Sanzhar Myrzagalym

Every invention has a backstory.
Here are mine


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Sheberkhana  


/ʃɛbərˈkhɑnə/ noun from Kazakh, “sheber” - a master, “khana” - a place. A place of mastery, a workshop.
2017

For us, it’s the place where we invested all our hearts and souls

During our undergraduate studies, our team and I passionately pursued hardware projects, including:
  • A soft toy with a webcam eye and servo-controlled smile  (it looked as scary as it sounds :D)  for monitoring children's emotions  for the early diagnosis of mental illnesses (aside from those caused by the toy itself :D)
  • A maze-navigating robot, which ended up demolishing parts of the maze :D
  • A Kinect and Speech Recognition-based game, where players solve math problems using hand gestures and voice commands, etc.

But since our university at that time didn't have any dedicated space with the necessary equipment for us to work on our projects, we worked there:

In a tiny closet in the basement 
In utility rooms when they get free
Wherever we had the chance

It was then that we dreamt of someday creating an open lab, where enthusiasts just like us could freely work on their ideas and have shared access to expensive equipment.

The  penthouse


That’s why, as soon as we won our first financial support (thanks to the ecoSocket project), we almost immediately rented a small office near our university. It was a “penthouse” on the 8th floor of a 7-story building. For us it was something similar to the Loft at Stanford :D

You can't imagine how much we loved that place!

We held countless brainstorming sessions there
We worked on our prototypes
It was a place for creative freedom
We watched the “Silicon Valley” series and prepared for final exams
We always remember that time with a special warmth

The prototyping lab


Several years after our graduation, with work experience under our belts, we began revisiting our idea of creating a space for creative individuals - makers: engineers, designers, students, and schoolchildren.

Thanks to our decision to pursue an MBA degree, we were able to prepare an excellent business plan and began pitching it to various investors and government agencies. Our vision of the prototyping lab was inspired by makerspaces and fablabs we’ve seen in US, and legendary places like The Loft at Stanford and MIT Media Lab.

Sheberkhana: bringing the power of technology to everyone (The business plan and the pitch deck)
The high-level plan of the lab

From the very beginning, the vision of the laboratory was to provide access to various equipment for prototyping, attend classes on application development and data analysis, work with electronics, and even cultivate vertical farms for anyone interested.

Our pitch for the "Build Your Business" competition


The initial results of the negotiations didn't take long to materialize: we won the "Build Your Business" competition and secured investments amounting to $50,000. Additionally, as a result of my negotiations with the quasi-governmental fund Zerde, they agreed to become co-investors in the project.

A moment of euphoria from the fact that we were getting closer to fulfilling our dream
We participated in numerous pitch competitions to gather the necessary investments

A key moment in the development of Sheberkhana was reaching an agreement with the international IT technology park, Astana Hub. I had to conduct numerous negotiations to convince the head of the park to allocate a high-traffic space for us.

In hindsight, this decision proved to be very wise, as hundreds of delegations visiting the park always made it a point to come and see Sheberkhana.

How it all began
What it has turned into

After months of preparation, pitching, and negotiations, we were finally ready to begin the project implementation: equipment procurement, logistics, and equipment installation - everything was done by our team ourselves. I spent several months sleeping at Sheberkhana to prepare everything for the opening.

Making sure our equipment is shipped with care
Through hours spent on the support line and reading instructions, I learned how to calibrate laser cutter, 3D printer, and CNC machines
But the result was worth every second of the time spent

In the true spirit of maker culture, we decided to craft the lab sign with our own hands


On November 7, 2018, we officially opened Sheberkhana Prototyping Laboratory. The grand opening was even attended by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

A photo with the first President of Kazakhstan after the opening ceremony
Our lab has hosted almost every government official in the Republic over the years

The impact


It's hard to count how many hundreds of events we've held at Sheberkhana over the years, and how many thousands of people have participated in our workshops and courses. I'm incredibly proud of how many lives we've touched through our project, how many students and schoolchildren have discovered the amazing world of making thanks to our lab.

We often invited school teachers to teach them how to use the equipment
Many people wrote their first lines of code on our courses
This is me conducting a workshop on using AI services
We made sure our facility was accessible to people with disabilities
Many times, we had so many people interested in our courses that we couldn't fit them all in our classroom, so we used larger auditoriums
Almost everyone who spent more than 10 minutes in Sheberkhana left with a custom-designed keychain or pin made on the laser cutter
It might have seemed like we were solely focused on engineering, but among our residents were sculptors and designers
Some of our regular residents contributed by hosting their own workshops on 3D modeling and printing
Under our supervision, children and their parents learned soldering circuit boards and programming with Arduino

We've come a long way, filled with challenges and lessons, spent countless sleepless nights, and poured all our energy into Sheberkhana. Looking back and realizing the impact we've had on people's lives, I have no regrets about a single second spent, and I am confident that I will return to this concept and strive to implement it on an even larger scale