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News Release 04-112

MIT Fab Labs Bring "Personal Fabrication" to People Around the World

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Older student helps younger student at the Ghana fab lab.

"In our first full week, we had classes filled to capacity in each time slot," said CBA program manager Sherry Lassiter, who helped set up the Ghana fab lab. "What is really lovely to see happens in the evenings when the older students and the children are in the lab together. The older students are very generous with their time and gently teach the small children. Peer to peer training seems to be working quite well."

Credit: Amy Sun, Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT


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Female students in the Ghana fab lab

Takoradi Technical Institute's fab lab has a special class for female students each week in which they learn how to make arts, crafts and 3-D objects with the computer and tabletop laser cutter. Planned classes for August and in fall 2004 for female students will include making electronic components.

Credit: Amy Sun, Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT


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TTI teacher John Mensa at the Ghana fab lab opening

In July 2004, CBA opened its Ghana fab lab on the campus of Takoradi Technical Institute (TTI). At the ribbon-cutting was John Mensa, a TTI teacher who runs the campus's mechanical shop and is learning the fab lab so he can use it to teach future courses.

Credit: Sherry Lassiter, Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT


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Map of Ghana

The sister cities Sekondi and Takoradi in Ghana are located adjacent to one another on the Gulf of Guinea and effectively operate as one community. With a population of about 500,000, the combined area comprises the third largest city-region in Ghana and one of the nation's major shipping ports. This corner of Ghana receives 80 inches of rainfall per year, and the resulting humidity and dampness are providing an extreme test for the Fab Lab technology.

Credit: The World Factbook, CIA