Fab Lab ULB

Raison d’être du Fab Lab ULB

The Fab Lab ULB is a community of researchers, teachers, technicians and learners, from all disciplines, registered in the global Fab Lab network initiated by the MIT – Center of Bits and Atoms (The Fab Charter), brought together around a physical location on the Usquare campus.

Fab Lab ULB’s raison d’être lies in the will to act on the world and the conviction that as the world becomes more complex and globalized, tomorrow’s challenges can only be met by a united community sharing knowledge, know-how and action, not by isolated individuals and/or institutions.

Fab Lab ULB uses digital fabrication and information and communication technologies to increase individuals’ power to understand, explain and act on the world around them. In doing so, its members innovate by exercising their three missions of research, teaching and public service in a single gesture, which forms the sole raison d’être of Fab Lab ULB.

Strategic Axes

Fab Lab ULB is built around five strategic axes.

• Axis 1 - Make (almost) anything
  A place, a community and tools to go from idea to object.
• Axis 2 - Community
  A local and international, inclusive and interconnected community sharing Fab Lab culture.
• Axis 3 - Knowledge, know-how and action
  Useful and shared expertise based on digital fabrication tools and techniques.
• Axis 4 - Infrastructure
  Flexible infrastructure supporting a complex ecosystem, built around an open physical location.
• Axis 5 - Governance
  Horizontal and agile governance adapted to the ULB Fab Lab ecosystem.

The Fab Lab ULB Ecosystem

Fab Lab ULB, as a university fab lab, embodies in its missions the 3 missions of the university: (i) research, (ii) teaching and (iii) public service. Naturally, certain research teams and civil society initiatives sharing our mission have joined or been born within the Fab Lab ULB ecosystem at Usquare.

Frugal Lab

The Frugal Lab is a research unit dedicated to fundamental and applied physics of complex fluids and solids. Its research lies at the intersection of biology, physics and digital fabrication, with one of its axes being the search for unconventional and accessible ways to capture water and measure its quality.

Juris Lab

JurisLab is a Research Unit dedicated to the Law of creation and innovation. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, JurisLab is located in Fab Lab ULB where its members collaborate with academics and scientists from other ULB Faculties.

STEAM Lab

STEAM Lab is a dynamic, playful and welcoming laboratory that welcomes groups of young people, children and teenagers for the completion of STEAM projects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) through teaching and project-based learning activities within Fab Lab ULB. It offers STEAM and digital awareness workshops for young people aged 6-18 and the general public.

ASBL Repair Together

Repair Together is a social and solidarity association providing aid and support to local initiatives working towards sustainable use of resources. Its objective is to pool resources for the creation, development and maintenance of “Repair Cafés” in Belgium, Brussels and Wallonia.