabLab, The Hague; and Protospace, Utrecht.

Norway — Hoylandet Kommune, Hoylandet, and Solvik Gard, Lyngen.

United States — Heads on Fire, San Diego; Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago; South End Technology Center, Boston; Century Community and Technical College, Minneapolis; Sustainable South Bronx, New York City; MS2STEM High School, Cleveland, and AS220, Providence, R.I.

Spain — Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Barcelona.

South Africa — Cape Craft and Design Institute, Cape Town.

Source: Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

D.R. Stewart 581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment even me, (9/27/2009 11:37:06 AM) It's probably worth mentioning that two of the 12 Fab Labs in the U.S. today are in Oklahoma. Will Rogers Junior High School in Claremore has the only public school-based Fab Lab in the U.S. and the only junior-high Fab Lab in the world. Pioneer Technology Center in Ponca City has what it considers the world's only truly mobile Fab Lab, built in a customized semi-trailer that puts in public appearances around the state. And Spirit AeroSystems has a Fab Lab just across the state line in Wichita, Kansas. (The MIT Fab Lab listing is down, but these labs are listed in Wikipedia.)
	Report Comment billy8, Sand Springs (9/27/2009 11:41:55 AM) Imagine all the things today that we take for granted weren't around a hundred years ago, Imagine what the world will be in another hundred years, it's mind boggling. Wish I could live that long, yet again, maybe we all will if medicine is part of the equation.
	Report Comment Thunder196, Tulsa (9/27/2009 11:21:21 PM) billy8 You're right, it's mind boggling. My mom is 91 and it is hard to imagine what all she has seen in her life time. She talks about living things that I only read about.
	Report Comment Ella's Deli, tulsa (9/28/2009 3:41:51 PM) This whole concept is awesome! The low funding load, marrying up of technologies and hands on skill the possibilies are endless. Great for youngsters and oldsters whether it be for learning, investigating or starting up a micro business..Bravo!
	Report Comment Progressive Okie , Tulsa (10/6/2009 10:25:28 AM) Kendall-Whittier is one of our Historic Neighborhoods that is making an attempt at a resurrection. I hope this happens. (KW) is also turning into an arts district unannounced to Tulsa. With Circle Cinema, The Library, Girls Art School, Garden Diva Studios, Zieglers, and our new Fab Lab, Kendall-Whittier is on a upward art movement.

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