Setting up the lab

The lab building was established in a dilapidated hall that housed a huge water tank on the roof top of the Faculty of Engineering building. The roof of the building had collapsed and broken seats and junk were packed in there. It had only one window. It had no conveniences. We had to remove the broken-down seats and the junk before the roof was pulled down and reroofed. We completely redesigned the place and removed the water tank. All the materials brought out from the building were reused. Nothing was wasted. We transformed the abandoned room into a maker space lab complete with emergency exit, convenience and furnishings. We equipped it with basic affordable equipment like a desktop computer, a projector, a bookshelf with textbooks and journals, machine tools, etc., enough for basic research to be carried out. The lab has some degree of comfort designed into it such as the sofa, fans, patio, refrigerator, etc. and enough space for movement. It is solar powered so we do not have issues of power outage. We are able to run our software programmes as long as the programmes can run. We are working towards upgrading the lab with equipment like 3-D printers.