ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021

# ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021

# You can read the full 2020 & 2021 Annual Report here (opens new window)

This Annual Report’s goal is to summarize the efforts the whole Fab Academy community has done during the last 2 years. We hope you find this information interesting and useful as it is for us a great source of pride. If you want further clarifications, or you want to contribute, please contact us at coordination@fabacademy.org

# Summary

It has been 2 very interesting years!

The Fab Academy 2020 cycle ran from January 29th to June 17th, and the 2021 cycle ran from January 27th to June 16th, years during which COVID-19 Pandemic broke, with great consequences to everyone and everything. These times have meant a great loss in many senses but also a great source of inspiration for innovation in virtually every single field you can think of.

Fab Academy Program was not an exception! But, due to our extensive experience in Distributed Education and Innovation, we were well equipped to navigate the constraints the pandemic posed to mobility and interaction. During the 2020 class, we were able to adjust the global schedule to fit the opening and closing requirements of each Node. In different regions and times, almost all of our students suffered some sort of restriction that prevented them from accessing the Lab. The coordinated central efforts together with each Lab’s innovative responses showed how resilient the program is: some nodes arranged specific in-person sessions for small groups to access the Lab, others organized labs remotely by equipping home-labs, all making an effort to transfer as accurately as possible the Fab Academy Experience while supporting local communities in the fabrication of PPE items to cope with the effects of the pandemic. All in all, our numbers show that a resilient and well-connected community can work together to cope with almost anything!

# Some numbers

During 2020, we manage to have 63 active NODES running classes, vs the 65 of the prior non-COVID year, and in 2021, in a more steady year, we recuperated our standard 65 active Nodes mark.

In 2021, Fab Academy received 328 STUDENT applications, 162 less than 2020 with 490 applications (application period happened before COVID hit), due to the uncertainties COVID pandemic posed to applicants all over the world. Nonetheless, out of 328 applicants we received 221 students, similar to the numbers we usually do: 256 in 2019 and 243 in 2020.

But in spite of the lockdowns in more than half of the Labs during 2020, the impossible supply chain and the incredibly difficult personal situations every one of us had to endure, almost 100 students presented their final projects in June 2020, and 126 graduated from the program at the end of the year. Very similar numbers to prior years.

In 2021 the uncertainties still posed challenges for many Nodes in the world, yet, the team managed to keep the program active with similar number of active nodes in non-COVID times: 123 graduates!

# We’re always amazed to see the variety of origins and nationalities in our community and the age range!

# We still have a long way to go regarding students' gender representation, but we’re working on it!

We’ve been witnessing a growth in female representation on the Instructor’s group

# Financials

Fab Academy Administration received $546,229 in income for year 2020 and $490,609 for 2021. From the total amount, we paid around $78,085 in 2020 and $87,500 in 2021 to Fab Labs for Local Costs, and Professionals for their remote mentoring. The rest of the income, $468,144 in 2020 and $403,109 in 2021, fell under Central Costs, distributed as follows:

# Scholarships

In 2020 and 2021, Fab Academy Central granted 104 partial scholarships, amounting $219,714 in total.

In 2020 we granted 99 Scholarships distributed in the following way:

Scholarship by Public Institution, Lab / University, Company: 52
Scholarship by Fab Academy Central: 47

For 2021 we granted 93 Scholarship distributed in the following way:

Scholarship by Public Institution, Lab / University, Company: 36
Scholarship by Fab Academy Central: 57

Given that these 2 years we were not able to support students with central costs for Graduate ceremonies, actually the Fab Conferences we not in-person but online and distributed, that part of the budget was used for the organization the online Graduation, some were used for maintenance of IT infrastructure through fablabs.io, some was aimed to granting scholarships and some were spared for future Graduation Ceremonies.

# Featured Projects from 2020

In 2020 students presented 149 Final Projects! Here (opens new window)

Highlight students for this year selected by the Fab Academy community, taking into account the following criteria:

Originality of the final project idea
Field of application of the final project
Understandability and clearness of the presented contents

Were…

Lena Hagernauer, Harm Vanvugt, Adrian León, Robin Wilmart, Jean Baptiste, Nancy Wu, Yume Menghe Xu, Noel Kristian, Quentin Bolsee, Azniv Hovhannisyan, Wala'a Alzoubi, Ting Kok Eng, Hideo (Haru) Oguri and Shreyas Tiwari.

# Featured Projects from 2021

In 2021 students presented 151 Final Projects! Here (opens new window)

Highlight students for this year selected by the Fab Academy community, taking into account the following criteria:

Originality of the final project idea
Field of application of the final project
Understandability and clearness of the presented contents

Were…

Nadieh Bremer, Natsuka Kamei, Sergio Hernandez, Mitalee Parikh, Georg Tremmel, Gautier Theo, Alberto Leon, Nick Anastasia, Jonny Timms, Rodrigo Shiordia, Zaid Marjl, Kenichi Komatsu, Lucia Jonkhoff, Erwin Kooi and Shinobu Ishimura

# FAB Conference

These 2 cycles we had 1 online conference and 1 hybrid (in-person + distributed) one!