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The Midwest Fab Lab Network was formed in December of 2006 at Neil Gershenfeld’s suggestion. It is the first organization of its kind to promote digital fabrication laboratories in the region’s educational institutions.

The purpose of the MFLN is to encourage and publicize Fab Labs for academic, business, and technological innovation. In the spirit of MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms and its Fab Lab models, the MFLN promotes no- or low-cost sharing of information, technology, collaborative projects, and applied research.

Membership is open to virtually anyone and any type of organization that subscribes to the principles of the Fab Charter and the MFLN charter. Members may include registered (full- and part-time) students, other individuals, businesses, academic and other public and private institutions, and such entities as the MFLN may determine by due process.

Fab Labs show strong promise for engaging students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) concepts and for developing 21st-century skills needed for the global economy. Therefore, the goal of the MFLN is to improve education in applied technology at the regional and national levels. It will address this goal by helping to integrate Fab Labs into P-20 educational curricula as a “value-added” enhancement of instruction, as a resource for local business, and as a testing ground for research-oriented projects to replicate and remodel Fab Lab learning.