Takoradi Technical Institute's Fab. Lab. receiving high patronage

Takoradi, April 2 - GNA -The Fabrication Laboratory (Fab. Lab) of the Takoradi Technical Institute (TTI) has become a tourist centre of the institute and the Shama Ahanta East Metropolis with high patronage. This follows the design and construction of a fufu pounding machine, reflective key holders, reflective earrings, television antennas, radios for wireless networks, solar powered machine for cooking, cooling and cutting, a heavy duty car jack and a shearing machine.

The Fab. Lab. estimated at 20,000 U S dollars, was installed at T.T.I. in July 2004 by the Centre for Bits and Atoms of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of USA.

Mr. Emmanuel Azasoo, Officer in-charge of the Fab. Lab who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on Friday said the centre could design and cut, using laser cutter for two and three-dimensional structures, a sign cutter for plotting and an application for the manufacturing of surface mount circuit boards and programming tools for low cost, high speed embedded micro controllers.

He said the centre is free and accessible to anyone, adding that currently members of the Electrical Contractors Association, Tie and Dye Manufacturers Association, children, chiefs, students from the Takoradi Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Takoradi Polytechnic, Women's Training Institute (WTI) and the general public have been using the equipments to develop new ideas for themselves and their clients.

Mr. Azasoo said school children aged between five and 10 years have started patronising the lab.

He said such children are encouraged to write short stories while animations are added to bring the story to life.

"The centre is always crowded due to the demand for opportunities for all ages to use the equipment," he added.

He therefore called on the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly, to assist the school to market the lab since many people could use it to improve their products, works and implement their ideas.

Dr. Jurgen Zimare, Project Advisor of TTI said the institute was updating its programmes to meet the needs of the labour market and would soon exchange programmes with other Fab. Labs across the world and bring such expertise to the labour market.

He said TTI would, in September this year, introduce a course in electronics, while its computer training, is expected to attract more females.