Day 1: China, Shanghai Learning Mobility, Intro & Visit with our hosts at Tongji University

We were really pleased to be part of the EU Delegation, Learning Mobility to China, Shanghai part of the Open Design & Manufacturing Project (OD&M), visiting Universities, Maker Communities, MakerSpaces, Fablabs, Innovation Centres & Local Governments in the China Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou regions.

Day 1: Was a great opportunity to meet each other and to look around our host institution, Tongji University.

Main Goals for the visit

  • Achieve knowledge about how Chinese Universities prepare their students to the labour market and to self-entrepreneurship in the topics of the project;
  • Provide participants with an overview of the city ecosystem for innovation in manufacturing and industry;
  • Create connections between Chinese stakeholders and the EU partners;
  • Support the identification of possible follow-ups for common projects and areas of common interests

Innovation, Sustainability, Human Centred and Open Design runs through the heart of this design school and it was refreshing to see evidence of such a forward thinking and innovative curriculum.

Close to the entrance of Tongji University is a University FabLab (one/the first FabLab in China). The FabLab serves as a cross curricula MakerSpace, supporting learning & making across the university.

Being part of the Fab Foundation serves this MakerSpace well, as they run a lot of training sessions (digital manufacturing and rapid prototyping) which require students to document their progress and process via blogs (https://faboshanghai.github.io) which are evaluated via the fab academy structure. Great to see students sharing their projects and learning in this way!

Really like these home-made/bespoke-made Arduino style boards 'Shangduino' which the students build from scratch learning to laser cut, solder, electronics etc. during the building process.

The FabLab is outsourced by the University and the integration with the day-to-day curriculum is not really there, the FabLab mostly runs as a extra curricular space, an amazing one at that. Its also really interesting tho see the emergence of a new BioLab and Textile Academy.

Finally we toured the university workshops which were full of really high end manufacturing and fabrication equipment.

Mushroom Cloud Shanghai

In the afternoon we visited one of Shanghai's main MakerSpaces, Mushroom Cloud. The space was formed as a result of large government funding to widen access to making skills and technologies. DF ROBOT are the main sponsors of the space and we heard about new MicroControllers they had been developing in the space.

The space was busy with a workshop full of local teachers learning how to build robots, and with lots of maker rooms full of printers, cutters etc.

Also loved these Tech vending machines.

It was a busy first day in China, so returned back at the hotel late evening to prepare for

Day 2: China, Hangzhou visits and meetings with local government’s representatives, incubators, Universities’ representatives and enterprises. 

Aim: to strengthen the interactions and exchanges among Lin'an district/Hangzhou city makers, maker organizations, manufacturing enterprises and higher educational institutions.

  • Qingshanhu Sci-tech City
  • Hangzhou City Leaper Technology Co. Fischertechnik
  • Hangzhou Dianzi University Information Engineering School
  • Hangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Administrative Committee of Qingshanhu Sci-tech City
  • Summit dialogue at YCH Event site - OD&M Speeches 

I will be posting each day this week, reflections on the other 4 days of activities in China, visiting other maker spaces, Innovation centres, new tech cities, universities and local governments. See:

Day 1: China, Shanghai Learning Mobility, Intro & Visit with our hosts at Tongji University 

Day 2: China, Hangzhou visits with local government, incubators, Universities & enterprises

Day 3: Internal workshop - Towards the co-design of the OD&M Training & experience Shanghai

Day 4: Suzhou. All day long visits to local governments, universities and makerspaces.

Day 5: Institutional meeting with Tongji Dean and University Professors. Focus group for Impact (Internal activity) Wrap up and next steps & experience Shanghai

The OD&M project team:

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