In the remote north of Pakistan, innovation carries a "far-flung tax"—a steep barrier of access that stifles potential before it even breathes. I wanted to dismantle that. In the mountains of Gilgit, accessible often by just a single treacherous road, we decided to build a sanctuary for builders who possess the grit but lack the access.
Makistan is Gilgit's first open-access makerspace, completely bootstrapped and free of gatekeepers. As a board advisor and robotics lead, I helped equip the lab with the region's first 3D printers and electronics benches. Our philosophy is aggressive but simple: stop trying to solve MIT's problems and start solving the ones staring us in the face. Whether it's energy-resilient stoves or smart livestock tracking, we design for our reality, not a textbook simulation.
This is a space for permissionless innovation. We provide the tools, the caffeine, and the mentorship; the community provides the chaos and the brilliance. It is a place to fail safely, iterate quickly, and deploy locally. We are proving that high-fidelity engineering can emerge from the most remote altitudes, lowering the tax on innovation one prototype at a time.
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