Q Life Magazine Q Magazine December 2018 | Page 33
Innovate & Inspire |
space, people from different backgrounds, where you can
work with biologists, engineers, designers in the same
place, that is a huge change.
‘If technology is not open to the people, there is no social
innovation. What I love about Fab Lab is that it gives
people the opportunity to play with the machines, learn
from others, and produce something unique.’
He adds: ‘Qatar is a wonderful environment for
innovation because it brings so many experts from
different fields together. Fab Lab will allow the nation to
produce what it needs.’
Fab Lab is part of a network of 1,500 around the world,
providing a global community for inventors.
QBIC Fab Lab: funded by Qatar Development Bank
and managed by Qatar Business Incubation Centre’s
incubated startup, ibTECHar Digital Solutions, is the
first incubator-based fabrication laboratory in Qatar.
QBIC Fab Lab is a small-scale workshop that provides
entrepreneurs and inventors with a wide range of state-
of-the-art computer-controlled tools and programmes
that help them digitally fabricate products and
prototypes.
Nayef Al Ibrahim, ibTECHar founder and a civil
engineer, says: ‘We provide integrated, solutions-focused
education. We bring content, technology and people,
and we operate spaces. ibTECHar in Arabic means
innovation – to be innovative. We believe technology
empowers human beings.’
He has a clear vision: ‘We equip and empower the young
generation with a new skill-set to foster innovation and
their ability to make things. In the long term, we believe
this will contribute to our growing diversified economy.
Qatar is blessed with the resources we need, so we have a
unique and huge opportunity. This is an exciting time to
be a young person in Qatar.’
GARITA AND AL
IBRAHIM’S STORY
EXTENDS FAR
BEYOND THESE
PAGES. GO ONLINE
TO QLIFE.COM TO
SEE AN EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW WITH THE
FAB LAB INNOVATORS
TALKING ABOUT
THEIR VISION
AS TRUE QATARI
#TRAILBLAZERS.
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