Fab Lab Maker Hub is the new name for Fab Lab Manorhamilton and is based in the North Leitrim town of Manorhamilton – A town which has a thriving arts, culture and enterprise scene and is home to the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, The Glens Centre and companies such as MCI, Merenda and Futurecast. The overall aim of the Maker Hub is to foster innovation, education and new business development whilst providing unprecedented access to digital fabrication technology.
The Fab Lab Maker Hub team comprises Stuart Lawn and Leo Scarff. Both run their own successful businesses and previously had long careers working with multinational companies. The team have over fifty combined years of expertise and their skills cover the broad areas of technology, design, engineering, business development and community engagement.
HISTORY OF FAB LABS
The Fab Lab, short for Fabrication Laboratory, was started by Neil Gershenfeld at the Center for Bits and Atoms in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab in 2005. Inspired by the success of his ‘How To Make (almost) Anything’ course that utilised the Fab Lab, Gershenfeld sought to bring digital fabrication technology out of academia and into the community. In 2006 he built the first community Fab Lab in inner-city Boston. As of 2023 there are now over 2500 Fab Labs in over 100 countries. Neil Gershenfeld saw Fab Lab’s fulfilling many aims:
Fab Lab Maker Hub as part of that global and Ireland-wide Fab Lab network are continually seeking to develop the aims of the original MIT Fab Lab charter and these all correspond entirely with the Maker Hub project.
