FabLab UTEC

Jr. Medrano Silva 165, Barranco 15063 Lima

School workshop

Space size 300 m²

Opened in January 2015

Structure type Private university

Explored in October 2018


We contribute to the Education of Future engineers by implementing Project-based Education and Design based instruction via Digital Fabrication tools. We work to extend these outreach to the community at large. We also develop collaborations with Companies and Civil Society agents in order to generate learning experiences, prototypes and products.

Contact

+511230500 ext. 4209

Social networks

Main interests

Technology - machines & tools Community Entrepreneurship Robotics Industry & innovation Education Electronics Design

This workshop is great for:

Schools & universities Students Teachers Large companies Small & medium businesses

The closest workshops nearby are:

Our workshop

Learn more about our space, members, machines & services!

Imagine an 11 floors concrete building in the middle of the 2 most wealthy and trendy districts of Lima: welcome in the UTEC University! Like his disruptive design, this university aims to kick the private educational anthill to become a key actor for the engineers of tomorrow. His mission: develop a new engineering model to shape creative professionals able to identify social needs to design effective solutions with their comprehensive scientific background. What best to reach this vision than a Fablab? No need to convince the former Director of the industrial career, Luis Peña Mendoza, who decided in 2016 to invest in a makerspace as soon as he got his FabAcademy certification. He wasn’t alone in this project: he could count on the support of the institute TecSup which shares with UTEC the same president and benefits from years of experience and reputation in technical education and digital fabrication.

If the first year objective was to make every student work in the Fablab to create their industrial project, to foster investigation and innovative products creation, its strategy changed with the arrival of a new Director, Rolando Vargas, and a coordinator dedicated to the space, Isaac Robles. Such as the university, which regularly changes its operating mode since its creation in 2013, the Fablab has seen some significant changes occurred to fit with the new strategies of UTEC and students needs and to integrate good practices shared by other labs. The changes were also physical: the first space of 75m2 located in the 4th floor doubled its size and the new machines such as CNC, laser cutter where installed in new space of 150 m2 in the ground floor because of their weight and vibration. Even if the investigation lines and the innovation objectives remain, the short-term objective is to develop engineers with skills as good in technology such as social behavior. To the question “Who are you?”, Isaac’s team answer with metaphors such as the one of a carpenter: “We are makers building projects but overall through our shared work we are building our expertise and personal path.” This place is now opened to anyone and Isaac doesn’t hesitate to make this clear and unequivocal statement “What we do is boring” to break the injunction of innovation and to attract people attention what they can learn rather than what they will produce. The space values “Create, cooperate and iterate” have thus replaced “ Create, criticize and innovate”.

The next stage? In the short term, to attract more students from all the careers. In the midterm, to collaborate with companies to work on real case project. In the long-term, gather the fabrication spaces of UTEC (the Garage, the BioLab, …) to create a multidisciplinary learning center where students learn all the skills they need by doing and by collaborating.

When you enter the L411 room, the location of the lab in the university, you will be a little confused if you are expected to find in one look the team to orient you. Indeed, except Isaac who is both a teacher of mechanical engineering and the fabmanager, all the team members are students of the UTEC university like the majority of the lab users. But after a while, you will identify the 3 other members of the fablab team.

First, Max, a mechanical student, can give you wise advice about design and is also focusing on the documentation process of all the projects done in the lab. He is in a way the right arms-length of Isaac, as he is the more experienced member. Then, Leslie has more an operational role as she helps project holders, verifies that all the machine work well and keeps the place clean.

They both fully dedicate their time to the lab because there are hired by the lab like all the other lab of the university can do. It allows them to validate the mandatory 1 year of training. And on the other side, it allows the university to keep its talents to help and train students. Among their mission, they work on investigations to test new processes and improve machines.

But every student can also be a volunteer like Diego, the third member, who help project holders besides its daily 6 hours student courses.

The daily mission of the lab is to help students about their training projects. To train students it has created a very interesting extra curriculum program : « the Nano Degree » an adaptation of the FabAcademy program dedicated to all students.

Discover the FabAcademy program

In parallel, to attract students, it organizes events like the Arduino day with the garage (another makerspace of the university) sponsored by companies like NayLamp (specialized in electronics). The team also settles a stand during the day of the presentation of the university’s clubs at the beginning of each semester (March and September). Also, once a year, it organizes Maker camps for scholars during two weeks (two days per weeks) to sensitize them to digital fabrication and by the way do the publicity of the university. With the same strategy, the lab is open to students who are invited to discover UTEC university during the « Open day » (now renamed « I+D day ») (twice a year since 2016).

Finally, being part of the team is very opened to every student whatever their level and careers. The only mandatory thing is « to be open to learn and share your knowledge »

The community of the FabLab UTEC is essentially made of students. It is opened to every career but, at the start, it ¨¨attracted the industrial students** as the lab is attached to the industrial department (400 students) and is managed by Isaac, an industrial engineering teacher. To make the place known, two courses (product and manufactory) take place there.

During its whole studies, each student has to complete at least 4 projects. The VLI program (« vivir el ingeneria ») is one opportunity to fulfill them partially. Indeed, in the context of this program, each university lab suggests projects to students. Each student has to elect one. In the end, multidisciplinary student teams are made to achieve those projects in the lab. In this context, the FabLab UTEC suggests two projects a year. It is a means to attract students from the 9 other university departments.

Each student can come freely and for free but its project has to contain a minimum level of complexity. « here you can’t come to build a fancy Yoda for the decoration of your house or to play »

Students are trained either by doing either via the Nano Degree. But « the real training is when they start using the machine ».

The lab has the target to open its community to companies building projects together and to other institutions like the FabLab TECSUP to test their Fablab mobile.

Fablabs UTEC is entirely financed by the UTEC University without an objective of rentability. It’s considered as a pedagogic and investigation tool offered to students and teachers to create a new model of education based on projects, self-paced learning and collaboration and to foster innovation. Such as the Garage lab or the Biolab, 2 other makerspaces in the University, the space is part of a flagship project called “Living engineering” (VLE) in which students have to work in a team to make a multidisciplinary project in 4 months. The objective is to develop complementary technical skills such as soft skills. In this context, the Fablab supports the students in those projects achievement from the idea to the presentation of the final prototype during a dedicated event gathering all the school. They also offered compulsory courses for the industrial career.

Each year and a half, Isaac Robles, in charge of the Fablab, presents to the industrial director a strategic plan to detail the activities and objectives of the space. It results in a validated budget that Isaac can use freely, in compliance with his plan. If the rentability is not required for now, Isaac is looking for its sustainability to cover the operational costs based on the collaboration with companies. If this objective hadn’t been reached the past year, none students had selected companies projects for the VLE, he aims to reiterate his offers next year.

Imagine an 11 floors concrete building in the middle of the 2 most wealthy and trendy districts of Lima: welcome in the UTEC University! Like his disruptive design, this university aims to kick the private educational anthill to become a key actor for the engineers of tomorrow. His mission: develop a new engineering model to shape creative professionals able to identify social needs to design effective solutions with their comprehensive scientific background. What best to reach this vision than a Fablab? No need to convince the former Director of the industrial career, Luis Peña Mendoza, who decided in 2016 to invest in a makerspace as soon as he got his FabAcademy certification. He wasn’t alone in this project: he could count on the support of the institute TecSup which shares with UTEC the same president and benefits from years of experience and reputation in technical education and digital fabrication.

If the first year objective was to make every student work in the Fablab to create their industrial project, to foster investigation and innovative products creation, its strategy changed with the arrival of a new Director, Rolando Vargas, and a coordinator dedicated to the space, Isaac Robles. Such as the university, which regularly changes its operating mode since its creation in 2013, the Fablab has seen some significant changes occurred to fit with the new strategies of UTEC and students needs and to integrate good practices shared by other labs. The changes were also physical: the first space of 75m2 located in the 4th floor doubled its size and the new machines such as CNC, laser cutter where installed in new space of 150 m2 in the ground floor because of their weight and vibration. Even if the investigation lines and the innovation objectives remain, the short-term objective is to develop engineers with skills as good in technology such as social behavior. To the question “Who are you?”, Isaac’s team answer with metaphors such as the one of a carpenter: “We are makers building projects but overall through our shared work we are building our expertise and personal path.” This place is now opened to anyone and Isaac doesn’t hesitate to make this clear and unequivocal statement “What we do is boring” to break the injunction of innovation and to attract people attention what they can learn rather than what they will produce. The space values “Create, cooperate and iterate” have thus replaced “ Create, criticize and innovate”.

The next stage? In the short term, to attract more students from all the careers. In the midterm, to collaborate with companies to work on real case project. In the long-term, gather the fabrication spaces of UTEC (the Garage, the BioLab, …) to create a multidisciplinary learning center where students learn all the skills they need by doing and by collaborating.

When you enter the L411 room, the location of the lab in the university, you will be a little confused if you are expected to find in one look the team to orient you. Indeed, except Isaac who is both a teacher of mechanical engineering and the fabmanager, all the team members are students of the UTEC university like the majority of the lab users. But after a while, you will identify the 3 other members of the fablab team.

First, Max, a mechanical student, can give you wise advice about design and is also focusing on the documentation process of all the projects done in the lab. He is in a way the right arms-length of Isaac, as he is the more experienced member. Then, Leslie has more an operational role as she helps project holders, verifies that all the machine work well and keeps the place clean.

They both fully dedicate their time to the lab because there are hired by the lab like all the other lab of the university can do. It allows them to validate the mandatory 1 year of training. And on the other side, it allows the university to keep its talents to help and train students. Among their mission, they work on investigations to test new processes and improve machines.

But every student can also be a volunteer like Diego, the third member, who help project holders besides its daily 6 hours student courses.

The daily mission of the lab is to help students about their training projects. To train students it has created a very interesting extra curriculum program : « the Nano Degree » an adaptation of the FabAcademy program dedicated to all students.

Discover the FabAcademy program

In parallel, to attract students, it organizes events like the Arduino day with the garage (another makerspace of the university) sponsored by companies like NayLamp (specialized in electronics). The team also settles a stand during the day of the presentation of the university’s clubs at the beginning of each semester (March and September). Also, once a year, it organizes Maker camps for scholars during two weeks (two days per weeks) to sensitize them to digital fabrication and by the way do the publicity of the university. With the same strategy, the lab is open to students who are invited to discover UTEC university during the « Open day » (now renamed « I+D day ») (twice a year since 2016).

Finally, being part of the team is very opened to every student whatever their level and careers. The only mandatory thing is « to be open to learn and share your knowledge »

The community of the FabLab UTEC is essentially made of students. It is opened to every career but, at the start, it ¨¨attracted the industrial students** as the lab is attached to the industrial department (400 students) and is managed by Isaac, an industrial engineering teacher. To make the place known, two courses (product and manufactory) take place there.

During its whole studies, each student has to complete at least 4 projects. The VLI program (« vivir el ingeneria ») is one opportunity to fulfill them partially. Indeed, in the context of this program, each university lab suggests projects to students. Each student has to elect one. In the end, multidisciplinary student teams are made to achieve those projects in the lab. In this context, the FabLab UTEC suggests two projects a year. It is a means to attract students from the 9 other university departments.

Each student can come freely and for free but its project has to contain a minimum level of complexity. « here you can’t come to build a fancy Yoda for the decoration of your house or to play »

Students are trained either by doing either via the Nano Degree. But « the real training is when they start using the machine ».

The lab has the target to open its community to companies building projects together and to other institutions like the FabLab TECSUP to test their Fablab mobile.

Fablabs UTEC is entirely financed by the UTEC University without an objective of rentability. It’s considered as a pedagogic and investigation tool offered to students and teachers to create a new model of education based on projects, self-paced learning and collaboration and to foster innovation. Such as the Garage lab or the Biolab, 2 other makerspaces in the University, the space is part of a flagship project called “Living engineering” (VLE) in which students have to work in a team to make a multidisciplinary project in 4 months. The objective is to develop complementary technical skills such as soft skills. In this context, the Fablab supports the students in those projects achievement from the idea to the presentation of the final prototype during a dedicated event gathering all the school. They also offered compulsory courses for the industrial career.

Each year and a half, Isaac Robles, in charge of the Fablab, presents to the industrial director a strategic plan to detail the activities and objectives of the space. It results in a validated budget that Isaac can use freely, in compliance with his plan. If the rentability is not required for now, Isaac is looking for its sustainability to cover the operational costs based on the collaboration with companies. If this objective hadn’t been reached the past year, none students had selected companies projects for the VLE, he aims to reiterate his offers next year.

Machines & tools available

Boxford CNC milling machine EMCO Concept Turn 105 CNC milling machine Shopbot 96x48 Alpha CNC 3 axis Shopbot 5 Axis CNC milling machines GCC MG580 Hybrid Laser cutter 3D printer Systems Cube Pro BCN3D Sigma 3D printer Stratasys Mojo 3D printer Stratasys Objet 30 Pro 3D printer Stratasys Objet 30 Prime 3D printer S5-MOD- Castor 3D printer Delta Mod 3D printer 3D printer Python- Clay 2B-Dual extrusion 3D printer Choco-3D printer Roland Modela MDX-540 CNC milling machine 3 axis GOM ATOS Core 180 3D scanner Zeiss Comet L8 3D scanner Vynil cutter Roland GX-24

Technologies & processes available

Laser cutting 3D printing CNC milling Hot wire cutting Computing & softwares Electronics Robotics Traditional tools Welding Arduino CNC Metal working tools Wood working tools

Services offered

Education missions FabAcademy curriculum Classes & workshops Prototyping

Our best practices

The inspiring things we do here to run our collaborative space

Nano Degree

categories
Training Community

What is it?

The Fablab UTEC offers a digital fabrication program fully integrated into the curriculum of the UTEC university and open to every career whatever their level.

In concrete terms?

The Nano Degree is a program inspired by the Fabacademy program taught by the Fab Foundation. The students learn the basics of the digital fabrication from the use of specific software like Rihno to the construction of the physical prototype thanks to tools you can find in the Fablab UTEC. There is one course per tools and software. If you do the program in a row, it will require 3 hours per day for 3 months.

The great plus of this program is that you can choose when you will validate the different modules, between your first semester and the end of your scholarship and the order of the validation of those modules doesn’t matter. It is up to you.

Also, it allows the students to validate university credits.

Why is it interesting?

First, the program is considered as a course of the university. As a consequence, the lab is fully supported by the university and considered as a teaching entity instead of a business tool. The team is then more focus to develop and improve the teaching content than looking a stable business model which can annihilate the teaching benefit for the student and thus the university.

Then, it gives to the students the tools to achieve the various projects required to get their diploma and competencies to make the difference in the employment market. And, as it allows them to validate credit, the time spent to learn is not a part taken on their free time to do homework and projects.

Finally, giving the courses inside the lab, it attracts new users and make the Fablab community growing and increase the number of ideas and collaborations.


Our makers projects

Get inspired by the DIY projects of our team & members

Automatic hydroponic system

This hydroponic system takes care automatically of your plant during 2 months by controlling its temperature, light, humidity (ground and environment), water quantity and quality (with its acidity).

You can control it remotely with an application which shows you the plant’s needs and the actions automatically performed by the system to fit these needs.

It uses PID Temperature Controllers and Blynk technology.


Braso Robotico

Are you fan of robots or simply surprised we can build one in a FabLab? Then this project description fit you. Diego, a 8th semester student of the UTEC university, is working on a 5 axes robot after having experimented the building of on a wheeling chair. The purpose of its new robot is to upgrade it.


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