Making in Fab Lab U. de Chile

Spending 10 days in Fab lab U. de Chile was such an experience! We had never met the team before but it felt as if we had known eachother for some time.
Fab Lab U. de Chile is housed in the engineering School of Universidad de Chile in Santiago, a campus so lively and full of bright students. Fab Lab U. de Chile provides open access to the machines to students, academics, start –ups via a funding application but also to the public.

We were welcomed by Danisa, the Lab director/manager, who showed us the space and introduced us to some of the start-ups and their projects related to the Lab.

More about the Lab’s machines here
A brilliant team of 6 people make this Fab Lab so welcoming. We had the chance to collaborate with Danisa, Gonzalo and Joaquin on our project research.

I couldn’t agree more with Danisa on her views for the Fab Labs’ best practice: the importance of the people working there. Without them, no matter the machines or space, a Fab Lab cannot work at its best. link of the interview will be uploaded soon
Fab Lab U. de Chile has clearly nailed that part and it is a fine example for others!

These 10 days passed so quickly. The Fab Lab team was excited about collaborating on this phase of the digital musical instrument (GameLan #faborchestra) project and very quickly put a team together to discuss our ideas on the physical and digital interaction, form, fabrication method and electronic design. The first prototype was done on day 3 and from there we could easily test the interaction. The wooden prototype could not be finished in the time we had, but hey, this is the first stop still!Read more about the GameLan #faborchestra project here (watch this space, project link will be uploaded soon!)

At the end of our 10 day stay Danisa invited us to do a public talk in the Fab Lab, where we had the chance to present our work, our research and our trip while discussing similar projects or projects-to-be with students, academics and local people interested.