EKURHULENI executive mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, has left for Boston in the USA on Sunday to participate at the FAB11 City Mayor’s Challenge organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the FAB Foundation.
Each year the Fab Foundation and the MIT bring together academics, researchers, policy makers and amateur and professional fabricators for a week-long series of meetings, workshops and a symposium on the state of digital fabrication research of Fab labs.
Leading the symposium are researchers and practitioners in the emerging science of digital fabrication, who will explore and define the implications, applications and impacts of this innovative set of capabilities in the world.
Gungubele will form part of the Making Cities mayoral panel on Saturday, August 8. He will join other mayors from the USA, Latin America and Europe to discuss the future of cities and the role of digital fabrication in the construction of a new economy and societies.
It is envisaged that his participation at Fab11 will facilitate strategic partnerships among others with MIT, the Fab Foundation and related stakeholders in support of the city’s endeavour to roll out more Fab Labs in Ekurhuleni.
More so, it is envisaged that the city’s participation will enhance the Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis’ value proposition to attract technical cooperation, related R&D capabilities and investment.
“Having already established three fabrication laboratories in our area, and after having been exposed to the impact that these Fab Labs have had on the youth of Thokoza, Tembisa and Tsakane, I am very excited at the opportunity to participate in a global stage in the evolution of the Fab Labs,” said Gungubele.
“Having visited some of the labs, I was amazed at the talent that is being demonstrated by young people in the city and I am sure that these are proving to be grand investments into the creative capabilities of our people.
“This global platform also affords us an opportunity to compare notes and learn best practices with the rest of the world as we continue to roll out more fabrication labs. I am also certain that as much as we will be able to learn a thing or two from the other countries, we are confident that we too will teach the world a thing or two,” Gungubele concluded.
The mayor and the Ekurhuleni delegation will return to the country on August 11.
