A collaborative innovation platform, the Fab Lab provides prototyping tools for the development of new products. Located in the Nancy Industrial Systems Engineering School (ENSGSI), it is available to University of Lorraine students.

From the baby bottle tree to the six legged robot, the ENSGSI's Fab Lab* allows creativity and innovation a free rein. Part of the school of engineering, this space is dedicated to prototyping and the rapid creation of objects out of wood, foam or plastic. Equipped with machine tools, it "plays its part in the acceleration of the process of innovation enabling quicker progress from design to prototype", explains Emmanuel Gilloz, research engineer and Fab Lab leader. Its main users are ENSGSI students who use it for the industrial projects that form part of their programmes. But the platform is also available to students at the University of Lorraine and at ENSAIA, at ENSTIB and at the Nancy School of Architecture.

With its 100 m² working area, the Fab Lab is home to 4 CNC machines : a 3D printer, a milling machine, a laser cutter and a vinyl cutter. These machines are in regular use for CAD/CAM courses, for 3D design and for placement projects. 5 ENSGSI students, for example, used the Fab Lab's resources to take part in the Humanitech challenge, a student humanitarian invention competition. They built a drawer pillbox for older people.

"The Fab Lab concept is taking off and extending as a new innovation tool for entrepreneurs, students, artists and designers etc." adds Emmanuel Gilloz.

The ENSGSI : producing innovators Industrial projects and missions, double-diplomas, transfer and innovation workshops… the Ecole Nationale Supérieure for Industrial Systems Engineering trains engineers to pilot innovative and development projects. Some details with Pascal Lhoste, head of this Grande Ecole in Nancy.

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