Gabriel Tanner Pasetti, 24 years old, brazilian, doing Fab Academy 2015 at Fab Lab BCN. Degree in product design at Federal University of Technology - Parana/BR. I was born in Curitiba, located in south of Brazil.
Since 2012 I've been working with product development, 3D modeling, 3D printing, rapid prototyping and prototype evaluation. During this time I was also working on my final research project, that's when I found open source projects, and then Fab Labs and Fab Academy.
What is Fab Academy?
Fab Academy is a Digital Fabrication program directed by Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center For Bits and Atoms and based on MIT’s rapid prototyping course, MAS 863: How to Make (Almost) Anything.
The Fab Academy offers a 5 month program on digital fabrication, and it could be taken in any of the participating labs. The Fab Academy offers Certificates on relevant technical topics, and a Diploma aimed at vocational and technical training for employment and investment (along with assistance to its graduates in those areas). Fab Academy Certificates provide familiarity with technical options and capabilities, hands-on experience, and direction for further study. Each requires, and is evaluated by, developing and documenting projects. They are periodically renewed to reflect best practices. Each Certificate typically requires one week. They are combined in the Diploma, which is roughly comparable to completing MIT’s rapid-prototyping course ‘How To Make (almost) Anything’. Progress is evaluated by skills and projects rather than time or credits.
During this 5 month part-time program, students learn how to envision, prototype and document their projects and ideas through many hours of hands-on experience with digital fabrication tools, taking a variety of code formats and turning them into physical objects.