Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

From the article:

The Champaign-Urbana Community FabLab will formally open on Thursday, November 11, at 3-5 pm in the FabLab, located in the Art Annex 2, 1301 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, 61801.

This event is open to everyone and will feature hands on activities, welcoming remarks by members of the Lab's Community Leadership Council, and by Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms and the founder of the global FabLab network. The mission of the Champaign-Urbana Community FabLab is to promote ingenuity, invention and inspiration by introducing students of any age to modern prototyping and fabrication equipment. Our goal is to encourage creativity as well as an interest in architecture, art, computing, engineering, mathematics, science, and technical trades. Community access, at a reasonable cost, builds local capability with global links to the entire FabLab network — enabling personal growth, economic development and cross-cultural understanding. We encourage people to build virtually anything they can imagine.

Read more: Designmatters4 and FabLab are almost off and running

LOCAL FAB LAB BRINGS NEW CAPABILITIES TO COMMUNITY

The Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab brings digital design and fabrication equipment to the campus community. Located on the campus of the University of Illinois, the Fab Lab is partnering with local schools, the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club, Parkland College and many others so that people of all ages can learn to use rapid prototyping equipment.

The formal opening ceremonies will be held on Thursday, Nov. 11 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the lab, located at Art Annex 2, 1301 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, Ill.

The event will feature hands-on activities, a welcome by members of the Lab's Community Leadership Council, and remarks by Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms and Founder of the Global Fab Lab movement.

Also, Neil Gershenfeld will deliver the DesignMatters lecture "Programming Bits and Atoms: How To Make (almost) Anything" from 6:15 to 8:00 in the Lawrence Plym Auditorium, Room 134, Temple Hoyne Buel Hall (Art and Architecture Building).

Both events are free and open to the public.