Research & Education
Additive manufacturing is transforming how products are designed, produced, and serviced. AM lets us produce on-demand, without dedicated equipment or tooling. This unparalleled flexibility enables new digital design and production tools that can create components and products with breakthrough performance: in order to truly unlock the potential of AM, research & education is of fundamental importance.
Knowledge of the fundamentals of AM, its design principles, applications, and implications is one of the greatest barriers to its wider adoption. In recent years the key importance of integrating additive manufacturing in educational curricula has begun to be considered worldwide.
Additive manufacturing centered research & education initiatives by both governments and corporations – as well as individuals – have begun to focus on raising the next generation of additive manufacturing designers and engineers.
The main areas of exploration for educational activities are in software and hardware. While AM hardware learning is currently mostly limited to exploring the current additive production process and its applications, the software offers some of the most significant opportunities in terms of learning to fully exploit the AM process in the future.
-
While many departments at Harvard University are quiet and empty these days, some, like the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, are still open and active, helping to develop solutions for diagnosing and treating COVID-19. Researchers from the Wyss Institute are working on a number of initiatives which are already…
Read More -
Sciperio, the research arm of Florida-based nScrypt, has announced a joint project with several partners through which it will seek to develop on-demand human blood for future blood supply. The project will leverage nScypt’s microdispensing technology and will be undertaken in collaboration with The Uniformed Services University of the Health…
Read More -
Artist Thom Kubli has partnered with MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group to create a 3D printer that defies gravity by producing ultra-lightweight floating sculptures. The innovative project is inspired by Kubli’s personal fascination with speculative machines, which are devices whose function has a metaphysical value rather than a utilitarian…
Read More -
A team of MIT engineers that is developing flexible neural implants has found a way to 3D print neural probes and electronic devices that are rubbery and soft in quality. The innovative devices, made from an electrically conductive polymer, could offer a safer alternative to conventional brain implants and metal-based…
Read More -
A team from the Harvard Semitic Museum has 3D scanned a series of three sarcophagi from Ancient Egypt, which are now viewable through 3D modeling platform SketchFab. The effort is part of a broader project that aims to digitize artifacts from Ancient Egyptian civilizations to be shared online for “study…
Read More -
The Austria-based AM 4 Industry research network has published a comprehensive manual for tooling engineers to simulate additively manufactured cooling channels using OpenFoam, an open-source software platform. The guide was compiled by researchers from the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. AM 4 Industry is a €2.1 million CORNET project that…
Read More -
The Penn State College of Engineering has been given a multi-functional nScrypt 3Dn-450-HP 3D printer, courtesy of consumer electronics company TE Connectivity. The donated 3D printer, worth around $350,000, will be used by researchers to deepen their exploration of new additive manufacturing materials and processes, as well as to explore…
Read More -
In nature, biological materials and organisms are part of a circular process of production and degradation. This process sustains the Earth and living things on it. Humans, however, have introduced new materials and products which do not fit into the circular economy, resulting in waste, which—as we all know—is detrimental…
Read More -
In court hearings, it is of the utmost importance that jurors fully understand the case at hand so they can come to the most-informed and, hopefully, right decision. Researchers from the Cranfield Forensic Institute in the UK believe that 3D printed models could offer a solution, providing a better understanding…
Read More -
A joint team of researchers from Rensselaer, Northwestern University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a methodology that could improve the treatment of aggressive glioblastoma brain tumors. The process, which combines medical imaging and bioprinting technologies, can help scientists to better understand the complex structure…
Read More
