INTRODUCTION

ABOUT ME ( SUMA NA MI )

I'm Reina Raveles from Suriname South America. I am an Industrial Engineer and own a consultancy business Chawila Legacy NV. I studied engineering (MSc.) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and later did a 1-year certificate course in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the CEDLA Institute University of Amsterdam.

I am collaborating with IoTLabSu to bring Fabricademy to Suriname and build local capacity in wearable electronics, sustainability, and soft robotics.

MY BACKGROUND (FU PE MI K'MOPO)

I live in Paramaribo Suriname, part of the Amazon basin, just North of Brazil. The language in the headers of my page is Sranan tongo. For a long time it was viewed as forbidden and inappropriate yet for centuries it has proven to be the language weaving our multicultural society together. We also speak Dutch and about 16 other languages between just 600.000 people. So imagine that!

I live in Paramaribo and I'm fortunate to have renovated and designed my childhood home into my office space. It is a historic colonial building made entirely from wood in the city center and at least 120 years old. In Suriname the house is known as Dobru Oso, the house of Dobru, our national poet who used to live here. The building is iconic among artists and we rent out space on the first floor for social and business events. At some point I would love to set up a Fab Lab or maker studio in the building. Dobru Oso on Facebook

PREVIOUS WORK (PE MI WROKO)

I've been involved in the Fab community, starting the first Fab Lab in Suriname Fab Lab Paramaribo. FabLab Paramaribo on Facebook I was also involved in policy to further develop a network of Fablabs for local innovation. We did this in collaboration with the Fab Foundation. This resulted in the start-up of IoTLabSu who have been doing some awesome projects in collaboration with the Codettes, an NGO for girls in tech. IoTLabSu on Facebook

Our visit to Fab14 in Toulouse led to collaboration between Fablabs in Suriname and Manifact in French Guyana and a group of 8 people were trained and graduated from Fabacademy 2019. The final projects were presented in the FabAmazonia workshop in Paramaribo. Local capacity was build for a collaborative network of Fablabs IotlabSu, Zaplab and Probitas Foundation mobile lab. Unfortunately while I was organizing all of this my own technical design skills had to wait... until now! With Fabricademy I aim to add a new dimension to digital fabrication in Suriname.I can tell you my hands are itching to start DIY again.

Here you can see some of the projects from the first lab Fablab Paramaribo:

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Credits Designer Christel Nirk

FABRICADEMY (FABRICADEMY SKORO)

Fabricademy is a great opportunity for me to rebooth and improve my Fab Lab design skills and creativity. Every year I get inspired when I see the graduation projects. I'd like to apply these skills to develop new business and innovation skills to train others as well as develop prototypes and product designs.

IoTLab Suriname

IoTLab Suriname is the local node in Paramaribo for Fabricademy. The Lab is in a transistion expanding the building to facilitate start up ventures from product development from their FabLab programs. Click on the picture to see a typical Saturday afternoon in IoTLab.

INSPIRED BY (DEN MOI SANI FU TRA SMA)

While visiting FAB14 I observed the FABRICADEMY projects and even participated in a short workshop on making bioplastics. Especially this sample of artificial fish skin in the picture made a deep impression on me and I hope to do similar stuff!

Fish skin at FAB14. Don't know who made it but its awesome!

These are some of my favorite FABRICADEMY alumni projects:

ASSIGNMENTS (SAN MI DU)

Project management	Digital bodies	Circular fashion
Biochromes	E-textiles	Biofabricating
Open-source hardware	Computational couture	Textile scaffold
Wearables	SoftRobotics	Skin electronics

And in week 13 final project.