Diploma / Individual Fab Academy

Certificates

The diploma combines 19 certificates provide familiarity with technical options and capabilities, hands-on experience, and direction for further study. The certificates are:

Digital fabrication principles and practices – 1 week

Plan and sketch a potential semester project and add it to your website. Upload it to the class archive. Do a git tutorial.

Computer-aided design, manufacturing, and modeling – 1 week

Model (draw, render, animate, simulate, ...) a possible final project, and post it on your class page with original 2D and 3D files.

Computer-controlled cutting – 1 week

Design and make a corrugated cardboard press-fit construction kit

Electronics production – 1 week

Make the Fab (tiny)ISP in-circuit programmer.

Electronics design – 2 weeks

Redraw the echo hello-world board and add a button and LED with current-limiting resistor or design your own.

Computer-controlled machining – 1 week

Make something big on a CNC machine.

Embedded programming – 1 week

Read a microcontroller data sheet Program your board to do something, with as many different programming languages and programming environments as possible

3D molding and casting – 1 week

Design a 3D mould, machine it, and cast parts from it.

3D scanning and printing – 1 week

Test the design rules for your printer(s) (group project) Design and 3D print an object (small, few cm) that could not be made subtractively 3D scan an object (and optionally print it)

Sensors, actuators, and displays – 2 weeks

Measure something: add a sensor to a microcontroller board that you have designed and read it. Add an output device to a microcontroller board you've designed and programme it to do something

Interface and application programming – 1 week

Write an application that interfaces with an input &/or output device that you made

Embedded networking and communications – 1 week

Design and build a wired &/or wireless network connecting at least two processors

Machine design – 2 weeks

Make a machine, including the end effector, build the passive parts and operate it manually. Automate your machine. Document the group project and your individual contribution.

Digital fabrication applications and implications – 1 week

Propose a final project that integrates a range of units covered. Projects can be separate or joint, but need to show individual mastery of all of the skills. Where possible, you should make rather than buy the parts of your project.

Invention, intellectual property, and business models – 1 week

Create and document a license for your final project. Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project

Digital fabrication project development – 2 weeks

Complete your final project. Track and document your progress. Create a final project slide in the archive according to the specifications provided.

Program requirements

A minimum knowledge of the following tools and processes is required:2D and 3D modeling, Digitalfabrication,Electronics programming,Web design and development

Students learn:

How to use a Fab Lab’s digital fabrication tools for rapid prototyping Epilog Mini Lasercutter Roland MDX-20 Milling Machine, 3D printer, Lasercutter, Roland Desktop Vinyl Cutter, ShopBot,

Who

Fab Academy faculty who are leaders in their respective fields provide global video lectures, supervise academic content, and guide research. Hands-on instruction in the labs is provided by instructors who supervise and evaluate Certificates, develop and disseminate instructional material, and assist with projects.