The country’s first Super Fab Lab, which will give a major push to the hardware industry in the country and the only such facility outside the US, was launched at the Integrated Startup Complex of the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in Kochi on January 25. The Super Fab Lab will function in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the facility through remote control from Palakkad, where he attended a function at the Government Polytechnic College.

Kerala government has already set up two fab labs at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala Technology Innovation Zone in Kochi.

What are fab labs?

A fabrication laboratory (fab lab) is a technical prototyping platform where people can design and build their own technology. They began as began as an outreach program from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). Fab labs aim to provide stimulus for local entrepreneurship and serves as a platform for learning and innovation.

Fab labs are designed in a way that people with minimal training can come and work on developing their own technology for personal or commercial use. Fab labs also become a medium for connecting to a global community of learners, educators, technologists, researchers and innovators – essentially becoming a self-sustaining global knowledge sharing network.

The concept is the brainchild of Neil Gershenfeld, presently the director of MIT Centre for Bits and Atoms, who set up the first fab lab in the US in 2001. 

A fab lab consists of state-of-the-art digital fabrication tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC routers, electronics workbench, PCB milling machine, vinyl cutter, etc.

Super Fab Lab

The KSUM Super Fab Lab has state-of-the-art machines worth more than Rs 7 crore in a 10,000 square feet area.

Gershenfeld asserted that the new facility, the only one outside the US, not only “has the tools to make anything, it also makes the tools that make things”. “It will break down boundaries between the digital and physical world,” he said.

Relying on Computer Aided Design with additive and subtractive manufacturing, the Super Fab Lab allows researchers, innovators and developers to do things beyond the purview of the states existing fab labs.

Gershenfeld said the Super Fab Lab is a pioneering venture by Kerala and would let people produce what they consume. 

The state-of-art facility enables the state to produce machines locally, for access throughout Kerala.

The Super Fab Lab, which is poised to give India’s hardware industry a huge leap by allowing researchers, innovators and developers to do things beyond the purview of the states existing fab labs, will function in collaboration with MIT, an official statement said.

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