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Andre Rocha

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Contact information

Your profile name

Andre Rocha
Your website

hacktoimprove.com
LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/in/steam228

Initiative

Your Organisation or Initiative Name

Polytechnic University of Lisbon / Fablab Benfica
Where is it located?

Lisboa, Portugal
About your organisation

Fab Lab Benfica is the digital fabrication laboratory of the School of Education at the Polytechnic University of Lisbon (ESELx/IPL). It operates both as a pedagogical infrastructure for project-based courses — particularly in product design and visual & technological education — and as an open space for the wider IPL academic community to develop research, cultural, and personal projects. Equipped with 3D printing (FDM and SLA), CNC milling, laser cutting, an electronics workshop, and many other digital and conventional tools, the lab serves as a bridge between design education, digital fabrication, and open/distributed design culture. It is also the only Fab Academy node in Portugal.
URL

fablabbenfica.pt

One Project Showcase

Name one of your projects to showcase

Sun Powered Plastic Recycling
About the project

Sun Powered Plastic Recycling” is an open call we launched through the Distributed Design Platform (https://fablabbenfica.pt/opencallDDP2025/), built around the Sun Factory — a low-tech solar-powered plastic recycling technology openly shared by its creator, Marco Bernardo, a DDP emerging talent and maker-in-residence at Fablab Benfica. The call was simultaneously integrated as an academic assignment in our Product Design curriculum at ESELx (Polytechnic University of Lisbon), where students were challenged not to design products for the technology, but to first identify real implementation contexts — fishing communities, animal rescue centres, disadvantaged schools — mapping stakeholders, resources, and circular economy potential before developing products as validation tools for those ecosystems. This “context before product” approach embodies the reciprocal value exchange at the heart of Open and Distributed Design, and was awarded the 2025 Pedagogical Innovation Prize by InovU, the joint pedagogical innovation centre of the Polytechnic University of Lisbon and the University of Lisbon.