Workbench Projects

Choose the right route in

• A bench or a booking: start with the Book Your Space form or a membership, which is the part of the site that is most clearly open.
• A course: Skill-Ed or Fab Academy suits someone who wants to build for several months. Confirm the next intake first, because both course pages carry 2021 wording.
• A pitch: Momentum is closed on its own page. Ask the team whether a new round is planned.

How applications work

• Space bookings and memberships are requested through the forms on the site.
• Each course page has its own application form. Skill-Ed scholarship applicants also send a CV or portfolio by email.
• Shop-floor and fabrication assistance is sold as a session on the membership page, so ask for it by name.

Before you apply

• Ask the team to confirm the current intake and fees, because the course pages still show 2021 dates.
• Check the Fab Academy length with the team. The course page says six months in one place and five months part-time in another.
• Ask which parts of the Halasuru facility are open to you, since the site does not publish a street address.

What the reviewers look for

The site does not describe a selection process for memberships or the courses. Scholarship holders must commit fully to the programme and keep up attendance. Momentum asked for a validated prototype with pilots or paying users, with idea-stage startups considered at the team's discretion.

Workbench Projects is a maker space in Bengaluru that brings a fabrication lab, a shopfloor, co-working desks and startup incubation under one roof. Its founders are Pavan Kumar and Anupama Gowda. The site calls its own facility the Halasuru facility.

What the space offers

The space is 5000 sq. ft. and is built around a digital fabrication and design lab, a woodworking lab, a shopfloor and a 3D printing lab. The site lists a 100-watt laser, three 3D printers, CNC machines and a vinyl cutter for fast prototyping and production. The shopfloor has power and hand tools for woodworking, welding and acrylic joints. Co-working desks come with WiFi, air-conditioned rooms and comfortable chairs.

The space page says it is for startups focused on hardware products, and that it is different from an ordinary co-working space. A founder who needs a physical prototype, rather than a desk alone, is the person the space is built for. The team also offers design testing advice, meaning experts who test designs and flag likely problems early. The site also says it has mentors for projects in areas such as blockchain and IoT, and it lists meet-ups for people who want to talk about maker culture.

How access works

Access runs through the site's forms. The Book Your Space form covers co-working and space bookings, and a separate membership form covers the maker plans. The membership page lists an online maker plan, a co-working maker plan and a serious maker plan, each sold as a 30-day membership. The co-working maker plan includes access-controlled space, a locker and drawer, and conference room access. The serious maker plan adds a dedicated table for projects and access to almost all digital machines. The site also lists temporary passes for small jobs and consultations sold by the session. Most of these are paid, and the price list sits on the membership page.

Programmes

Two structured courses are listed. Skill-Ed is a six-month certification course, described as 20 weeks, in which students build a project each week. It gives 16 hours a week of hands-on lab access with a personal instructor. Fab Academy is a diploma run at the Halasuru facility. Its FAQ calls it a six-month diploma, while another line on the same page describes a five-month part-time commitment.

Both courses are paid, and each course page lists its own fee, so compare them on the pages rather than here. Both course pages still carry 2021 intake wording, so the next intake should be confirmed before you apply. Momentum is a pitch platform for hardware, firmware and software startups. Its last listed deadline was in 2020, and the page is closed. The site also lists corporate engagement modules for teams, and a startup incubation programme marked as coming soon.

Who runs it

Pavan Kumar is the founder and director. Anupama Gowda is the other founder and runs operations and logistics. The homepage says both founders are on a sabbatical in the United States, doing research on makerspaces, and invites people who want to collaborate to email them. The site gives no return date.

Current status

The events page shows no upcoming events, and its list of past events dates from 2020. Together with the sabbatical notice and the 2021 course wording, this means the programme calendar is not current. The space, its equipment and its booking forms are the most current parts of the site. Email the team before planning around a specific course or pitch round.

Contact

The general inbox is info@workbenchprojects.com. Enquiries about the Fab Academy and other programmes can go to make@workbenchprojects.com.