Applications are now open for the next Fab Academy, or the “How to Make (Almost) Anything” distributed digital fabrication learning program created by Neil Gershenfeld at MIT’s Center For Bits and Atoms. The intensive five-month course begins next January on all continents. Hosted locally by more than 80 labs (nodes) in 36 different countries and chaperoned from MIT by Gershenfeld in person, the “Fabac” is probably the largest distributed educational network worldwide. In France, two nodes will host the future students in 2018: the Digiscope fablab located on the campus of Paris-Saclay University and the group including Sorbonne Universities fablab, WoMa and Volumes in Paris.
Six hundred hours of training in total, through modules of one or two weeks in order to cover the full range of digital fabrication. In addition to Gershenfeld’s video-conferenced lectures, the Fabac offers training on 2D and 3D modeling tools, integrated programming, user interface development, machine design and learning time that translates as realizing projects through practical workshops, where the objective is to experiment and learn by doing. To get an idea of the content, outlines of previous Fab Academy sessions are documented online since the very first edition in 2009.
Europe is particularly well represented—more than a third of fablab nodes are located in 11 European countries. For the 2018 edition, Daniele Ingrassia from the German fablab Kamp-Lintfort will coordinate the trio WoMa-Volumes-Sorbonne, and Romain Di Vozzo the Digiscope node. Applications for the Fab Academy are open through December 25. The course itself costs $5,000 and certain nodes may charge other fees.
If you’re more biotech than neo-artisan, Waag Society is also offering for the fifth consecutive year its own BioHack Academy from January 30 through April 3, 2018 (2,500€, applications open through December 20).
More information on the Fab Academy website