Hello world!¶
Welcome to my Fab Academy site!¶
I have been dreaming for years to do the Fab Academy and I can’t believe I am finally doing it and even more I am doing in Boston!!! I was able to come to Boston thanks to a scholarship of Dassuault Systemes in honour of Fiore Basile. I did not know him, but we share our origin in Sicily and our love for the makers community.
I will stay in Boston until the end of March following the Fab Academy at Dassault Systemes and then move back to Milan, where I’ll continue the course at Open Dot.
Why am I following the Fab Academy¶
5 years ago, I discovered the world of FabLabs thanks for my good friend Stijn! He founded a FabLab in Brussels and his work has been so inspiring for me. I loved immediately the concept of FabLabs and I decided to take some time off from work to learn more about them. I went to Brazil (San Paulo) where I volunteered in a FabLab for a few months. There I learnt the basics of digital fabrication and I was in charge of planning the bio-hack academy.
I loved it! My time in Brazil has probably been the most inspiring time of my life. I met amazing people, learnt to be a maker and decided I wanted to create FabLabs myself. I got back to Europe and created FabLab Western Sicily in my hometown, Marsala (in Sicily). It was not easy since I did not live there and digital fabrication was not generally seen as something useful in schools. It took a couple of years before the FabLab got rolling, but today it has become a solid reference point for Sicilian schools who want to bring digital fabrication in the academic curriculum.
The FabLab Western Sicily has a special format. It is a ‘distributed’ fablab with different locations all over the province of Trapani (in Sicily), but all connected by the same mission: to bring digital fabrication to schools. We have worked in Marsala, Pantelleria, Castelvetrano, Alcamo… and collaborating with schools in several other cities. I truly hope it will keep expanding and bring digital fabrication to all Sicilian schools.
To promote creative digital education, we have created a specific curriculum called Teens4Kids, In this annual curriculum, teenagers are trained to be able to teach themselves digital fabrication to kids. The approach followed is an horizontal one in which students are empowered to make active use of technology and ultimately to feel digital creators. Have a look at my TEDx talk to see what I am talking about :-)
