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Project Visit: MIT Fab Lab |
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Pabal, a small town about 2 hours northeast of Pune is home to a Fab Lab, as a result of an initiative between AID and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fab Labs are part of an education outreach program developed by MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, in an effort to enable local communities the world over to not only learn about technology, but to also physically participate in technological innovation. This is an effort to reach rural India and create technology that is inclusive and sustainable.
Aptly named the Vigyan Ashram, and strategically situated near a school, the oddly shaped hemi-spherical domes that make up the Ashram have diverse scientific works in the making as a milk sour test, wind mills, photocopy machine gears, battery repair and inverter circuits. Technology that is locally relevant.
I saw around 10 students and 3 engineers working on a modified diesel generator that would keep the machines powered despite frequent power cuts in the area, by converting farm waste to electricity. One feels that initiatives like the Vigyan Ashram will go a long way in making technology an inclusive instrument for growth and empowerment.
-- Alok Paranzpay, Pittsburgh
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