Collaboration, innovation, experimentation, hands-on learning.
Winam FabLab is a hub for sharing ideas, tools and resources among makers, Jua Kali artisans, professionals, educators, students, entrepreneurs, learning institutions and hobbyists.
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Closing the gap between classroom skills and market need.
We tap into the gaps between classroom-learnt skills and market needs, building products that address real challenges — with an emphasis on local manufacturing using emerging technology such as IoT.
Based in Western Kenya's Kisumu region, where industry is still scarce, FabLab Winam uses people-centred design to tackle socio-economic challenges through incubation and hands-on prototyping.
We are a hub for knowledge-share, digital fabrication and innovation — empowering communities through human-centred design, with a focus on local manufacturing led by locals themselves.
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A prototyping space that nurtures innovation and entrepreneurship.
We aim to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship by engaging students in formal and informal, multidisciplinary design projects. In the long term, our goal is to integrate the space into every level of the engineering curriculum, and to normalize project-based learning.
FabLab has placed a collection of tools that are typically inaccessible to most innovators into our engineering space. Members pay a fee, much like they would for a gym, to access these machines. Those further along in development can sublet incubator space from us — and we offer courses through the Fab Design Academy using adaptive learning methods that let students engage flexibly.
Part of 2,000+ labs, working to one shared standard.
FabLab Winam is part of a global network of fab labs, all operating under a common charter.
A global network of local labs
Fab labs are a global network of local labs, enabling invention by providing access to tools for digital fabrication.
A shared inventory of core capabilities
Fab labs share an evolving inventory of core capabilities to make (almost) anything — allowing people and projects to be shared across the network.
Assistance beyond a single lab
The Fab network provides operational, educational, technical, financial and logistical assistance beyond what's available within one lab.
A genuine community resource
Fab labs are available as a community resource, offering open access for individuals as well as scheduled access for programs.
Designs remain learnable
Designs and processes developed in fab labs can be protected and sold however an inventor chooses, but should remain available for individuals to use and learn from.
Commercial activity, responsibly grown
Commercial activities can be prototyped and incubated in a fab lab, but must not conflict with other uses — they should grow beyond, rather than within, the lab, and benefit the inventors, labs and networks that contributed to their success.