News and Press

FVSU Fab Lab connects students with technology, entrepreneurship, workforce training

by ChaNae Bradley

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Heaven Whitby, director of Fort Valley State University’s Fab Lab, leads a tour for students and educators on the Warner Robins campus.

Students across the state of Georgia are learning how to use advanced technology while simultaneously learning entrepreneurial skills through an innovative fab lab offered by Fort Valley State University’s (FVSU) College of Agriculture, Family Sciences and Technology.

Heaven Whitby, director of the FVSU Fab Lab, is leading this effort. A fab lab is a facility that offers community workshops with digital fabrication tools for Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling, bioengineering and more. The lab creates an environment for participants to design or create products.

The FVSU Fab Lab is located on FVSU’s Warner Robins campus. It is the first historically Black university Chevron-funded fab lab in the world.

Whitby, who joined FVSU three years ago, was selected to lead FVSU’s Fab Lab. The Howard University alumna has a background in maternal and childhood epidemiology. She also has experience managing community start-ups. Prior to her role at FVSU, she served as director of Startup Macon, an entrepreneurship ecosystem builder that provides support to small businesses.

“Chevron and the Fab Foundation saw something in me, especially my background in community health, minority populations and strategizing,” Whitby said.

Furthermore, Whitby discussed how the Fab Foundation has prioritized bringing fab labs into African American communities. The Fab Foundation is a United States nonprofit that emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to facilitate and support the growth of international fab lab networks, as well as the development of regional capacity building.

To be prepared for this opportunity, Whitby spent a week and a half at the Monterey Bay County Fab Lab in California to learn alongside their team. Whitby described the area as a farming community with a large Hispanic population.

After spending time in California to learn how fab labs operate, Whitby customized a lab that would be accommodating to students in Georgia.

As a result, Whitby interacts with students from schools in Bibb, Houston and Peach counties. She also connects with educators in rural communities throughout the state with interests in technology and innovative practices.

As director, she provides basic instruction about digital design and the use of machines and tools. She also teaches students and young adults how to use cutting-edge tools and software to bring their ideas to life, which allows them to make different products. Once they learn basic skills, they can be creative.

“You can literally do anything. You can build furniture, you can make trophies, plaques, desk signs,” Whitby said.  Students often make teacher appreciation gifts and acrylic pool passes that are water-friendly.

Furthermore, Whitby said the Fab Lab is equipped with a full woodworking room and textile lab. “We hope to help a lot of girls make prom dresses this year,” she said.

Students who visit the lab attend after school. Some students who are homeschooled visit during the daytime. Students also visit the lab as a school field trip. In addition to the lab on the Warner Robins campus, Whitby travels to schools with the mobile fab lab.

“Schools book me through email. Then I schedule a virtual meeting so I can understand the needs of the students, what resources they have, and I come prepared to meet their needs,” Whitby said.

Heaven Whitby shares information about the FVSU Fab Lab during the Middle Georgia Innovation Corridor held at the Warner Robins Museum of Aviation for Georgia AIM Week.

When Whitby is not traveling to schools, she is representing the FVSU Fab Lab in the community.

Through the Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (AIM) Program, FVSU and Central Georgia Technical College are working to advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Houston County.

Georgia AIM is a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant that connects Georgia residents seeking opportunities to grow an AI-powered manufacturing economy. Georgia AIM also supports efforts to reach students in grades K-12, technical colleges and four-year universities, as well as workforce training for Georgians without a college degree.

Whitby serves as manager of the Georgia AIM grant, which includes the mobile STEM labs and precision agriculture program.

For more information about the FVSU Fab Lab and the Georgia AIM grant, contact Whitby at (478) 825-6060 or heaven.whitby@fvsu.edu.

 

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