From the basement of MIT's Building 35 to Monterrey, Mexico, and now beyond. That is the journey of FrED, a low-cost desktop fiber (Fr) extrusion (E) device (D), designed and assembled by students in an educational factory at MIT. That factory is transforming how manufacturing is taught ' replacing textbook learning with hands-on experience in a space where tinkering is encouraged and information flows continuously. Through a collaboration between MIT and Tecnologico de Monterrey (Tec) managed by MIT.nano, FrED has been refined across dozens of graduate theses and undergraduate research stays. It is used to study manufacturing systems in academic and professional courses, and at FrED factories, first established at MIT and now at Tec's campuses in Monterrey and Mexico City. 'What does it mean to bring the factory to the learner'' asked Brian W. Anthony, MIT.nano associate director and principal research scientist in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) at the second...
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