MSU-IIT’s FAB LAB Mindanao was presented at the 11th Geneva Forum-4th Annual International Conference on Participatory Research, Citizen Sciences, Crowd-Innovation and Fab Labs for Peace and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.
During the presentation, the Institute’s Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension, Dr. Jinky B. Bornales, who represented MSU-IIT in the said forum, emphasized the collaborative efforts that the Institute has been engaged for the past 3 years in implementing FAB LAB Mindanao as an essential resource for innovation in Southern Philippines.
Held on December 9-13, 2019, the forum, organized by the Objectif Sciences International, gave an avenue for FAB LABs and institutions to be capacitated in aligning their programs to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the 11th Geneva Forum, Dr. Bornales, along with FAB LAB Mindanao Maker, Kenno Michael Uy of Lesstics were the only Filipinos who were validated presenters.
MSU-IIT’s FAB LAB Mindanao is the only Southeast Asian FAB LAB presented at the forum.
TO SHOW its innovative initiatives for the development of communities, the FAB LAB Mindanao of Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) presented its FABship programs at the 3rd College and Universities Public Service Conference (CUPSCon).
The CUPScon, held in the University of Visayas in Iloilo City on October 16-18, is a conference that provides an effective platform for state universities and colleges, higher education institutions, government agencies, and civil society organizations, to present their initiatives and best practices that address the challenges on health, environment, gender, culture, education, and other key issues in the country.
At the conference, participating institutions were given the opportunity to collaborate, learn from each other, and discover possible linkages to further improve or create programs that will be beneficial for the development of each local communities.
Among universities, there was a consensus that research and practice must be integrated for extension programs to be effective, ethical, relevant, and ultimately beneficial. As MSU-IIT has shifted its focus on outreach programs toward research-based extensions, its prototyping facility implemented a series of extension programs.
The FAB LAB Mindanao shared at the 3rd CUPScon its four outstanding FABship programs that involved school youth training, women empowerment, kid’s development, and innovation for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Dexter Ken Lopera, Internal Operations Supervisor of FAB LAB Mindanao presented Fabarangay: A Job Enabling Training Program using Digital Fabrication for Out of School Youths of Iligan City and A Product Development Training Program using Digital Fabrication for the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises of Iligan City
Arvin John Lucas, Administrative and External Linkages Supervisor, presented CreatEve: a Product Development Training Program Using Digital Fabrication for the Women Professionals of Iligan City and A Summer Technology Training Program Using Digital Fabrication for the Kids of Iligan City.
According to Lucas, “communities are shaped through relational actions that can be and are influenced in a number of crucial ways by the knowledge created in extension programs.” He said that the 3rd CUPSCon served as an avenue to showcase different tools for understanding and building healthy communities.
“There may come a future where we can reflect all our programs towards the positive experience of living in a developing community,” he added.
AS INDUSTRY 4.0 revolutionizes the creative capability of designers through the adoption of technologies in the design process, the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, has recently emphasized leveraging on the shared strengths of humans and machines to create new dimensions in human-machine collaboration.
In response to this challenge, DCP has implemented the Digital Artisans Program, a 3-month program in partnership with different FAB LABs across the country with a focus on the utilization of technologies and tools found in fabrication laboratories in supporting and underlining the importance of the artisanal discipline in the digital age.
The Mindanao Digital Artisans included Reinna Kris Calo, Tzaddi Esguerra, Nathalie Mariano, and Michael Bacol who received mentoring from the Dean of SoFA Design Institute, Architect Tobias Guggenheimer, as well as assistance from MSU-IIT’s FAB LAB Mindanao.
With funding from the Department of Trade and Industry- Region 10, the Mindanao Digital Artisans along with FAB LAB Mindanao Manager, Assoc. Prof. Lemuel Clark Velasco, presented The Modest Messiah installation during the recently conducted Manila FAME on October 17-19, 2019 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
During the culmination and round table discussion on the program’s assessment, Velasco highlighted the transformative experience both by the digital artisans as well as the FAB LAB staff during the design and fabrication process. The Institute’s priority in both product and process innovation is made real in the implementation of relevant collaborative projects like the Digital Artisans Program which aims to capacitate communities in Industry 4.0 responsive skills.
MEETING over coffee and kakanin, the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology and its institutional partners brainstormed and shared ideas on how to optimally collaborate through innovation initiatives to achieve significant impact in Mindanao.
The brief meeting which was held at the Institute’s Fabrication Laboratory (FABLAB) Mindanao on the afternoon of September 13, 2019 were attended by the Institute’s Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol, Prof.. Evelyn Creencia, Director for Research, and Assoc. Prof. Lemuel Clark Velasco, FAB LAB Manager, together with representatives of MSU-IIT’s partner institutions: Regional Director Alfonso Alamban of the Department of Science and Technology-Region 10; Regional Director Linda Boniao of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Region 10; CHED-Region 10 Supervisor Desiderio Apag, III; Director Ruel Paclipan of DTI-Lanao del Norte; and DTI FAB LAB Coordinator Nancy Echavez.
Joining the meeting also was Deputy Chief of Missions of the US Embassy, John Law. In the meeting, he expressed his happiness that they can partner with universities and agencies, like MSU-IIT and FabLab Mindanao, in finding ways of unleashing the potential of other people.
During the exchange of ideas, Tanggol expressed the importance of continuing the kind of relationship that the Institute and the agencies currently have. He hoped that the institutional partners continue to share financial resources that can support MSU-IIT’s and FabLab Mindanao’s projects and programs.
“We can use our resources, our talents, our faculty members, our students in trying to create [a] better society,” he added.
The performance of the Institute as well as that of the FabLab Mindanao banks not only on the support of the local government but also on the support of its collaborators and partners, Tanggol said.
FabLab Manager Velasco hoped that through the meeting MSU-IIT and its partners can explore more opportunities; and that by next year, FabLab Mindanao can get more projects.
FabLab Mindanao has been working with DTI on projects focusing on business, with DOST on projects related to science and researches, and CHED on projects related to teaching.
According to Velasco, DTI, DOST, CHED want to explore projects on community development and innovation center capacity building.
“Since there are a lot of innovation centers in the Philippines established by DTI, DOST, CHED, they want to piece them all together and capacitate them, Velasco said.
Currently, FabLab Mindanao is working on three projects for the out-of-school youth, children, women, and differently-abled people, and training them to be employed in the laboratories.
Velasco wishes that by 2020, FabLab Mindanao can capacitate other fabrication laboratories in the Philippines, and that the consortium will be created to unify efforts as there are many and different initiatives.
“Hopefully, MSU-IIT will be at the center to unify them through the consortium and lead others,” he said.
TO CONTINUE bridging the gap between creativity and technology, Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) Mindanao will be conducting the EmbroiderMe, a training workshop on digital embroidery on July 24-26, 2019 for their beneficiaries from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Department of Education.
The three-day training-workshop will be held at the FabLab Mindanao in the College of Engineering and Technology.
It is free for all businesses and entrepreneurs as Brother Embroidery Machines will be showcased during the event.
Digital embroidery allows the participants to convert their ideas or artwork to a stitch file which will be embroidered by a machine. It is a way of enhancing digital skills for the makers to explore the potential of their designs while learning how to operate a computerized sewing machine.
EmbroiderMe is one of the many initiatives of FabLab Mindanao in its pursuit to provide a stimulus for local entrepreneurship and to aid the makers in creating physical prototypes of their designs.
FabLab Mindanao strengthens its goal to #MakeAlmostAnything through its collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Region 10, DTI-Lanao del Norte, GIST Net Global Innovation through Science and Technology, Brother International Corporation through Kimura Chaves Enterprise, Inc., and ArrowHead Review Center who share the same vision in integrating digital awareness in the community.
