RIVERSIDE — Walter E. Stebbins High School is the first southwest Ohio high school to be named part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s international Fab Lab Network.
Fab Lab is the educational outreach component of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, an extension of its research into computer-aided design and manufacturing.
Stebbins’ Fab Lab, or fabrication laboratory, provides students access to project-based learning with 3D printers, CNC routers, laser cutters and more. It all started with the idea that — with the right equipment — anyone can make “almost anything.”
Engineering instructor Jim Prater said many students do not see that kind of equipment until their junior year of college, if at all. Ahna Mellinger, a 15-year-old sophomore at Stebbins High School, is already competing with it.
“It’s really helped prepare me for what I want to do in the future,” said Mellinger, who has her sights set on a career in humanoid robotics.
