The tentative cost of the Mini Fab lab is around $61,195 which comes to around Rs 40 Lakhs
Kerala Technical University campus
Thiruvananthapuram: For the first time in the history of the state, the State Government has given the nod for the transfer of Government funds for projects initiated in private self-financing colleges.
The State Government has given the green signal to APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) for setting up Mini Fab Labs in 10 private self-financing colleges.
Ten other colleges where Mini Fab Labs will be established will be in government, aided or government controlled self-financing colleges. A committee with Kerala Start up Mission CEO Jayasankar Prasad, Higher Education Additional Secretary M Sherif, Technical Education Director K Vijayakumar, Job Kurian of IIT, Madras and CET Principal J David has been asked to formulate the criteria while choosing colleges including self-financing colleges for establishing the Mini Fab lab.
As Government money will flow to private self financing colleges if they are selected, the committee has been asked to ensure a transparent process while identifying such colleges.
University Pro Vice Chancellor M Abdul Rahman told Deccan Chronicle that there was also a plan to seek Government assistance to establish such labs in 100 more engineering colleges in the academic year 2016-17.
Kerala Start up Mission will provide assistance to affiliated Engineering colleges of the University for establishing Mini Fab labs, Mr Rahman added.
As per the present decision, 50 percent of the capital cost of the installation will have to be met by the institute. Kerala Start up Mission through KTU will provide 50 percent cost.
The tentative cost of the Mini Fab lab is around $61,195 which comes to around Rs 40 Lakhs. Fab Lab is the educational outreach component of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), an extension of its research into digital fabrication and computation.
Mini Fab Lab will give International visibility for students and the institution itself. As all Fab Labs share common tools and processes, the programme is building a global network and a distributed (what does distributed laboratory mean?) laboratory for research and invention, Mr Rahman said.
The Fab Lab will connect students to a global community of learners, educators, technologists, researchers, makers and innovators across 30 countries and 24 time zones.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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