TTI Fab Lab Report

Compiled by Aisha Walcott , inspired by all those involved in the MIT-TTI Fab Lab Project

The purpose of this document is to report my experience at the TTI Fab Lab in Takoradi, Ghana. I was in Ghana from June 7-August 11, 2004. From June 7- July 25 I was teaching Computer Programming and Entrepreneurship with 4 other students from MIT at the University of Ghana, Legon. Then from July 26-August 10 I was at the TTI Fab Lab in Takoradi part of the time with Prof. Neil Gershenfeld and colleague Amy Sun. In this report I summarize a few of my days at the Fab Lab while Amy was venturing up to Mole National Park.

Just a quick note on how I heard about the TTI Fab Lab. I was granted the opportunity to go to Africa through MIT-AITI (Africa Internet Technology Initiative, for more information see http://web.mit.edu/mit-africa/www/home/index.html ). When I received the news that I was going to be a part of the MIT-AITI Ghana 2004 team, I wondered if there was a Fab Lab in Ghana. I met with Prof. Neil Gershenfeld briefly and asked him if there was a Fab Lab in Ghana and it turned out he was in the midst of serious talks of deploying a Fab Lab in Ghana in June 2004. And the rest was history…

By the end of my first week at the Fab Lab, the students had just been introduced (by Neil and Amy) to the process/workflow to create a circuit board, the Efe board, using Eagle and the Modela. The main steps were using the Modela etch a board, soldering (or stuffing) a board, and then programming the ATMEL Tiny processor on the board. Also, by the end of my first week Neil had traveled back to the US and Amy was northern Ghana bound. My task was to maintain the great energy in the Fab Lab and continuing the learning. We, the Fab Labbers and I, focused on learning how to use the Modela, by going through the workflow of creating the Efe circuit board. We also spent a short amount of time on programming the Tiny with the blink.asm program. Then we worked on the following topics: 1) designing 3-D press fit structures from 2-D drawings 2)developing How To Guru Pages for the TTI Fab Lab website and 3) introduction to 3-D graphics using the Blender software package.

One of the main ideas that I wanted to stress to the students at the Fab Lab was to be creative and dream of some new inventions that they would be interested in creating. The students spent some time coming up with project ideas and understanding which Fab Lab machines they would need to use in order to complete their projects. We also had a Guru Pages competition, where the How To Guru Pages were judged based on content and style.

Since I left Ghana, my Inbox has been flooded with emails from the Fab Labbers. So far I have been getting at least 2 or more emails a day from students at the TTI Fab Lab. Most of the emails are asking questions about webpage development, how to make progress on their projects, what are the steps to use Eagle, what are the next steps for creating the antenna and more. Sometimes the students’ will send an email just to say hello and how much they love the Fab Lab. While I love receiving email from the Fab Labbers, I can’t forget about the not-so-simple process of sending email in Takoradi. For example, if a Fab Labber wanted to send an email they would first have to catch a cab, tro-tro, or walk to an internet café. Then pay to get online and finally catch a cab, tro-tro, or walk back home. All of it a bit time consuming and can add up financially especially for the students. It is clear that internet access would immensely enhance the learning experience at the TTI Fab Lab. Below are two suggestions about what could be done in the short term until internet reaches the TTI Fab Lab.

1) Arrange with one (or more) internet cafes a certain amount of time on the internet that can be used by the TTI Fab Lab students, where the cost is subsidized by those affiliated with the MIT-TTI Fab Lab. I think the fastest internet café is MexII, however I often used E-Base because I could plug in my laptop and connect to the internet.

2) Periodically send CDs with tutorials and general information that will help the TTI students to accomplish their projects (include the How To Make Almost Anything Webpages).

I have set up a Yahoo Group account for the TTI Fab Labbers. The group is called TTI_Fab_Lab, and so far anyone can join this online community by signing up at http://groups.yahoo.com. This Yahoo group serves as an online community for the TTI Fab Lab students to communicate with us and each other. There are links to important websites posted, messages, photos, and more.

Also, I assume we will be deciding on some type of conference call check-in weekly or bi-weekly. I think that it would be great for the Fab Lab assistant to be on the line, if possible. Or there could be a time in which we talk with the Fab Lab assistants and try to answer any pressing questions they might have.

Here is just a few supplies/equipment that Amy and I discussed and are needed at the Fab Lab. The first is a large dry-erase whiteboard to aid in effectively describing ideas and leading workshops. The second is more computers. These computers can potentially be re-furbished machines that are packaged in the US and shipped to Ghana. Then, if possible, the computers can be sold in Ghana for just the cost of shipping which is may be $70+ USD (approximately 700,000 cedis). The third piece of equipment is more on the lines of a project. That is, we would need a computer(s) setup as servers on a local network between the Sekondi-Takoradi communities. The server(s) would mirror certain website and, in particular, the MIT-OCW (Open Course Ware) website, which is an initiative to make all course materials for all MIT courses freely available online.

I spoke with Steve Carson in the MIT-OCW office. Steve Carson was the OCW point-of-contact for the MIT-AITI program’s OCW/Self-Learning initiative. After a many conversations with Ghanaians that have heard of MIT-OCW or are aware of MIT-OCW, there is a definite strong desire to have access to the MIT-OCW website. One idea that has been proposed on a number of occasions is to mirror, copy the contents of the MIT-OCW site, onto a large hard drive. Then install that hard drive(s) on a machine(s) that can serve various communities in Ghana locally. This idea is in line with an initiative that the MIT-OCW office is exploring. The MIT-OCW office is investigating ways to package the OCW website in one bundle for countries like Ghana where internet access is often unreliable, and/or not economically viable. For more information on MIT-OCW please see http://ocw.mit.edu

In summary, during my short stay at the Fab Lab the we were able to continue the learning. Specifically, we covered four topics: 1a) Etching a circuit board on the Modela 1b) Soldering and programming a circuit board, 2)Creating web pages and How To pages, 3)Using the Open Office Draw program to design 2-D drawing that can be cut out on the laser cutter and press fit into a 3-D structure, 4)Introduction to Blender a 3-D graphics program. I whole-heartedly support and believe in the Fab Lab assistants. I see their desire to continue learning and to keep the Fab Lab growing is very strong, as seen through many of the emails I have received. Getting internet access to the TTI Fab lab till have a huge impact on the time and research required to complete community projects and inventions.

All in all, my time at the MIT-TTI Fab lab was absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to get back. The students, teachers, and members of the community had an indescribable hunger for learning. This made teaching and helping at the Fab Lab an exceptionally rewarding experience.

We have priceless footage from the two weeks that I was at the Fab Lab. This includes the infamous 8 year-old Valentina Kofi stuffing (soldering) an Efe circuit board. Also on the tapes is Charles Pinto Ocastro showing off his programmed Efe board. The Fab Lab Children saying “I love the Fab Lab”. This reminds me. One day I was walking through one of the communities near TTI and a little girl yells out “I like the Fab Lab!”. I think that the MIT folks who visited the Fab Lab are maintaining a repository of pictures on the TTI Fab Lab site at http://fab.cba.mit.edu/. It will be great when there is an official exchange of videos and pictures between Fab Labbers across the world.

During my time in Ghana I was encountered a few Ghanaians and some internationals that are in working in the ICT industry in Ghana. There is a volunteer program called Geekcorps which is aimed at persons who have been working in a technology related field for some time and are ready for that life change. There is a Geekcorps house (with wireless internet access) in Accra that houses the volunteers while they are working on projects in Ghana. One of the people working at Geekcorps is working on the Twinux the Open Source Twi Linux initiative (see http://www.twinux.org ). Geekcorps has held a number of free Linux workshops and Open Source workshops at some local internet cafes in Ghana. The second initiative that I found very interesting is the website called Ghana Think which was launched in mid-August 2004 (see www.ghanathink.org).

It appears that the buzz about the Fab Lab is really stirring things up with students studying at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. I have received a couple emails from some KNUST students who are very interested in the TTI Fab Lab. It may be possible for some KNUST students to pursue undergraduate or graduate research projects that would involve the Fab Lab.

8 Blog of My Time at the Takoradi Fab Lab
Below is a summary that logs many of my days at the TTI Fab Lab. It is written in a conversational style similar to a diary or a blog.

Even though the lab is not necessarily open to the public on Sundays (I think), I came in to prepare for the next week. And within a moments time a few students came over to the lab too. It’s as though the Fab Labbers have some type of “Is the Fab Lab Open” sensor.

Charles Pinto Ocastro (I refer to him as Pinto) finished soldering his Efe board. I am having Pinto show/teach Seth and Nathaniel the process of etching a circuit board using the Modela. That is, starting from opening a brd file from a sch file in Eagle and then going all the way through the workflow of printing a circuit board on the Modela. I have officially named these three, Pinto, Seth and Nathaniel as the Modela gurus. So some time this week they will assemble a How To web page on etching a circuit board using the Modela.

I am using Exceed, a remote host program, to login into the Fab Lab network from my laptop. This allows me to do the basic things I need to do, and to keep the three computers free and available for the students to use. I am also familiarizing myself with the site tool.

Anyway, Pinto, Seth and Nathaniel are still in the lab and it’s around 10:30pm! Seth and Nathaniel are soldering, and Pinto and I are figuring out how to program his Efe board with the blink.asm file. After some time guessing and thinking, we see the LED light blinking!! Yay! But there appears to be a loose connection on Pinto’s board so he’s going to go back and re-solder a little. Ahhh…but the excitement is soooo thick in the air !!

Last night we left around 11:30pm. Nathaniel was so hard to program his Efe board on his own! I had no idea of what he was doing until I walked over to his computer and noticed him trying to remember the commands Pinto and I typed in to program Pinto’s board. Nathaniel’s determination was incredible. When I told him it was 11:30pm he was shocked, he apparently thought is was 7:00pm. Wow, I never knew the Fab Lab had the power to warp time. The students are addicted to the Fab Lab!

Just a note, I sliced my finger on the Modela last Saturday. No big deal, so I brought my first aid kit back to the lab just in case there are any other minor incidents.

My plans for today are to take all the students (in groups) through the process of etching a circuit board, the infamous Efe board, from Eagle to the Modela. I am going to start assigning a few more gurus to create How To pages too. So, while one group is doing Modela stuff the other groups will be introduced to site.py. At the end of last week, I strongly encouraged the students to assemble their notes and ask as many questions as need be about what they’ve learned so far. I am really trying to stress the information exchange needed to make the Fab Lab thrive.

Right now Nathaniel is showing Josephine how to solder the board that her group made. Nancy is on fab1 (that’s one of the three Fab Lab computers) and Pinto is showing her and her group how to create a cmp file and eventually send to the Modela. Douglas has done something wonderful. He has observed that people may not know how to use the site tool. I caught him using the site tool to create a How to Make Websites Using Mozilla! While a few details are missing…the fact that he recognized a need and aced on it, is a beautiful thing. And finally, Simmons and his group are playing around with the site tool and gathering their notes in an effort to create a web page. Actually, it’s taking some time for the students to assemble their notes and to enter them, but they are so dedicated.

I spoke with Jurgen about the Fab Lab festival. He said he is flying out on August 21. So maybe a good day would be Friday August 20 from 1pm-4pm. We were brainstorming what types of things to showcase. We can use boards to post pictures of the students and to post some nice drawings. Then we can bring tables out of the Fab lab to showcase some projects.

Right now it is about 12noon and the final group of students will be etching their Efe board, shortly. Great, I am almost finished with a full rotation of all the groups!

Solomon approached me with a hand-drawn design of a bed frame that he wants to make with the laser cutter. I am so excited because I wanted to have the students create press-fit 3-D structures with the laser cutter. So maybe we can start off with a cardboard prototype of the students’ designs and go from there. Then, in the spirit of 3-D design, I can introduce the students to Blender! Whoa that means I need to go to an internet café and download some type of Blender tutorial (I can’t seem to locate the Blender docs on the machines).

Ok it’s about 6:15pm. Things seem to be going pretty well. Douglas spearheaded a mission to fully understand the process of etching an Efe board on the Modela. So he and about 8 other students (including Nathaniel, Abigail, Leo Ewetunde, and more) spent the whole day trying to successfully etch a board all on their own. They successfully went through the workflow and etched a board all by themselves! And many of the Fab Labbers have soldered components onto their Efe boards too. So tomorrow, I hope that we can program some of the boards.

Tomorrow I will be teaching the teachers around 11:30am. The teachers had to proctor exams last week, so they should be available this week.

So it’s about 10:40pm. There are a few students still hanging out in the lab with me. Anyway, I am pretty tired, but I am supposed to teach the teachers how to use Eagle, so I need to refresh my memory. Well Solomon made a 3D somewhat “press fit” structure on the laser cutter! So I will have him take the lead on teaching the other Fab Labbers in the spirit of that great quote “Each one teach one”.

I started off today with some quiz questions to see if I can award some MIT key chains. I hope to award the calculator some time today too. I think the question to win the calculator will be on how to use the Site tool.

Today, Solomon is presenting his press-fit bed frame to the class and discussing how he went from idea to creation. After his presentation, I plan to get them thinking and drawing some various ways to make different press-fit fasteners. Then they will be off to work in their groups on their own 2-D drawings to 3-D press fit.

I am going to hold a Guru pages/web site design contest for the Fab Labbers. I think this will help kick off the learning of site.py and Guru pages. Also, I am going to try to remind the students every day about Fab Fest, so that they can keep thinking about it and start focusing on projects that they wish to showcase.

Ok it’s about 10:20am. I just interrupted the class from making their press-fit structures, in order to make some announcements and give a quiz question. I announced the Fab Lab festival and gave some ideas on what they could showcase. I announced the web site design competition and that their websites should be very informative and include some colors and figures. I will have each Guru group show their websites on the contest day. I think this will be interesting, especially since there are more Guru groups than there are computers in the Fab Lab. I imagine more people will join Guru teams, and or switch groups. I think if I print out some signs and have team names it will make the competition more fun! I have no idea about prizes yet. Here is a table of the Guru teams so far:

Topic	Proposed Gurus Groups
1. Etching a circuit board with the Modela	Nathaniel, Seth, Pinto
2. Using the Laser cutter to cut 2D	Abigail, Douglas, and Josephine
3. Creating 3D from 2D with the laser cutter	Sammy, Francis, Godwin
4. Making websites with the site tool	Nancy, Solomon, Abu, Angelus
5. Using the vinyl cutter	Simmons, Sam, and Edmond

The quiz question for today and for the calculator is how to make a website using the Site tool.

To award the calculator, I had the students write down the steps to make a Hello World web page using the Site tool. This turned out to be an incredible competition! I had about 9 paper submissions, which I collected in order of submission. Then I set up 3 rounds because there are 3 computers and 9 submissions. So here’s how the competition was carried out. For each round consisted of a total of 6 student participants. 3 students were the submitters, and 3 other students were the implementers. I assigned an implementer to each submitter. It was the job of the implementer to attempt to follow the instructions of their submitter and to create a Hello World web page. I allowed the students to get help from their other classmates, but reminded them that only one person would win the calculator. The competition was fierce. It was not until the final round before someone could make a perfect Hello World web page. This turned out to be an awesome quiz question competition!! It required the students to write down instructions in a way that other people could understand. Anyway, Simmons was the winner and he got the beautiful calculator.

Ok so I taught a class for the teachers today from 11:30am-1:00pm. Initially about 6-8 teachers were here, but eventually some left and I was down to about 3, Emmanuel, Nathaniel Fynn (the head of the Computer Lab), and a one female teacher. During the class I talked slow and clear as possible, which is what the teachers requested. We went through the similar etching a circuit board workflow. Many teachers have the advantage of understanding the circuit board, so a few teachers asked questions about the components.

During my teacher class, I selected a few students to assist me demonstrate how to use the Modela. This included Abigail, Douglas, and Nathaniel. Pretty much all the female students were welcome to teach the teachers with me. While showing the teachers the steps to Modela an Efe board, I had Pinto quietly help the last group of students to solder their Efe circuit board. This worked out real well, and I think the students are really learning how to teach each other and help each other with Fab Lab stuff.

The afternoon session with the children was great. They were building again and many wanted to draw pictures, so that’s what we did. A few of the older students joined played with the children too! Anyway, Valentina came in towards the end of the “kiddy session”. She’s so adorable. Another little girl asked about soldering a circuit board too.

I have not figured out the perfect time management strategy that allows me to tinker and fix things while helping the Fab Labbers. But hey, I am LOVING working at the Fab Lab!! The only time I have found available is after 9pm and by then I am pretty drained and I need second wind to kick in. So I try to stick around until 10pm, to see what I can get done. But I have to remember that it’s somewhat hard to find food after 10pm.

This morning the students are going take the first hour or so to work on their websites. I will show them a few more html tags so that they can add images to their websites.

I have installed Blender and Python in the Computer Lab next to the Fab Lab. One of the teachers in charge of the computer lab, Nathaniel Fynn, helped me with the install. He has been quite helpful and open to learning new stuff. Awe I see the kiddies! They are sooo cute!

A few teachers came in for some time. I would like to show a few teachers how to use Eagle so then they can teach each other.

I just put together a webpage on the TTI Fab Lab How To Page that gives an overview of HTML based on the notes I had from the MIT-AITI course.

The children are so wonderful. They have such a good concept of sharing. I had to really kick the older people out today, so that the children could use all the computers. A few older people like Seth stayed and helped out with the children.

Right now I am trying to really think about the right day to leave

Ghana

. I really don’t want to go…. This experience has really changed my life. I feel like a Fab Labber myself.

Anyway, the kids have been begging for toffee, so I will go hunt down some candy for them.

I am going to go through more details about the Gurus and the How To page competition with the students so that they can focus on what part of the Fab Lab they need to write about. Some students want to take photos of machines and post them on their Guru sites, which is great! There is a low-level digital camera in the Fab Lab that I can use to take pictures of the machines.

Cool! The welding teacher and some students are attempting to use the giant magnifying glass and burn something! Awe, the welding instructor, Ben, also known as BB, was able to make a little fire. They are so excited about it!!

Today I am going to officially discuss/show everyone the Guru How To pages Guidelines and make sure that there is a link to the How To pages of each group. The class will start off by continuing their 3D press fit structures with a little more inspiration from Seth, another amazing Fab Labber, who created a 3D press fit two-story house in the laser cutter. The kids love putting together the press-fit structures too! This is another cool idea brewed through the Fab Lab. That is, creating 3-D puzzles that are press-fit. The kids also like to color the puzzles that are created out of cardboard too!

My goal was to make it to an internet café to download Blender and Eagle tutorials. So I finally made it to E-base internet café around 10pm. I got on the net and did all the normal stuff, and started searching for tutorials. But then…of course…power outage! Anything that I, or anyone else, was working on…lost. Sigh, anyway I will at least introduce the class to Blender and show them that it has been installed in the computer lab as well, and encourage them to play around with it.

I also want to continue to have the students really think about Fab Lab projects. They are gradually starting to be very innovative and move away from the “I want to make a mobile phone”. Which is superb!

I made a directory under /home/www/users/images with some pictures of the Fab Lab and the machines. The students can use them in their Guru pages. I also showed the students how to view the page source of an html page, so if they see a cool webpage (an HTML page) then they can see what HTML tags were used to create it.

The students seem to be really into designing their 3D press fit structures, so I am not going to interrupt them. Some groups are sending their designs to the laser cutter and prototyping with the cardboard. What’s really cool is how determined they are to laser cut their designs. They are search all over the lab for cardboard and any material they can find.

We discussed project ideas and inventions for the Fab Lab and Fab Fest. Groups of 2 or 3 students presented their ideas to each other. Then they used some paper to sketch out their ideas. The students got really into it, and I did not want to interrupt them! It was incredible watching them think “outside the box”. Anyway, each group came to the front and presented some of their project ideas. And each group received an applause from their fellow classmates J The energy was great and the ideas are really evolving from the initial “I want to make a mobile phone”. I gave them some general project guidelines and suggestions.

We warmed up with a few basic quiz questions. Then I asked them “What are the steps to cut out a square using the vinyl cutter”? The prize was an MIT Academic Calendar book. The Fab Lab student named Simmons, may be a bit silly acting, but he really knows his stuff. He won the prize of an academic calendar today, and has done a really nice How To Use the Vinyl Cutter page.

I just spent some time with Ms. Valentina Kofi (the 8 year old girl). I gave her the microscope set as a prize for her hard work and dedication to the TTI-MIT Fab Lab. She loved it! I can already see it “Dr. Valentina Kofi”!

I am dying to see the chief and or the Kokompe folks. I suppose it’s difficult for them to leave their jobs. Maybe we should arrange a field trip for the Kokompe folks to visit the Fab Lab at a time that’s suitable for them. I am starting to see more women from the community pop their heads in the lab, though!

There is an inventor and TTI graduate who started coming to the lab in the evenings. The students are showing him how to use the laser cutter and the other equipment.

One student appears to have just broken the auto-focus part on the laser cutter. I think he put his bed height too high. This particular student was a bit shy to tell me that he broke it, even though that’s the #1 rule of the Fab Lab. Also, a few days ago, this same student asked me for 200,000 cedis which he claims he lost and his mother will throw him out the house if he does not return that money. It turns out that that was just some story! I spoke with a few of the TTI staff about this, and eventually with the students, so I think things are settled.

Today is supposed to be ladies day, but it is now about 8:50am and Abigail is the only lady here. I think this is because school is out, so the students are re-working their daily schedules. But no fear, other Fab Labbers are here, and are working diligently on their web pages.

Ok so about 5 or so ladies are here now (about 9:15am) and it’s now ladies day at the Fab Lab! Better known as Female Fab Lab Fridays. We have kicked out the gentlemen… One woman from the community, Monica, is here with us too! So we are walking through the equipment with her.

I went on a mission to exchange money. Douglas opened the lab for the students. Students were in and out. I also went to download a Blender Tutorial for the students to get started on Monday.

Today is rough. I really, really, honestly am not ready to leave

Ghana

. If it were not for this MIT-AITI (Africa Internet Technology Initiative) experience and the MIT-TTI Fab Lab, I may have never gotten the opportunity to go to Africa. It’s a beautiful thing…life changing for me. I would feel 10 times better if my ticket was a round-trip ticket from

Ghana

to the

and back to

Ghana

I will officially introduce the students to Blender (the free 3-D graphics software) today. I have downloaded a small tutorial onto a flash/jump drive and am installing it on the machines in the Fab Lab and the computer lab next door. I know that Blender can be complicated and the students may not see immediate results. So, it will be great to see how many students stay the course and figure out how to navigate in Blender. There are currently no more than 2 to a machine reading through the Blender tutorial. So far it looks like all the students are really getting into Blender! I am starting to see some 3D images being formed!

Amy is in and everyone is excited! She’s teaching them about the curf on the laser cutter J and their press-fit designs.

The Guru Page competition will be tomorrow….my last dayL Each group will present their Guru pages to the class.

My last day. I have never felt so sad in my life. Leaving

Ghana

is like leaving a loved one…

We are holding the official web/Guru page competition. Amy and I are the judges! We video-taped most of it and took pictures. We projected their web-sites onto the large wall and each group had to discuss their Guru/How To pages.

Amy and I awarded two prizes for the Guru pages. The first prize was for content and the second for style. We also went through to critique each page, give suggestions, and more.

The team that won for content was the team of Gurus who created the Using the vinyl cutter webpage. They were awarded lovely MIT T-shirts! And the team that won for style was the team of Gurus who created the Etching a circuit board with the Modela webpage, and they were awarded digital cameras. All the students are sooo… excited and supportive of each other!

Hopefully the above text provides some insight into what my days at the TTI Fab Lab were like. Please note that not all the events that occurred each day at the TTI Fab Lab were described above.