RE:FORM - Reimagining Education for the Future Of Redistributed Manufacturing

This summer, the Open University and MAKLab Glasgow are working together as part of RE:FORM, an FMsRdM research project* to understand future models of Redistributed Manufacturing.

RE:FORM is particularly interested in the ways makerspaces can work alongside industry and universities to support trainee designers and fabricators in learning skills that can help with their future employment.

Over the summer MAKLab and the Open University, as part of RE:FORM, will be running some one day workshops with interested industry partners to open up the conversation around their current training requirements and whether these are being met by current education models as well as potential future training needs that may arise through the adoption of a new Redistributed Manufacturing model.

We will also be conducting a 12 week trial exploring how makerspaces can be used to give design students insight into the manufacturing process. This will involve design students across the UK working collaboratively with trainee fabricators based in Glasgow, to design and build full-size prototypes of chair designs, and understand the challenges involved in distributed, networked manufacturing.

*FMsRdM, Future Makespaces in Redistributed Manufacturing, is a two-year The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research project run from the Royal College of Art, London, exploring the role of makespaces in redistributed manufacturing (RdM).