Cidades inteligentes e fabricação digital: proposta para implementação de um Fab-Lab em Maceió - AL

Abstract

Smart cities (SC) are becoming very popular as an alternative city model that seeks to improve the quality of life in urban centers based on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) tools. The "Fab Labs" are digital fabrication laboratories that encourage the creation of new products, intellectual property, and businesses in the area of technology. The general objective of this study is to develop a project proposal for a Fab Lab for the city of Maceió-AL. In methodological terms, the research is classified as applied, exploratory, and qualitative. It was chosen to adopt as a research strategy an inspiration to the Design Science Research method, which focuses on the production of projects and artifacts. According to the research developed, it was verified the lack of a laboratory to promote digital fabrication and to capacitate the community in a broader way, between young people and adults, seeking to attend those who do not fit the requirements of participation in the existing laboratories. For this situation, the project proposal of a mobile Fab Lab was presented, a configuration that presented itself as the most adequate to serve the most distant communities, meeting the criteria of location diversity and mobility of the proposal, offering courses and services, in order to generate an interest in young people and adults about the possibilities of digital fabrication and promote training in the area. To reach the final product, specific objectives were outlined, consisting of a macro planning of the elaboration of a Fab Lab, specification of the project of a Mobile Fab Lab, and an operational plan with economic/financial viability and proposal of projects to be developed. As conclusions of the research it was verified that in order to improve the positioning of Maceió as a "smart city", the technological qualification of its community is one of the paths to be taken. In parallel, the investigation about the construction process of the Fab Labs raised a set of guidelines from the Fab Lab foundation essential to the construction process of the labs, also revealing the different formats that the labs can be deployed, seeking to adapt as best as possible to the local needs, based on the mobile lab proposal presented in this work. Finally, this work sought to contribute theoretically about the studies for the development of digital fabrication laboratories, and from the practical point of view, this work presented as a final product a technical report with guidelines for the implementation of a mobile Fab Lab for Maceió, presenting a document that serves as a subsidy for initiatives in the area. In a macro context, it seeks to contribute to the process of digital qualification, with a laboratory model that is more accessible to citizens, which allows technological qualification for the creation of products, encouraging the generation of jobs and income.