Fab Lab at AU houses tools to help anyone build just about anything
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Bits and Atoms Mobile Fabrication Laboratory will visit Waubonsee Community College's downtown Aurora Campus on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 2-3. Community members are invited to tour the Fab Lab between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3. It will be parked at the corner of Galena Boulevard and Stolp Avenue.
The mobile Fab Lab is a trailer that houses a computer-controlled design and machining shop meant to help people design and build almost anything. In addition to tours of the lab, attendees also will be able to view prototypes produced by the equipment.
The Fab Lab visit was arranged with the help of U.S. Rep. Bill Foster. Waubonsee is exploring the possibility of establishing a permanent Fab Lab at its new downtown Aurora campus.
These labs help local inventors and entrepreneurs, thereby boosting the local economy, while also promoting education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"The rapid manufacturing capability of MIT Fab Labs helps students complete the link between designing parts on a computer and holding finished parts in their hands," Foster said. "They can then incorporate those parts into their inventions, their works of art or new products."