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Fab Academy 2011 Project: Data Tree_Sensor Bricks
Areti Markopoulou

This Fab Academy project was created for implementation at Can Valldaura, the site of the future Green Fab Lab, located in Collserola Park just outside of Barcelona.

The project features artificial fruit that cling to trees containing sensors that monitor moisture, light, and temperature as well as smoke detectors. The fruit sends data wirelessly, via a radio frequency antenna, to a data processing apparatus at the Can Valldaura house. From here the data is uploaded and processed in Pachube which gives a real-time visualization of the environmental conditions around each tree in relation to time and position.

This test data can be found on the Green Fab Lab website.

More information about the entire production process can be found here.

This is open source project. All information from the project (files, materials, programming codes, circuit sensor boards) can be found and downloaded here.

The MTM project is part of the research developed at the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT and the global network of Fab Labs. The Fab Lab Barcelona is making this year the MTM-SNAP project, preceded by the Mantis 9 milling machine developed las year in the Fab Academy program. This is a road map to the Fab Labs v2.0, a Fab Lab that could reproduce itself, being able of fabricate the machines needed to make another machines, and reducing the costs 5-10 times.

Urban Feeds is a project developed at Smart Geometry 2011 in Copenhagen.  The project has been developed at the Fab Lab Barcelona, based on the Personal Data Collection, through the use of the ASKits (Ambient Sensing Kit) devices, previously developed by LaN and upgraded for the workshop. Any person, anywhere, could produce its own devices to sense and quantify those variables that are surrounding us, that affect our behavior and the way we inhabit our world. Centralized data sources offers a top to bottom approach to the values of our environment, by developing the ASKits, the aim is to get a closer look into our immediate environment, from Static Kits installed in houses to personal kits embedded into our SmartPhones.

The project has been based on the use of the Arduino platform, and different shields and sensor units for data capturing. At the moment is evolving to the use of FabDuinos, being able to be produced entirely in a Fab Lab.

UF SG2011 Team: Elsa Wifstrand, Federico Giacomarra, Dimitris Papadopoulous, Wo Jae Sung, Bernadette Luger, Scott Leinweber, Olivier Gras, Felipe Pecegueiro, Luis Fraguada, Morten Bulow, Tomas Diez

In design and architecture, Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) fabrication equipment has given designers unprecedented means for executing formally challenging projects directly from the computer. The impact of digital production in these fields allows the production of complex geometries and opens up a wide field of research and experimentation. Open Thesis Fabrication is a 14 week program taking place from September 2010 to December 2010. The course is open to students and professionals who would like to develop a specific research agenda within the field of digital design and fabrication. The program focuses on the development and completion of full scale prototypes using advanced CNC machinery, applying experimental materials and testing smart energy solutions. Student projects will be followed by experienced tutors and regularly discussed with external guests and consultants with expertise in the field. Along these special sessions will take place specifically related activities such as: factory and building sites
visit, field trip etc.

The program seeks to develop projects that could possibly continue developing in collaboration with Industry Companies. Therefore, representatives of several companies will be participating in the program following the projects.

Some of the collaborative companies with IAAC and Open Thesis Fabricationare:

CRICURSA, www.cricursa.com
ESCOFET, www.escofet.com
SANTA& COLE, www.santacole.com
FUPICSA, www.fupicsa.com
FINNFOREST, www.finnforest.es
IMAR, www.imarsa.com
KUKA, www.kuka-robotics.com
ZERO TO INFINITY, www.inbloon.com

Seminar: Designing Associativity
Faculty: Luis Fraguada

The ‘Designing Associativity Seminar’ is titled as such in order to acknowledge the effort of designing relationships versus explicit objects or forms.  In term 2 students have looked at ways to construct logics which take advantage of diverse data sources, algorithms, geometry, and manufacturing processes.