Difference between revisions of "Iceland"

Revision as of 19:42, 23 June 2009

Fab Lab
Location:	Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland
Lab managers:	Smári McCarthy and Frosti Gíslason
Opened:	1. July 2008

There is one Fab Lab in Iceland, located in Vestmannaeyjar, and run by Nýsköpunarmiðstöð Íslands, Iceland Innovation Center ,.

Location

Vestmannaeyjar is an archipelago of roughly 15 islands and numerous crags off the south coast of Iceland, and is home to 4000 people, about 4 million Puffins, about 8 million other birds, and around 500 sheep. With a prevalent easterly wind, the southernmost tip of the main island, Heimaey, is the windiest place in Europe. In 1973 a volcano errupted on the main island, crushing 400 houses and causing the inhabitants to evacuate to the mainland to safety. Now we're back and we're even digging up parts of old town that went under the lava flow. It's a pretty nice place, with plenty to do: big festivals in July and August, rock climbing, abseiling, sailing, hunting, angling,... and it's only 4 hours by boat+bus to the only city, Reykjavík, which is also a fun place.

Projects

The projects we're working on at the Innovation Center range from social experiments to energy issues: We're getting ready to run a 12 unit course in Digital Fabrication at the local gymnasium (16-20 year olds in secondary schooling), doing work on a local geothermal heat pump system, preparing instrumentation for scientific projects such as puffin colony measurements, building an interactive model of the part of the town that went under the lava flow, and assisting local individuals and companies with product development and so on.

• FAB103

Equipment

As of 10. September 2008, the Vestmannaeyjar Fab Lab has:

• Electronics workspace
• Shopbot
• Epilog Laser
• Roland CAMM
• Z-Corp 3D printer (access, not on site: At the Reykjavík offices of NMÍ)
• Large Hadron Collider (just kidding)