Gateway Automated Manufacturing instructor
JD Jones demonstrates robotics equipment to
Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch at the college's
integrated Manufacturing and Engineering Technology
Center in Sturtevant, Wis., on Friday, Jan. 31.
Kleefisch toured the center including the
Fab Lab which is housed there.
The educational training and innovation possibilities for Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry at facilities such as Gateway Technical College’s Fab Lab are what’s needed to continue to strengthen the state’s manufacturing economy, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch said following a tour of the facility today.
Kleefisch toured the Fab Lab at Gateway’s SC Johnson integrated Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Center in Sturtevant to see its benefits and gain some best practices that could be applied to business and education in other parts of the state. She pointed out that manufacturing continues to play a strong role in the state’s economy, and facilities such as the Fab Lab help the state to not only compete regionally, but globally as well.
“This presents a great opportunity for students and manufacturing,” she said.
The lab has garnered statewide and regional attention for its innovation and leading-edge practices. The Fab Lab is a work space containing a variety of computer controlled tools that allow for the manufacture of nearly anything an individual can conceive. The concept was developed at MIT as a way to spur innovation.
For more information on the Fab Lab, go here: gtc.edu/wedd/industrial-design-fab-lab
