KNUST Creativity Group information session

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

On Monday, the 12th of May 2014, the AMP team was at the college of engineering KNUST, meeting up with the Creativity Group of the college and students from around the university, for an AMP information session. The session provided attendants with information about the QAMP summer program and invited them to be a part of the AMP maker collective. In addition to this, the team will also provided information about AMP workshops, such as the impending Archibots: Remaking Agbogblodshie workshop, future workshops and encouraged them to apply to attend these. The team learned a lot from the interaction. Some of the projects that the students of the creativity group, expressed interest in were the bicycle with a pedal-powered grinding wheel (for pulverizing electronic waste), the EEE manual and research into material flows. The team had a wonderful time at KNUST and looks forward to an exciting summer full of fresh ideas.

QAMP Information Session-02-01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Innovation Prize for Africa

Posted on by dkoa

The African Innovation Foundation held a round-table discussion on the theme “A Path to Building Industrial Nation Skillsets in Africa” ahead of the 2014 Innovation Prize for Africa awards ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria. Thanks to invitation via Emeka Okafor, I participated on the first panel, where we explored the question “Africa’s Innovation Spaces: How do they unleash African ingenuity and are they enough?”

Other panelists were Karim SY (founder of Jokko Labs); McLean Sibanda (CEO of Innovation Hub in Pretoria); Kamau Gachigi (Founder Fablab University of Nairobi, Chairman and Coordinator of UoN Science and Technology Park); and Hauwa Yabani (Director of Abuja Technology Village).

Emeka Okafor — who in addition to AIF advisor is also curator of Maker Faire Africa, superblogger and director of TED Global in Arusha, Tanzania — mediated the panel and set up the conversation as follows:

“Unstructured interdisciplinary avenues ranging from hubs to fablabs promise to kickstart innovation across Africa in a multitude of ways. There is the further prospect of vastly more dynamic output from laboratories and inventors shops, adoption of non-traditional educational methods; quicker design for manufacturing techniques amongst other things.

“Expanding the focus of these ‘spaces’ from their existing concentration in software over to agri-industry, manufacturing, research, medical equipment etc. could provide an accelerated alternate paths into industrialization.

“Leading practitioners at the IPA 2014 roundtable will examine the existing landscape and formulate potential paths and in doing so provide a foretaste of what to expect in the near future.”

Left Abuja inspired by the incredible innovations that the other panelists and IPA finalists are driving across the continent, and appreciative of the opportunity to present AMP — a design experiment in interclass innovation that is both related to but distinct from typical “makerspace” projects, in that the tools and technologies we are co-developing are tailored specifically for the Agbogbloshie e-waste ecosystem. Our work to build e-learning content and micro-factories that can assist youth with remaking 3E-materials (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is an effort to transcend the narrative of “e-waste” not as an end in itself, but as a vehicle to amplify at the grassroots indigenous innovation linked to youth-led entrepreneurship.

While I believe that universities have a role to play in nurturing maker culture, I see makerspaces as something separate, if not symbiotic. At the same time, we need to move beyond the idea that maker tech means making little Arduino-powered gadgets only. To truly innovate, African makerspaces need not only to 3D-print, solder and code, but also to sequence, grow, etch, mill, cast and forge.

Archibots: Re-making Agbogbloshie

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

Re-making Agbogbloshie is a tap:Build design workshop conducted as part of the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform QAMP series of maker workshops. MESH Ghana is the media partner.

AMP approach contends that (domains of) architecture and electronics have converged. At such a moment — if we can make open, democratic and collective the capability of manipulating materials from the level of chemistry up, by means of digital technology, we can move beyond the notion of “e-waste”. Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE or 3E), old or new, constitute a vital stream of raw material for the global production chain. In particular, while there is fundamental overlap with the elemental “stuff” of digital space, it is equally important to note that the majority of EEE materials* are generally recyclable such as plastics, steel, aluminium, copper, or other specialized or high-value materials.

Re-making Agbogbloshie is a collaboration between Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) and The Architects’ Project (tap:). The workshop seeks to design and prototype practicable architectural interventions — at the level of equipment — that can inform the discourse of industrial landscapes like Agbogbloshie scaled through kiosk-size 3E materials processing machines, i.e. micro-industrial digital fabrication bots.

Re-making Agbogbloshie design workshop is an exploration of small-scale architectural interventions that operate more than as kinetic micro- shelters — they additionally include “robotic” or electronic systems and tool/equipment functions. The workshop seeks to design “architecture robots” that could assist humans in processing 3E materials, phytoremediation of the contaminated landscape and actively supporting the Agbogbloshie lifecycle.

Agbobloshie: Every year, tons of electronic waste arrives on the shores of Ghana. A huge proportion of this deluge of e-waste flows through Agbogbloshie, where a vibrant community of e-waste workers and makers reuse, recycle and upcycle end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment. However, some of the crude methods used for dismantling e-waste and processing scrap (such as burning wires and cords to recover the copper) are highly polluting: they negatively impact the health of e-waste workers and have led to Agbogbloshie’s notorious position as “the most polluted place on Earth” for 2013, according to Green Cross Switzerland and the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute (USA).

E-waste: E-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is typically portrayed as highly toxic old computers, televisions, etc. that are “dumped” in poor countries by rich countries, in violation of the Basel Convention (an international treaty which expressly prohibits such forms of international transhipment of WEEE). While it is true that e-waste contains hazardous materials, and that improper handling and disposal of these materials can greatly pollute the environment and compromise public health, it does not negate the fact that the materials embedded within e-waste are incredibly valuable. In fact, e-waste — considered pound-for-pound as a “raw material” of the global production chain — is among the most valuable on the planet: one ton of old mobile phones has 100X the concentration of precious metals like gold and silver than does an equivalent amount of ore mined from the earth.

Architecture: Usually when most people think about (the practice of) “architecture”, they think about high-end residences or large-scale projects. In Africa, these are typically the only kind of construction projects (along with smaller interventions by the government and NGOs) that have large enough budgets to pay the professional service fees of architects. This leaves the majority of workers and construction works on the continent, which occur in what social scientists call the “informal sector”, outside the design domain of architects, or the scope of formal architecture. The point of departure for this workshop is to propose that this default strategy for Africa’s built environment misses the point. If to date architecture has had limited success in re-configuring the African terrain, perhaps it is time to invert the approach: try to introduce innovation at the bottom, and let it spread.

* EEE- or 3E-materials: Consider electrical and electronic equipment, at all condition levels, as a raw material for global production chain. 3-E materials are a broader and more inclusive range of materials compared to e-materials, e.g. electronics materials based on silicon or other semiconducting materials, and such materials in aggregate, i.e. a circuit board.

Video highlights:

STEAM workshop

Posted on by ivyasuo

20140426_163707-MOTION

For the past few months, the AMP team has engaged e-waste workers within Agbogbloshie. This time, on Saturday the 26th of April, the team organized its latest workshop intended to initiate the conversation with the STEAM world, who form a critical part of the AMP platform. Eventually, these professionals will come together with the e-waste workers and makers in Agbogbloshie to form the AMP makers collective. The knowledge that these professionals bring to the Agbogbloshie site will be useful for achieving AMP targets such as empowering makers to handle e-waste according to best practices and enabling makers to upcycle e-waste into value-added products.

The agenda was to:

  • Introduce AMP to the STEAM world, and invite them to apply for summer internships.
  • Engage students in hands-on projects that involved building a paper spectroscope, dis-assembly of a microwave oven, a printer and a fan.

The workshop took place at the lower lecture hall of the Physics department in the University of Ghana, Legon. Students from the host physics department, as well as chemistry, computer science and psychology students attended. There were also students from the architecture department of the Central University College. In all, there were 50 participants.

The workshop started with an introduction of the AMP team, followed by an interactive session, during which members of the AMP team engaged in conversation with the students.

After the interaction and lecture, participants were divided into four groups and made to work on the various projects. Each team documented the brand, the year of manufacture, and all other information they considered relevant. They were required to state to the best of their knowledge, which components were in the equipment and to what other uses these could be put.

We discovered that students from the physics department in particular had a fundamental awareness of the nature and uses of parts, as well as how these contributed to the total functioning of the equipment. After this session each team presented its findings to the larger group of participants.

Upon the completion of the workshop, participants by way of evaluation, passed on comments such as:

The program was insightful and inspirational. I am very happy I came and met other brilliant students and how they agitated minds to think critically. A great experience that will stay with me a long time.

A successful workshop in my opinion. I learned a lot and I am happy to know that such great ideas are being implemented. As I leave, my mind is racing through ways I can contribute to this positive revolution.

See photos on Flickr : STEAM Photos

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Spectrascope test model
Spectrascope test model

 

AMP workshop – dis-assembly of a refrigerator

Posted on by ivyasuo

Refrigerators are among the most dismantled electronic equipment in Agbogbloshie if not the most dismantled. This is evidenced by the large numbers of the post-dis-assembly debris found all over the Agbogbloshie landscape. Data from Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), Government of Ghana, on the import of EEE (all products) was obtained for the period 2006 to 2009. The records indicate that for the 4-year period, a total of 3,763,100 units of EEE were imported and refrigerators recorded the highest in 2009. They are used especially for the purposes of storing personal belongings and tools (see photos).

On the 5th of April 2014, the AMP team was onsite at Agbogbloshie for a refrigerator dismantling workshop. This workshop was a critical first, in a series of e-waste worker centered workshops that would be held in Agbogbloshie. The main purpose of these is to gain a deeper understanding of the process involved in the dis-assembly at Agbogbloshie, the tools involved, material components of equipment, and their prices at Agbogbloshie. Quite apart from this, they would enable us tailor the EEE manual, to suit the information needs of the e-waste workers and maker community in Agbogbloshie as well as interested STEAM workers.

The day before the workshop, Emmanuel, our design associate, aided by Mohammed, an e-waste worker, purchased a refrigerator.

The workshop was held in a space owned by Rauf. This was because, the team realized, it was going to be a more efficient use of its time to have it here, where there is already some degree of shelter, rather that erect a new one on the AMP site. In Agbogbloshie, the harsh noon day solar conditions, can make the high levels of pollution feel considerably worse. Hence the initial decision to build a new temporary shelter.

Zack (an e-waste worker) started by taking apart the doors, then the compressor, fan and all other components in the lower recesses of the fridge. Following this, he detached the outermost body, which is made out of steel. After these, he proceeded to remove the evaporator fan, evaporator coils and other components in the freezer section (See image Workshop photos). Now all that was left was a large open chest, comprised essentially of polyurethane foam (which he proceeded to remove next) and the plastic inner lining of the refrigerator. In the final stage, the doors were dismantled, by unscrewing and detaching their inner plastic components from the steel outer casing. All the dismantled parts were then photographed (see Parts of a refrigerator).

Subsequently, Andrew (from Afrimakers) made a video, in which Zack shared his knowledge in the local dialect (Dagomba) and English, on the dismantling process. This would be the first of many such local dialect explanatory videos.

Here a few discoveries that were made

  1. The  process of dismantling refrigerators in Agbogbloshie is not directed towards potential reuse of parts. Thus far, the orientation is towards breaking it all down to its basic material for smelting. Hence very little care is taken in the process:
  2. The items were weighed and the prices were as follows
  • Steel: 61 kilograms (Equivalent to 18 GHC)
  • Copper: 4 pounds  (Equivalent to 24 GHC)
  • Aluminium : 5 pounds (Equivalent to 5 GHC)
  • Timer: 3-5 GHC
  1. The fridge was bought for 100GH cedis, twice more than the price of its dismantled parts.
  2. During the opening/dismantling of the compressor, Zack inhaled without bother, the freezer gas that was emitted. This gas is non-toxic to human beings however inhaling directly could be dangerous and could settle in the lungs and cause adverse effects.

The day ended with a barbeque on the AMP site (see AMP barbecue). In line with the dictates of Islam, the goat was prayed over and slaughtered by an Imam at the market and transported to the site, where some e-waste workers (2 in number, supported by several others-about 6 others) aided in its preparation. When it was all done, a number of the e-waste workers came over for the feast and this helped the team bond with a number of them.

 

DSC_0022DSC_0204DSC_0179DSC_0168

The Emergent Vernacular

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

Sénamé-Behrang

The M&D seminar organized a round table on the emergent vernacular.

Behrang Fakharian, vernacular architecture expert and Sénamé Koffi A., architect and anthropologist, co-founder of the association L’Africaine d’Architecture and the Woelab, the first makerspace in Togo, have shared their respective experiences to explore the hypothesis that vernacular architecture and “open-source” design have comparable modes of production such as the peer-to-peer transmission of knowledge or the creation of “architecture without architectes”.

The Makers and Development seminar is a semester 6 course taught by Yasmine Abbas, Professeur Associé at l’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture. People of the seminar MAKE, a semester 5 course taught by Marie Aquilino at l’ESA, joined the round table. The M&D and MAKE seminars are organized as a vertical offering to explore in depth issues of making in complex contexts.

We filmed the conference and we hope to share it with you very soon!

Meanwhile, find some readings/viewings on the neo-vernacular here and here.

M&D STUDENTS WINS THE PRESELECTION TO THE 2014 NASA CHALLENGE!

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

[FRENCH]
[ Original post by Yasmine Abbas]

12-13 April 2014, “student seminar S6 Makers & Development (M & D) taught by Yasmine Abbas and seminar S5 Make taught by Marie Aquilino had the opportunity to participate in the hackathon organized by the NUMA (first space Co-working in Paris) and CNES . The event took place at fablab the Digital Crossroads 2 of the Cité des Sciences (with stunning views of the Geode!). Students are divided into three interdisciplinary teams to meet NASA challenges that republishes a series of challenges organized into five themes: robotics, technologies related to space, space travel, observation of asteroids and the planet earth.

Hexafield TeamHexafield Team from left to right – Frederic Grandjean, Nicolas Benmussa (ESA S6), Charles Clement (ESA S6) and Yasmine Sarehane (S9) whose work focuses on the degree of lunar habitat © Guilhem Boyer

A team worked on the deflection of an asteroid, the other on creating a budget small satellite and the third generation of a deployable greenhouse on Mars. The educational goal was to immerse themselves in the world of a fablab pourproduire in one weekend a coherent concept in collaboration with people from different worlds and discussion with teachers from both seminars (coaches mobilized for the weekend) and robotics experts (including Olivier Grossat who spoke to ESA for a conference and workshops on 3D printers), computer and user experience.

This is the public, visitors to the city of sciences and participants hackathon, which ultimately decided the two winning teams from the five who competed. Students were part of the ESA-teams HEXAFIELD Send “flowers” on Mars (the greenhouse on Mars) and SWARM EXPLORER (satellite budget)!

Yasmine Sarehane (S9), Nicolas Benmussa (S6), Charles Clément (S6), Kawtar Sayegrih (S5) and Muriel Ferneini (S5) now “galactic problem solvers” were among the shortlisted for the support of the NASA teams and each received a membership card for one year fablab the Cité des Sciences. ”

Read more .

The value of un-making

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

Friday March 14, 2014, the M&D class went to an e-waste dis-assembly workshop at La Rockette Libre, a collective comprising of open-source associations. Thank you to Cyril, co-founder of Electrocycle, the association which organized the event. Find the list of items that Cyril and his friends have already catalogued and don’t hesitate to join them every second Friday of the month to contribute!

This workshop was pedagogical for various reasons:

  • It de-emphasized the high level know-how needed to dis-assembly
  • It made participants realize that as the electrical and electronic equipment becomes obsolete, few parts could be reused for electronic mash-up, some could be kept to repair similar equipments (for example keeping a special connection that could be faulty in another device)
  • Participants realized that while sorting appeared essential, it did require a thorough record of process and organization (number or weight of the pieces collected, step-by-step dis-assembly manual)
  • It became clear that given the wide range of brands and models, keeping parts for future use necessitates storage facilities – screws could be sorted out by type and size (size number to be found by comparing them to these found in stores)
  • Un-making or “reverse engineering” is a valuable learning process, which can also be a fun activity
  • It taught us about the importance of saving resources and doing so in the safest manners as possible–thanks to the experts who came along

Following the session, a team of students comprised of Nicolas Benmussa, Charles Clément and Oscar Aguila produced a short video entitled “In E-waste We Trust” and describing how the dis-assembly process went.

This video is not yet a step by step tutorial but it makes us think that it could be. In the context of Agbogbloshie, where not everyone speaks the same language or where many are illiterate, video tutorials could be a medium for delivering basic understanding of e-waste handling much like the videos of the Khan Academy which deliver knowledge to students around the globe.

unmake 3 unmake 5