Fab Labs, short for fabrication laboratories, are spaces that invite members of their surrounding communities to explore engineering, engage in entrepreneurial activities, and invent solutions to problems around them. Each Fab Lab provides rapid-prototyping equipment at low cost or no cost in workshops that contain machines capable of making or customizing products that range in size and function—from small electronics to large furniture. Fab Labs offer everyday people opportunities to build products with capabilities comparable with those of mass-manufactured goods. Fab Labs include computers, computer-controlled cutting tools, advanced instrumentation, and people willing to share expertise. Much of what is learned in Fab Labs involves digital fabrication, using information to guide the way in which machines manipulate materials to create a physical replica of a 3D ...

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