Postgraduate in Digital Fabrication – Fab Academy BCN
From Zero to Maker: A Hands-On Crash Course to Master Digital Fabrication
The Postgraduate in Digital Fabrication – Fab Academy BCN is directed by Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center For Bits and Atoms and based on MIT’s rapid prototyping course: How to Make (Almost) Anything; it focuses on personal fabrication – prototyping your ideas into products.
Degree
Postgraduate in Digital Fabrication – Fab Academy BCN is accredited by University of Lleida (UdL) – European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
Course Length
Full-time dedication, in-person
Jan 22nd 2025 to June 15th 2025
16th Edition
Price
7500€
Credits
45 ECTS
Where?
Fab Lab Barcelona — IAAC
Language
English
Applications Deadline
January 15, 2024
Presentation
In the Postgraduate in Digital Fabrication – Fab Academy BCN, you will get the chance to see how designs become real, how bits become atoms, and how your ideas can scale-up. Through this intensive five-month program you will learn how to envision, design and prototype projects using digital fabrication tools and machines. It is a multi-disciplinary and hands-on learning experience that empowers students to learn-by-doing and inspires them to make stuff locally to become active participants in sustainable cities and communities.
The global classroom
Fab Academy consists of both classes online and offline disciplines, a method that we call “distributed education“. Students work on two levels – global and local. The global level, otherwise known as the Global Campus, connects +250 students enrolled in Fab Academy in more than 50 cities worldwide. The students connect weekly for Global Lectures with Professor Neil Gershenfeld – Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. After every Global Lecture, in which Prof. Gershenfeld explains the content and lays out the assignment for the week, there is a round of reviews that opens the possibility for students to interact with the rest of the global community.
The Fab Academy program is based on MIT’s popular rapid-prototyping course ‘How To Make (Almost) Anything – both courses are taught by Prof. Neil Gershenfeld. The Fab Academy Diploma is awarded by the Fab Academy community with the support of the Fab Lab Network and Fab Foundation. In the past years, numerous institutions hosting the course have started accrediting the skills developed in the course – you can check these institutions here.
A (local) Digital Fabrication playground
Once enrolled in Fab Academy you will learn how to use the Fab Lab’s digital fabrication tools, machines and skills such as Project management, Computer design, Computer-controlled cutting, Electronics, 3D scanning and printing, Electronics design, Computer-controlled machining, Embedded programming, Molding and casting, Networking and communications, Mechanical design, Interface and application programming and Machine design. In addition to the Global Lectures, there are two days each week where you will receive specific support for your project and have access to Fab Lab Barcelona’s workshop and digital fabrication equipment.
By the end of the course, you will have the essential knowledge to plan, develop and prototype a final project. You will also have a comprehensive understanding of how to plan a sustainable business and how to share cutting-edge designs in an open source environment.
Why study Fab Academy in Barcelona?
Over ten years, Fab Lab Barcelona has become a global benchmark for the Fab Academy experience. Students come from every continent to study in Barcelona with the Future Learning Unit and experts from Fab Lab Barcelona. Future of Education specialist and Fab Academy Barcelona alum Santi Fuentemilla leads the hands-on instruction the lab, supported by multidisciplinary experts in digital fabrication, robotics, machine learning, coding and materials. Students in Barcelona study in a professional lab environment. In addition, the course is delivered in collaboration with students from the IAAC Master of Design for Emergent Futures which provides an opportunity to expand professional and personal experiences. Alumni of the program have used their future-skills to build leading roles in the global Fab Lab network, established their own design studios and become entrepreneurs in the innovation and social design fields.
An innovative environment
Poblenou neighborhood, where IAAC is located, is one of the most genuine and prolific metropolitan scenarios of Barcelona city, an epicenter of creativity and innovation where ultra-modern buildings such as the Agbar Tower, Media TIC or the Design Hub Barcelona, coexist with old warehouses, art galleries, organizations, design studios, advertising agencies, higher education centers, production companies, hotels and restaurants (Poblenou Urban District). The neighborhood is so unique it has been branded, the 22@ District.
What is the 22@ district?
What began as an urban renewal project is today’s a powerful source of Urban, Economic, and Social renewal: “22@ Districte de la Innovació” or 22@ Innovation District, hosting the recent plan to consolidate a “Maker’s District” in the area. This Poblenou Maker District aims to foster interaction within the local community and strengthen reindustrialization processes in the urban fabric with added-value features, such as the use of cutting-edge technologies for local production, training workers to face new challenges in the workplace in the immediate future and fostering Industry 4.0. Based on an international perspective of the “Fab City”, the construction of a new model for cities using the power of the Maker Movement and the global Fab-Lab network.
How does it work?
Fab Academy is a five-month program, classes run from mid-January to mid-June, plus 1 month to finish documentation and evaluation. The classes run from Monday to Friday, with a total dedication of around 30 hours a week between classes and personal work in the Lab.
Each week the student will be expected to complete a different topic fully documented. The knowledge learned will contribute towards the development of the final project.
The Fab Academy Graduation Ceremony will take place at FAB25 in Czech Republic.
The conference consists of online and offline activities such as events, resources, workshops, fairs and boot camps that promote and advocate for emerging creative talent and their business productivity and sustainability.
Competences
Design & Machining
Computer-Aided Design
Computer-Controlled Cutting
Computer-Controlled Machining
Molding and Casting
3d Scanning and Printing
Mechanical Design
Machine Design
Electronics & Programming
Electronics Design
Electronics Production
Embedded Programming
Interface and Application Programming
Input Devices
Output Devices
Networking and Communications
Management
Principles and Practices
Project Management
Applications and Implications
Project Development
Invention, Intellectual Property, and Incom
Student Profile
Fab Academy Barcelona is open for students, professionals, lifelong learners with backgrounds from all kinds of disciplines looking for new approaches or to broaden the scope of their practice. We welcome individuals from every walk of life – with or without experience in technical training, whether it’s looking for a way to develop a specific project or pursue the physical aspects of an idea.
Fab Lab Barcelona’s Academy consists of technical training but also the creative freedom to develop projects with an analytical and logical approach alongside practical design experience. Students will become acquainted with industry standards, latest innovation trends and participate in a booming ecosystem of young scientists and entrepreneurs. Fab Academy is an inspiring creative technical environment in which designers and scientists collaborate, looking to create the maximum positive impact for the planet.
Faculty
Josep Martí Elias
Fab Academy Barcelona Lead Instructor
Josep Martí is an Industrial Engineer from Barcelona. Josep started his career as a BI consultant but decided to change his professional path graduating from Fabacademy in 2019. Since then, he has taught digital fabrication, design and electronics in the Fablab, being part of the Future Learning Unit teaching in Fabacademy, Fabricademy and the Master in Design in Emergent futures. Recently, he started his path as a researcher in Erasmus+ projects. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology Engineering and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, specialising in Automatic Control, both from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Fabacademy diploma. He has always been interested in the Maker culture and is always looking to learn and create new things.
Santi Fuentemilla
Program Director
Santiago Fuentemilla has a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of La Salle (Universitat Ramon Llull), Spain. In 2012 he graduated from the Fab Academy, an intensive 6-month digital manufacturing and rapid prototyping program led by Neil Gershenfeld at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). He is currently doing a PHD in digital manufacturing at the EGA UPC (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya). As a professional architect, Santi has worked in several architecture companies carrying out projects at an international level for more than 10 years. Since 2013 he has been part of the Fab Lab Barcelona core team as coordinator and leader of the Future Learning research area. The area focuses on designing and implementing innovative educational models promoting growth, learning and creativity to generate opportunities to achieve the goals and challenges of uncertain futures. He is the director of the global academic programs Fab Academy and Fabricademy in the Barcelona node. Since 2017 he has been a professor of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures (MDEF). Santi participates in private and EU-funded research projects such as TEC-LA, which measures the impact of the introduction of maker project-based learning for the development of STEAM competences, skills and knowledge in primary school students, DO IT, on entrepreneurship and social innovation for young people, PHALABS 4. 0 which links photonics research and its practical application in the Fab Lab, POP-MACHINA which aims to demonstrate the power and potential of the maker movement and collaborative production for the circular economy of the European Union or SHEMAKES which aims to empower future innovators in the sustainable fashion industry through inspiration, skills and networking.
Óscar González
Local Expert
Óscar González is an Industrial Engineer based in Barcelona with expertise in data analysis, testing and calibration through his experience in automotive and sensor development. Óscar is the Sense Making lead at Fab Lab Barcelona team doing research and development within the Smart Citizen project and is an instructor at the Fabacademy program.
Julia Leirado Silva
Educational Program Support
Julia Leirado is an architect based in Barcelona interested in educational innovation and how new technologies and digital fabrication tools can intersect with traditional education curriculum and their impact on improving the learning experience. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (ETSAB), a master’s in Project Management (EAE), and a Fab Academy diploma in digital fabrication from the Fab Lab Network.
Petra Garajova
Educational Program Support
Petra is a Slovak designer with a background in architecture, exploring the boundaries of material science, digital manufacturing and textiles. Currently she is working in Fab Lab Barcelona as a Fabricademy Local Instructor. Her main interest arises from biology and waste materials which lie on the borders of various artistic disciplines. Nowadays, she is also a co-founder of the Experimental Design platform which is using fashion as a tool to reshape the connection between nature, soft materials and the human body using new technologies. Petra holds a Master’s degree in Arts and Architecture at the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design in Prague. After her architectural studies she graduated from Fabricademy – Textile and Technology Academy in Fab Lab Barcelona IAAC. During her studies she was part of Shemakes.eu European project as an Ambassador between Fab Lab Barcelona and TextileLab Iceland working on the Lab to Lab project – Rethinking Wool. Her Fabricademy final project was awarded the Young Scientist Award 2022.
Adai Suriñach
Educational Program Support
Adai graduated with a superior degree in engraving and stamping techniques at Llotja School of Art and Design in Barcelona. After graduation, he became interested in 3D printing, taking him to get involved in Fab Labs until becoming an intern at Fab Lab Barcelona. Shortly after, Adai undertook Fab Academy in 2022 and started working at the lab in different projects like Smartcitizen and as an instructor in academic programs.
Partners
Admission Requirements
Students aiming to get ECTS certification must also provide the following documentation during the course of the program (it is not necessary to have them at the time of the Application):
a) Legalized copy of your previous academic degree. (Please make sure to arrange the legalization of your diploma as required by your country of origin (more info here).
b) An Official Translation of your legalized diploma (first you must legalize it, THEN, translate all to Spanish) to Spanish language (if not in Spanish already). Your diploma must be translated by an official sworn translator duly registered by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. List of authorized translators here.
c) A copy of your valid passport, or I.D. if you are a citizen of a member state of the EU
FAQ’s
What do I need to do before starting Fab Academy?
Ideally, check tutorials on the subjects you don’t know. This will help you familiarize with key concepts and the learning experience will be smooth → Check tutorials
What if I have never programmed or 3d printed before?
Don’t worry! Fab Academy can be taken on many levels… If you have no background in the subjects of the course, you will get all the basics to learn and produce your assignments. We suggest that you check some tutorials before coming, that will make you feel more confident at the beginning 👉 Check tutorials
What kind of job can I get after doing Fab Academy?
The world of jobs is changing rapidly. Fab Academy gives you the chance to broaden your scope of what is possible in your professional scope or inspire you to find a new path.
Our alumni have opened their own labs and become network leaders; created their own professional standards which have revolutionised businesses; written books, papers and enhanced their Academic environments. Fab Academy can also be the gateway to becoming a technical assistant in companies, private practices and Universities; a Fab Lab Manager or a Fab Academy Instructor.
What do I need for the class?
Bring your laptop and be ready to change your life!
Can I get my company to pay for this?
Of course! Many companies support their employees to take crash courses and advance their team’s skill set. Fab Academy is an excellent opportunity to bootstrap your knowledge both in technical matters as well as project management and development.
Can I learn Digital Fabrication on my own?
Yes! Fab Academy content is free. All videos and class instructions are posted every year in the Fab Academy Archive.
What we offer with the fee is access to infrastructure and support, you can see the details here. Fab Lab Barcelona is one of the largest Fab Labs in Europe – a pioneer within the network and part of a renowned international Institution – the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). IAAC is a unique environment to build relationships; learn about the latest practices in the innovation and creative setting and to make long-lasting friends.
Can I bring my own project to develop?
Yes. Fab Academy takes you through a series of principles and practices that you will integrate into a final project. The whole process can be targeted and the results more fulfilling if you already have a project that is in a state of development. If you don’t have a project, don’t worry.. We will inspire you enough to find one.
Student Stories
Head over to our blog and see what graduates of Fab Academy have to say about the program.
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