Changing the Way Things Are
Designed, Made, and Distributed
At colleges and universities throughout the country,
3D printing technology is helping students and faculty
“use their imaginations to create something where
nothing existed.”
August 2015
Sponsored By:
Table of Contents
Introduction
Two years ago, when Hendrix College, a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas,
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
30 miles outside Little Rock, got its first MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer, Bobby
The 3D printer revolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Engeler-Young, the school’s Director of Media Services, wasn’t sure what to think.
Creating practical tools at Hendrix . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Reinventing STEM education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Necessity, the mother of invention . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
“When they first said ‘3D printing,’ ” Engeler-Young said, “I was like, ‘Printers are already
three dimensions; they sit on the table and print things.’ It took me forever to understand
they were talking about printing an object.”
3D printing and the future of architecture . . . . . 6
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About MakerBot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
It all came about when John Steward, laboratory manager and adjunct instructor in the
physics department, heard about some competitive grants available through the Hearst
Foundation. “I had been reading about 3D printers,” said Steward, “and thought one
would be useful in our department. I just wasn’t sure we could afford it.”
So when he heard about the grants, he reached out to Cheri Prough DeVol who, at the
time, was an assistant professor of theatre arts at Hendrix, to see if she would want
to collaborate with him on the grant. “I figured cross-disciplinary would be a benefit in
applying for the grant,” Steward said. “Plus, Cheri was teaching computer-aided design. I
thought she might be interested in using 3D printing for set design in her department.”
He was right. “I’ve built tons of scenic models with X-ACTO knives and little pieces of
cardboard,” DeVol said. “So, the idea of being able to graph something on the computer
and then build a full-scale version of it was incredibly exciting.”
Before applying for the grant, Steward considered a number of 3D printer manufacturers,
but decided on MakerBot (and named MakerBot in the grant) largely because of
MakerBot’s accessibility, affordability, ease of use, and customer support offering. “I
wanted a printer that would be easy for anyone to operate,” Steward said, “and I wanted
a company with a good track record. MakerBot had a good 3D printing ecosystem.”
By the spring of 2013, Steward and DeVol had been awarded the money and had their
first MakerBot Replicator.
The 3D printer revolution
Although 3D printing has been around in one form or another for more than 30 years,
it wasn’t until 2009 that 3D printing suddenly became accessible and affordable for
schools to adopt. That’s when MakerBot released the first commercially available 3D
printer, which was initially available as a kit, so it required some assembly before use.
Five years later, MakerBot was acquired by Stratasys—the company that invented
FDM printing—for more than $400 million, and, more importantly, had launched a
3D printing revolution in K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and public libraries
throughout the country.
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3D printing to enter
mainstream in the next
2-3 years, report says
The 2015 Higher Education Edition of
the NMC Horizon Report has identified
3D printing as one of three technologies
expected to enter mainstream use in
the mid-term horizon of two to three
years. “One of the most significant
aspects of 3D printing for education,”
the report notes, “is that it enables
more authentic exploration of objects
that may not be readily available to
universities.”
At Miami University, for example,
anthropology students have access to
replicas of fragile artifacts that have
been 3D printed; similarly, at Iowa State
University, geology students study 3D
printed specimens of rare fossils and
crystals.
“The exploration of 3D printing, from
design to production, as well as
demonstrations and participatory
access, can open up new possibilities
for learning activities,” the report
concludes.
“The entry of 3D printing into the mainstream consciousness,” said David Hinson, former
Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Hendrix, “is another disruptive
technology (like cloud computing and wearable tech) that is changing the way things are
designed, made, and distributed. It is helping students use their imaginations to create
something where nothing existed.”
With 3D printing, real manufacturing goods are being produced from strands of melted
plastic filament. “A 3D printer is really an additive manufacturing process,” Hinson
explained, noting that most manufacturing is subtractive. “You have a block of raw
material that you subtract material away from to create a thing,” he said.
With additive manufacturing, digital 3D design data is used to build up an object by
layering on material. “The filament is extruded though a heated element and layered on,
layer by layer,” Hinson said.
Creating practical tools at Hendrix
One of the first practical manufacturing applications at Hendrix came about soon after
the college received its first MakerBot Replicator.
“Michael Bell, lab coordinator/technician in the biology department, came to me with
a problem he thought the MakerBot could help with,” Steward remembered. “He had
an older microscope camera and needed some adapters for it. The adapters were not
readily available and it was going to be expensive for him to replace them,” he said.
Steward made some drawings of the adapters on the computer using SketchUp 3D
modeling software, reviewed the drawings with Bell, revised them, and printed them out
“for dollars,” he said, “rather the hundreds of dollars the adapters would have cost.”
Since then, Steward has helped other faculty and staff design and print out practical
tools ranging from an ant maze for the biology department to a dew catcher for an
environmental science class to an adapter that allows microscope images to be
captured on an iPhone camera.
Today, Hendrix not only has a MakerBot Replicator
in the physics department, there is also one in the
technology center. The impetus for getting a MakerBot
Replicator into the technology center was simple. As
DeVol explained, “We not only wanted to give students
an opportunity to experiment with new technology
like 3D printing and new types of software, but also
give them a sense of community to bring their creative
ideas together and bounce ideas off each other.”
Looking back over the past couple of years,
Steward has some advice for other educators who
are thinking about investing in 3D printing. “Do
3
your research,” he said. “Your printer is going to be used by lots of different people,
“Students who learn
about 3D printing in
school will have a
significant competitive
advantage when they
start looking for jobs
after they graduate.”
not all of whom have the knowledge to run it. So you need a printer that will be easy to
use and work a majority of the time.”
Steward also pointed out that just putting a 3D printer in place will not bring everyone
to it. “It’s important to educate students and faculty about the printer’s capabilities,” he
said. “Take examples to them so they can see first-hand what a 3D printer can do.”
Finally, Steward added, develop an acceptable-use policy and have someone
designated to oversee that policy.
For Steward, being awarded the grant to bring the first MakerBot Replicator to Hendrix
has been a thrilling experience. As he put it, “It’s been a win for the college, for the
faculty, and for the students.”
Reinventing STEM education
Today, the so-called “maker movement” is reinventing how teachers and students approach
STEM education, offering a practical way to connect serious STEM education to a user’s
passion. As schools and institutions are discovering, a 3D printing center – often known
as a makerspace – can provide a forum for increased collaboration and innovation that will
help train the next generation of engineers, industrial designers, and artists. “The value in
the makerspace,” said Engeler-Young, “is in a space where togetherness is valued.”
According to Dan Freedman, dean of science and engineering at the State University of
New York at New Paltz, 3D printing is also training students
to think in a different way. “Students who learn about
3D printing in school,” he said, “will have a significant
competitive advantage when they start looking for jobs after
they graduate.”
Recent research supports that claim. According to a
2013 Brookings Institution study, for example, 20 percent
of all jobs require a high level of knowledge in any STEM
field. In addition, according to WANTED Analytics, 35%
of all engineering jobs require 3D printing skills. 3D
printing not only supports the critical need for strong
STEM education, but also integrates the creative arts. At
the same time, recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that STEM
jobs will grow “faster than other jobs over the next decade and will pay higher wages
overall for qualified employees.”
The direct connection between 3D printing activities and greater achievement
or involvement in STEM vocations may still be more anecdotal than empirical.
Nevertheless, as Patrick Colegrove notes in his 2014 study at the University of Nevada
at Reno, “Anecdotal observation suggests that 3D printer access directly enables
deeper engagement with and construction of knowledge.” Evidence to support that
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DataPoint
claim is clearly exemplified in the following MakerBot success stories.
Necessity, the mother of invention
A 2015 study at the University of
Nevada, Reno finds that in the nearterm, “higher education’s need for
3D printing services could be both
substantial and broad-based across
disciplines.”
Source: Making It Real: 3D Printing as a Library
Service, Patrick Colegrove, October 27, 2014,
Educause.
In May 2013, Trevor Abbott and Ty Parker, mechanical engineering students at the
University of Florida in Gainesville, discovered the practical truth of that proverb at a
hackathon in Atlanta, Georgia.
The two students were sitting in their hotel room, trying to come up with an original idea
for the hackathon. “We had a case of beer in the room, and we figured after a couple of
drinks we could get our creative juices flowing.”
Trouble was, the beer was warm. So they tried putting a few cans in a bucket of ice. But
the beer wasn’t cooling down fast enough. It was then that Parker decided to try an old
trick of spinning the can in the ice.
Sure enough, the young men got their cold beer almost instantly. But they also got a
lot more — they got an idea for the hackathon and for a new practical product with a
motor that would spin the can for you. For the hackathon competition, they called their
invention “Beerouette.”
The first prototype for the invention was, in the words of Abbott, “a total hack.”
“We took all of the electronics from inside a cordless Black & Decker drill, stuck them
inside a plastic bottle with a toggle switch soldered to it, and wrapped everything in
duct tape to waterproof it.”
Despite the fact that their invention was rather cobbled together, it took second place
at the hackathon. More importantly, when they showed their invention to friends back in
Gainesville, they were surprised to discover everyone wanted one.
“We figured, why not?” Abbott said. And suddenly a new company was born.
But the young inventors weren’t exactly sure where to start.
“We knew that the part that clipped onto the beer was going to be the most crucial and
difficult part to create,” Abbott said. “And we also knew that making injection molds
would take a couple of months and thousands of dollars.”
Fortunately, a friend and entrepreneur happened to have a MakerBot Replicator 2
Desktop 3D Printer and suggested they use that to prototype parts of their new design.
Although they had no first-hand, practical experience at that time with 3D printing, they
figured they’d give it a try. After some trial and error with printing the clips, they decided
what they really needed to do was to print the mold in which they could then produce
what they called the “chill bits.”
They prototyped various clips for a total cost of a couple of dollars in filament, rather
than thousands of dollars for injection molds. “The fact that we could design something,
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MakerBot Projects
in Higher Ed
Today, the things being manufactured
with MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers
by students at colleges and universities
around the country are both imaginative
and practical. Here are just a few
examples:
Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH:
Students used a MakerBot Replicator
Desktop 3D Printer to create a
prosthetic leg for a golden retriever
born with a deformed right front leg.
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA:
Two MBA students created a new beach
game called Bucketball, designed on a
MakerBot Replicator Z18 3D Printer.
print it out, test it, figure out what design flaws it had—what was good about it, what
was not good—and then go and whip out a new design in 20 minutes was invaluable,”
Abbott said. “With the MakerBot,” Abbott continued, “we found we could prototype for
next to nothing. In addition, we were able to move from prototype to full production in
three months.”
In the near future, Abbott believes that 3D printing will be used by more and more
consumers for prototyping and customization of products. “People will be able to go
online to places like MakerBot Thingiverse (a design community for discovering, making,
and sharing 3D printable things), find something they like, whether it’s a new bracelet or
a cool figurine, customize it, and print it out. That’s exciting,” Abbott said.
According to Abbott, there is one other benefit that MakerBot has over other
manufacturers. “Since MakerBot was one of the first consumer-driven 3D printers
available, there is a ton of information out there about how to use MakerBot—whether on
forums or FAQ pages or YouTube tutorials. So, if you have a problem or a question, you
can always get an answer to it right away. That for me,” Abbott said, “is a huge benefit.”
So how is their invention—now
Hunter College, New York, NY:
To study eggs that birds lay in other
species’ nests, a student 3D-printed
fake eggs, allowing for more accurate
replicas and better experimental results.
called SpinChill—and their new
Hendrix College: For an exhibit on
human evolution, students created
models of Oldowan chopper and an
Acheulean hand axe, so that handling
the school’s original Paleolithic tools
would not be necessary.
now. Our manufacturing process
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:
For a Design and Digital Fabrication
class, a student produced a chess
set with a MakerBot Replicator 2X
Experimental 3D Printer.
business doing?
“We’re doing well,” said Abbott.
“We’re making a big push in retail
has been streamlined, and we
have a plant in China that is
producing the SpinChill and
drop-shipping it around the world.
We would never be where we are
without MakerBot,” he said.
Not bad for an on-the-spot invention born out of necessity.
3D printing and the future of architecture
For Michael Gastineau, who recently completed his Master’s Degree in Architecture at
Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, a 3D printer can do more than just manufacture
something. “We’re starting to see digital fabrication technologies evolve from a point
where they are not just a tool for creating something,” Gastineau said, “but where they
can also inform the creation itself.”
According to Gastineau, before computer-aided design (CAD), the language of the
building was defined by what an architect could do with a pencil.
Today, however, CAD, parametric design, building-integrated modeling, and building-
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information modeling have changed the capabilities of the architect. Yet, according
“We’re starting to
see digital fabrication
technologies evolve
from a point where
they are not just
a tool for creating
something,
but where they can
also inform the
creation itself.”
to Gastineau, digital fabrication is still used as a way to communicate something that
was created somewhat in a box. “I’m really interested to see how digital fabrication can
change not just what we’re able to design but the way we design,” he said.
Gastineau got his first exposure to 3D printing as an undergraduate at Ball State. “I
had spent some time developing and printing architectural forms that are impossible to
model by hand,” he said.
So for his graduate thesis project, Gastineau knew digital printing would help him
communicate his ideas. Fortunately, his school had two MakerBot Replicator Desktop
3D Printers.
“I decided I wanted to explore hydroponics and vertical farming,” Gastineau said. “I
wanted to see how architecture could provide a solution to the needs of creating food in
a sustainable fashion to feed all of humankind for the foreseeable future.”
For the project, he designed an array of hydroponic pods. “Without 3D printing,” he
said, “I would have been limited to something that was more linear or simple in its overall
form. But with MakerBot, I was able to print individual parts, so I could end up with
pretty complex forms,” he said.
While Gastineau had some experience with other 3D printers, he liked MakerBot
because it was “cheaper, faster, and a lot easier to use.” According to Gastineau,
there were fewer steps to go through from the model in the computer to the model in
his hands.
In the end, Gastineau said, the project turned out
great. When it came time to defend his thesis
premise for his Master’s Degree, Gastineau said
the 3D printed models were invaluable. “Having
the models in front of me was a good way to communicate the ideas. When you talk in the abstract
or try to explain the technology or what these pods
look like on the surface of a building, it’s difficult
to convey the idea. But, if you can show an actual
model, it ends up being
very supportive.”
According to Gastineau, the future of 3D
printing in design, manufacturing, and architecture is very exciting. “MakerBot is bringing
the idea of a 3D printed model out of the realm of just being a toy or novelty and actually
making it something that enables us to design in
new ways.”
7
DataPoint
Conclusion
As Steward, Abbott, Gastineau and thousands of other teachers and students are
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics shows that STEM jobs
will grow “faster than other jobs
over the next decade and will pay
higher wages overall for qualified
employees.”
discovering, 3D printing technology is on the verge of changing the way we create
and learn. These new fabrication tools are allowing everyone to become producers,
inventors, and artists. They are integrating technology and creativity and in doing so are
changing design and manufacturing forever.
“3D Printing provides innovators with new tools to be creative and take risks with their
designs. It is hard to image what will come next,” says Mike Oates, CEO of Hudson
Source: Reshaping the Educational Environment for
River Ventures. “We could not have found a better partner than MakerBot when we set
Tomorrow’s Workforce, Richard M. Rhodes, June 22,
out to create the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center. Give smart people the
2015, Educause.
tools to do amazing things and the results will speak for themselves.”
In February 2014, Bre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot and a former middle school art
teacher, gave a talk titled “Leading the Next Industrial Revolution” at the opening of the
first MakerBot Innovation Center New Paltz. During his presentation, Pettis talked about
how 3D printing is helping “to empower creative explorers to make anything.”
As Pettis concluded his remarks, he perhaps best summed up the future of 3D printing
with these few short words.
“We can’t wait to see what you make,” he said.
About MakerBot
MakerBot, a subsidiary of Stratasys Ltd. (Nasdaq: SSYS), is leading the next
industrial revolution by setting the standards in reliable and affordable desktop 3D
printing. Founded in 2009, MakerBot sells desktop 3D printers to innovative and
industry-leading customers worldwide, including engineers, architects, designers,
educators and consumers. The company has one of the largest installed bases and
One MetroTech Center, 21st Fl.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(347) 334-6800
http://www.makerbot.com
market shares of the desktop 3D printing industry, with more than 90,000 MakerBot
desktop 3D printers. The robust MakerBot 3D ecosystem makes 3D printing easy and
accessible for everyone.
To learn more about MakerBot, visit: www.makerbot.com.
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