(Written by Anil)
For my NIOS exams, where I’ve chosen Dater Entry and Computer Studies, I’ve started to explore a new field: hacker spaces. We are planning to open one in Janwaar.
Ulrike introduced me to Rajesh Nair in Kuala Lumpur, Ahmedabad, who had visited Janwaar earlier in the year. He is running a program which is called Zero2Maker and they have a space in Ahemdabad. And she connected me with David Li, with whom I had a few zoom calls. David introduced me to the concept of hacker spaces. David is living in China, he was among the very forst to open up a hacker space in China and he is now running the Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab.
My best experience so far was a virtual meeting with Lily from Seeed Studio. She gave Abhishek and me a virtual tour to Chaihuo’s Xfactory, a hacker space in Beijing China. It was super exciting! We entered the factory through the entrance gate and then we saw some very attractive modules being presented. These modules were created by the members of Chaihuo Xfactory. I remember there was a module of a photo and a bulb, if you go close to the bulb it lit up. Then we entered the solution section with modules which solve particular problems. Most of the things were made out of waste. Lily said that there was a company who had waste pipes and they connected to Seeed Studio and both started a cooperation. One result of this cooperation are the solutions made out of waste. The studio members framed their modules. We saw more modules. And we saw a laser cuter which enables you to cut shapes. There were many mini machines for producing things. There were also a few 3D printers. We saw the workshop space of the Xfactory. There, they hold workshops with the members of the studio, they build products there and provide training sessions for their members.
It was pretty impressive. It was a nice tour to the Xfactory and I am excited to start working on robotics!
