The MCC FabLab, located at MCC-Business & Technology, is an environment where students, inventors and representatives from small and large businesses can conceptualize, design, develop, fabricate and test a variety of products and ideas. The FabLab has state-of-the-art fabrication software and equipment such as prototype printers and precision machining equipment to give some shape to a product. The FabLab incorporates skills and knowledge from several disciplines including, computer aided drafting and design, engineering, welding, precision machining and electronics.
The Fablab is full of tools, technology and is free to MCC employees and students. In order to use the FabLab, an orientation/safety class covering general lab safety, tool and machine usage and FabLab rules is required.
The FabLab has offered MCC students, employees and community entrepreneurs opportunities to formulate ideas. Here are a few examples of FabLab success:
- Students have participated in several patent and patent-pending designs using the prototyping and modeling capabilities available in the Prototyping Lab.
- FabLab and Prototyping Lab faculty and staff assisted Hallmark in the establishment of the company’s LeAP Lab, an on-site resource for Hallmark employees to explore and innovate using an array of creative and manufacturing technologies.
- Four senior-level projects from the UMKC School of Engineering have utilized expertise and equipment to complete designs.
- Students from UMKC’s Bloch School of Management have used equipment and expertise in the Prototyping Lab to complete design projects for their chosen idea.
- Multiple small companies have established relationships with the Prototyping Lab and used equipment and expertise in the development of prototypes for new or improved products
- FabLab staff have created centerpieces for several of MCC’s Five Star Gala
- FabLab staff created a 3D prototype used in creating Mei Li’s prosthetic hand.