A new addition to MENA’s hardware facelift
When Prashant
Gulati (also known as PK) was 10 he asked his father for a
carpenter’s kit.
In those days child-friendly kits wouldn’t have
been available, so he demanded a grown-up one. “You couldn’t just
buy these things at a store,” PK tells Wamda. “So my father bought
one off a local carpenter.”
He immediately immersed himself into making
things, and then moving onto household electronics, like making
doorbells.
It was this love for making things and using
one’s hands that has eventually led the entrepreneur to
establish The
Assembly, a makerspace in Dubai.
A new addition to the maker scene of the UAE. (Images via The
Assembly)
Makers, a new addition
While coworking
spaces in the Middle East have found solidarity in
numbers, and a couple of years ago saw a surge, the maker scene is
still a growing one.
Ideal for startups as they provide a place to
work plus WiFi, telecoms, meeting rooms, and likely food, the
coworking space has proved very popular. But a space for actually
making things is increasingly in demand.
Recent additions to the maker scene include Beirut’s Fab Lab, and Abu Dhabi’s
TechShop due to open in October. In the past, Iraq has seen Fikra
Space do well, and they are now seeing the advent of the new
Science Camp in Basra.
Currently hosted at the In5 Innovation Center The
Assembly is looking to become a meeting point for all those looking
to make a change to the tech hardware output of the
region.
“Even if you have an idea for a wearable device,
you don’t know where to begin and you don’t have anyone to guide
you,” he says.
PK during the launch of The Assembly at in5.
As such, part of PK’s mission is to inject back
into society this idea of actually doing things with one’s hands.
“People live and die without hammering a nail into a wall […] We
don’t have the concept of working in our own hands.”
In order to meet the growing demand for tech
devices, PK doesn’t see why people in MENA can’t be responsible for
building up this hardware culture and meeting this need
themselves.
“The Internet of Things has created a local
opportunity, people can build a solution local to them, locally. We
want to build the kind of capacity that has being going to make
things, rather than just thinking about it.”
Making makers
“We see innovation as invention driven,” says PK. “The genesis
of big data in pharmaceuticals and life sciences. You take that
analogy and people are using skills from elsewhere and creating
something that changes lives.”
Citing as an example Nest, the thermostat,
smoke alarm and camera all rolled into one, PK sees The Assembly as
a space where people will be able to adapt age-old inventions for a
modern market. “The thermostat has been around for about 50 years,
but you bring in exceptional packaging and additional features, and
you get Nest.”
With a region full of designers, programmers,
and engineers not coming together to create, PK says the
time is ripe for them to do so. “It’s a process that involves
everybody and requires a collaborative effort.”
The role of The Assembly
Initially The Assembly is poised to provide three channels of
communication between those in various industries.
-
Workshops and training targeting different parts
of the ecosystem. “Technologies will be taught by practitioners.
They won’t necessarily be a professional but someone who works in
the sector. These will be every week, all for free. We don’t want
friction between those wanting to learn and learning.” -
Pitching ideas. “Bringing together those with
the technology, friends of The Assembly, and various outliers, to
hear the ideas of those currently working out of The
Assembly.” -
Challenges. “We’ll be partnering with larger
organizations and people will respond to challenges that look to
solve local problems.”
Hands on with hardware.
own company Optimistix.
For the time being, in order to remove the
friction of wanting to learn and actual learning, often created by
fees, PK wants all workshops remain free of charge, open to all.
“We organized a few workshops and were surprised with the
number of interested participants, ages ranged from 19 to
54.”
Partnerships with Qualcomm and
Dubai Internet City have also enabled them to provide users with a
network – something that PK is working on expanding
now.
The time is now
“We can’t but trust that maybe the region does
hold a lot of talent and potential,” says PK. As far as he is
concerned the time has come for the MENA region to make the shift
to the field of tech makers.
However, battling with the preconceived notions
that tech is something that requires a lot of time to learn, and
that hardware isn’t for everybody, is very real for PK. “The
concept often remain unclear to them,” he tells Wamda, “the
challenge remains to convince them of what we do.”
Already making progress The Assembly saw teams
compete at Dubai’s Smart City App
Hack earlier this year and nine were shortlisted
for the final challenge in November.
He is optimistic about the outcome though,
especially as The Assembly’s concept, he says “can be copied in
Dubai and other Arab countries”.
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