Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

MIT Mobile Fab Lab coming to Illinois!  Check out the You Tube video courtesy of Congressman Bill Foster

http://youtu.be/sEUpbBLxzo8

STAR EXPO this Thursday from 5:30 to 7:00 PM - fab lab volunteers are welcome to work the table!  The event will be held at the Hilton Inn Gardens

A raffle will be held.  Suggestions welcome!

From the announcement:

First of all, I want to thank all of you for agreeing to be a vendor at our 2013 STAR Expo and Awards Ceremony.  We are thrilled to have you be a part of this special event!  As we are just days away from the Expo, I wanted to touch base with everyone on some last minute details you may need prior to the Expo.

I wanted to be able to make Amharic letters and phrases quickly on the Epilog laser cutter.  Cutting a path is always faster than rastering an image, so I downloaded the Fidel, and then modified in Inkscape to create letter stencils.  These characters were modified such that "loops" (as in an "a" or "b") do not fall out when cut with the laser, but remain attached with a thin filament.  Thus, letters and phrases can be cut out rapidly in wood, cardboard or acrylic, and used as signage or for a stencil.

This project combines the well know image of "Kilroy Was Here" with sensor driven data aquired via an embedded microcontroller.

Winter Break Hours will be as follows:

CLOSED Sunday December 23rd through Tuesday January 1st 2013. 

REOPEN Thursday, January 3rd using established fab lab schedule of T Th 6-9 pm and Sunday 1-6 pm

Join us for an open discussion this Thursday evening - all are welcome!

The Fab Lab will be closed Thursday November 22 in observance of Thanksgiving Day.  We will be open the following Sunday from1 to 6 pm

http://blog.wolfjeschonnek.de/

The fab lab will be hosting a hands on workshop on silver based conductive inks on Thursday June 21 at 7:00 pm. This 2-hour workshop will teach you how to create functional paper-based electronic devices using a rollerball pen filled with conductive ink. This technology, developed in Prof. Jennifer Lewis’ group at UIUC, can be used to link up LED’s, resistors, and sensors in order to quickly build flexible electronic devices.

The Empathetic Reformulator was invented as part of a workshop led by Federico Joselevich from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The workshop was called "A Step Through Los Aparatos," which involved the combination of art, technology and creative expression. 

Here are some projects that Steve is working on, which will be displayed at the Mini Maker Fair next month at the IMC.  Way to go Steve!

Operations Committee Monthly Meeting Thursday March 15, 2012 7:30 PM

Come joins us for an open discussion on

1) Google Calendar updates which allow for event scheduling and volunteer participation - Whitney will report online requests which have come through over the last couple of weeks

2) The Four Week Outlook, including Danville Homefires, workshop with Frederico, Woodturning Group, UIS Computer Group, Community Engagement at ARC, and the Mini Maker Fair at IMC

3) Presentation by Joshua Norris

CUCFL Operations Meeting Minutes
February 23, 2012

1) Discussion of CUCFL website Google Calendar to highlight recurring events at the lab http://cucfablab.org/book/volunteer-schedule-events; also discussed the creation of online fab lab tour request form : http://cucfablab.org/book/schedule-event-cuc-fab-lab

Join us for an open discussion Thursday February 23rd at 7:00 PM at the Fab Lab!  Items include

1) The CUCFL website "Google Calendar" which highlights recurring events at the lab;

2) Volunteer Opportunities for Urbana Free Library "Teen Tech Week", UIUC Community Engagement Symposium, and Champaign-Urbana Mini Maker Faire (@ the IMC) upcoming events;

Agenda will be further developed at the meeting, which will be held to 60 minutes

Due to a Winter Weather Advisory, the fab lab will not be open Thursday evening (January 12, 2012)