Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

An interesting article in the NY Times today, "Writers as Architects".  Aside from the interesting images, it struck me as a possible inspiration for a Fab Lab workshop..

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/writers-as-architects/

Possibly of interest:  a blog by Martin Galese, bringing 19th century patents to life as 3D printing projects.

http://patent-able.tumblr.com/

Some of these are supposed to be posted to thingiverse.com, though I haven't looked for them yet.

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

http://youtu.be/sEUpbBLxzo8

Possibly of interest: wearable/dancable instrumentation, made in a fab lab (from McGill Univ.)

http://idmil.org/projects/prosthetic_instruments

Their YouTube video from this article:  http://youtu.be/jX-PXGagp_A

Anyone want to try something like this?  (I can throw in the possibility of Augmented Reality imagery.)

As reported earlier here, the Fab Lab contributed to an Augmented Reality installation for UI graduation ceremonieds.

The Big Ten Network broadcase a video on this project on July 19, 2013.  The video is now available on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/qLvKfAF_KjQ

I will present a short paper about the CUCFL at the Digital Humanities 2013 conference in Lincoln Nebraska this Friday.  [abstract]

As part of the preparation, I finished a writeup about a project I did on the 3D printer.  See the blog entry and related essay.

As the blog notes, I wrote the essay in reply to criticism from the conference reviewers, to wit, "what does this stuff have to do with humanities?"

Not being a professional humanist, I nevertheless took a stab at a 'humanistic' argument.

It is that time again, the third Saturday of the month. Come to the fab lab and help design a cooling hood for the laser cutter, make some stickers, or create a minecraft item that can be printed on the 3D printer. The open lab is from 10 until noon. 

Fab Lab folks in the news (well, in the local newspaper). Nice piece about the Product Manufactory in Urbana.

Many thanks to the hundreds of people who attended ALAPlay and the panel on Game-based Makerspaces! Helpful resources...

Someone left a bunch of giant beads at the Fab Lab - come make use of them for a necklace or some other kind of creation!

Inquire in back, they're in a white tub in the store room.

Make a Pokemon in Spore, take a screen shot and put him on a custom-made card! Template and example attached.

At the Youth Council meeting on Saturday June 16th, it was decided to promote and support two group projects. One involves building a robot to clean the floor drain at the lab, and the other is an enviromental monitoring project. You can read more about both projects at: https://sites.google.com/site/cucflyouthcouncil/. The council also learned that the press fit donation box is difficult to get money out of, so they are looking at designing a plug to replace one end of the box. If you have any questions about the Youth Council or their projects, please use the contact button on their website to contact them.

The 15th of June is the 3rd Saturday of the month which means it is time for the Youth Council meeting and another Fab Lab Makers open lab. The council meeting will start at 9:30 and the open lab for youth will be from 10 until noon. If you are between the ages of 10 and 16, grab yourself a responsible adult and had down to the lab to make something. If you like Minecraft, we can show you how to print things you build in minecraft on the 3D printer. If you like robots, come in and try to design one that will sweep up the bottom of a floor drain in the lab. If you are not sure what can be done at the fab lab, come on in and we will help you think of something to make.

Just a reminder that Bob has been kind enough to post his plans for a miniaturized cardboard puzzle dinosaur up here:

http://cucfablab.org/blog/new-small-cardboard-pteranodon-kit

Quadcopter at the Fab Lab! http://youtu.be/VtUEA3BStps