Fab Lab Dhahran: building a new generation of makers

Fab Lab Dhahran launched in 2014 and is Saudi Arabia’s eastern locus for potential makers.

The lab, in building Number 26 of the King Fahed University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), is the first digital manufacturing lab in the East Province of Saudi Arabia.

It is the result of a partnership between the private sector’s Saudi Aramco and the government, represented by KFUPM.

“The main purpose behind creating the facility there was to enable members of the community to use the digital fabrication equipment, and to spread the culture of making things and progress it in the Kingdom,” said Fab Lab Dahran manager Bader Al Saif.

Other reasons were to help inventors create prototypes and prove theories, provide a center for communication and collaboration, and enable Saudi inventors, both male and female, to have a well-equipped, state-of-the-art lab and programs for creativity.

“Fab Lab Dhahran is creating a community of inventors and providing them with the right education and environment for designing and implementing their ideas,” said Al Saif. “This is how we become productive.”

Original article by Banan Hassan Alhajaji

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Fab Lab Dhahran: building a new generation of makers