Meet our ResLead in CAD and 3D printing!

by Emilie Walsh

The best part of working for Research Platform services as a CAD and 3D printing ResCom*, is that I get to meet researchers working with 3D in all disciplines. Reagan has been helping with my trainings for a few months now.


If you are interested in learning 3D modelling yourself, come to my next training:

https://fusion-360-july-2018.eventbrite.com.au

Reagan graduated from his Master in Engineering last year and is now working on an exciting project using his skills in 3D modelling and 3D printing!

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Reagan Kurniadwiputra Susanto

Tell us about your background and experience at the University of Melbourne ?

I did Bachelor of Science majoring in Bioengineering Systems and Master of Engineering majoring in Biomedical Engineering. During my undergraduate studies, I was quite active in Indonesian Student Association both in the University of Melbourne and in the state of Victoria. However, during my master’s degree, I was more focused on my academic skills and tried to do something more relevant to my field. I joined the Melbourne University Racing team as a Junior Engineer on the Low Voltage team and also participated in Student Ambassador Leadership Program from the School of Engineering.

Tell us about your interest in 3D printing?

It was all started from a subject called Biomaterials, where I have to design a spinal implant for people with specific lower back problem. I had to 3D print the implant and vertebrae with 1:1 scale to visualise the results. This has caught my interest on 3D printing since I can hold something that I designed myself and it was very quick and cheap. Straight after that subject concluded, I bought myself a 3D printer to kick-off my journey in learning and playing around a printer.

I have find that 3D printing is very well supported by the online community. I have teach myself with some very useful skills though some online resources:

- Make Anything - it’s a creative works channel, he posted a lot of fun and functional things, very very inspiring

- Makers Muse - 3d printing reviews, tutorials, etc., he’s Australian and quite popular amongst 3D printing community

- RCLifeOn - mixed of 3D printing, Remote Controls, drones etc. but his 3D printing works are very creative and functional

I am quite interested in utilising 3D printing for rapid prototyping. For example, creating a box for electronics, a rig to simulate breathing, a bracket to join mechanical structures, and a custom-made holder for a very specific purpose.

via GIPHY

Reagan breathing box! Gif of the first prototype

3D printing is definitely not the best tool, but knowing how to utilise the technology in combination with other techniques will definitely create something unique and interesting.

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Reagan’s Second prototype of the breathing machine.

What skills did you learn during your Master?

Basically general engineering skills like programming and project management as well as something more specialised like electronics, signal processing, 3D modelling/printing, and medical device commercialisation. Throughout the degree, I also learn organisational and leadership skills through student clubs.

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Reagan helping out during one of my Fusion 360 training.

So you graduated! Tell us about your current project?

I am working on a MedTech Startup developing a respiratory rate monitoring system for hospital patients. Currently, we are at a very initial stage where we still developing the product and the commercialisation plan. We hope to get the device to the market and helping clinicians to save their valuable time. This device could also potentially reduces hospitals costs related to adverse events.

How the skills learnt in research can be apply to industry?

The technical skills are definitely useful during device development. The skills will help to make a proof of concept and reduce significant cost in development. The most important skill is the problem solving skills that any researcher gained from its training, at least it helps me to be able to prioritise and make important decisions!

If like Reagan you are interested in 3D modelling and 3D printing come to one of my workshop and learn CAD with researchers from all disciplines. Check our calendar of training here:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/research-platforms-services-10600096884

*ResCom : Research Community Coordinator

How to get in TOUCH with your research?

by Emilie Walsh & Dr Christina Tuke Flanders


Indiana Jones’ granddaughter…

Imagine Indiana Jones getting his hands on a beautiful ancient artefact…

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Originally posted by t3chn0ir

How is he going to archive it and study it? It’s too fragile to be handled on an everyday basis, or to travel across the country to be examined by a fellow scholar… So, what would Indie do? Draw a beautiful board of detailed depiction of the artefact!

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http://anthropology.si.edu/naa/exhibits/strong/strong4.htm

Next generation Indiana Jones Junior would probably just get his digital camera and take a snap of it!

But what would Indie’s granddaughter would do today? 3D scan it and built a beautiful digital 3D model of it, to share with researchers around the globe!

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Data Storytelling

This year at Data Storytelling, we ran workshops for researchers working with Object-based data sets.

What is an object-based data set? It is any collection of three-dimensional objects you are working with for your research. This applies to a wide range of disciplines, from zoologists working with bones or taxidermy, to archaeologists researching ancient ceramic, but also medical or dentistry research, art history and conservation, and so on.

During our two-day workshop, our participant learnt to 3D scan objects, and generate a 3D model than they can then 3D print to have a replica or just visualise online and create beautiful online exhibition with 3D models, to share with other researchers.



Grainger museum at Data StoryTelling

For this event, we partnered with the Grainger museum, who kindly lent some objects from their collection.

@GraingerMuseum collection! Come to #datstory to learn #3Dscanning and online exhibition https://t.co/bGtOVl7Fqb pic.twitter.com/z3VdqrUw5x

— Emilie Walsh (@emilouwalsh) 22 June 2017

We were lucky to dig out some treasure and touch (with gloves!) and play with some of the personal belongings of Percy Grainger!

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The participants were thrilled to get that opportunity and soon started to ask all kinds of questions about this particular denture cast, or an enigmatic lady’s shoe from the 19th century!

#3Dscanning with the @GraingerMuseum collection at #datstory pic.twitter.com/k88hZJktnw

— Annelies Van de Ven (@archaeoa1) 3 July 2017

Instead of looking at photos in a book of Percy Grainger’s artefacts, people were given the chance to directly interact with the real objects. This immediately engaged people because they can get a real life sense of  what these objects feel, weigh and even smell like. It’s a very visceral experience. It triggers the curiosity and get people working together very quickly!

What is object based learning?

Object-based learning has been a way to learn about cultural collections in the museum world for years, but it’s only recently that universities started to show an interest.

I asked our Training Consultant, Dr Christina Tuke Flanders, what are the benefits to bring Object Based Learning into the classroom.

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She explained: “Introducing object based learning to your curriculum can make for a visceral experience for your students by lighting up their five senses. Touching objects that have a direct link to the past can enhance students imagination and therefore an understanding of a topic/concept.

This technique also promotes transferable skills such as teamwork and communication via the discussions that naturally stem from using objects in this way. And lastly, the brain loves novelty in learning, it is helpful to combine traditional learning experiences (lectures/tutorials/workshops) with an Object Based Learning experience.”


Object-based learning at the University of Melbourne

At the University of Melbourne, the new Arts West building has been designed to engage students with object-based learning. the cultural collections of the University are in display in windows across the building, and Arts West is equipped with a Gallery space for exhibitions and several Objects-Lab to engage directly with Artwork and artefact in the classroom

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http://arts.unimelb.edu.au/articulation/editions/2016-editions/december-2016/object-based-learning-a-new-mode-in-arts-west

Case Study: Archaeology

3D printing can also be a fantastic tool for object-based learning. Annelies is a PhD candidate in Archaeology at the University of Melbourne and she has 3D scan some of the materials she works with, such as a Cyrus Cylinder, or some Egyptian statuette at Data Storytelling (Read more about it here).

She 3D printed a fac-simile of her Cyrus cylinder for conservation and pedagogy purposes. How great is it for students to actually get to touch a replica of a 3D artefact! To feel the embossing and engraving in it, to have a precise idea of its size and shape, is the best way to remember it and connect with it through experience.

Think of the potential of 3D printing for communication and teaching: how cool would it be to bring a 3D model at your talk for your audience to have a direct experience of what you are demonstrating!

If you want to organise a workshop on 3D modelling, 3D scanning and 3D printing, be in touch us at research bazaar!

Don’t be afraid and get in TOUCH with your research with Object Based Learning!

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Originally posted by introverts-hideaway

3D Slicer Alpha Training Summary

By Louise van der Werff

Last week I ran my newly developed 3D Slicer training workshop over three content-packed afternoons. Five willing participants were able to come along and get their first peek at the training material, provide very helpful feedback related to the structure of the workshop, and brainstorm ways in which this software may be harnessed in their own work.

For those who may not be familiar with 3D Slicer, it is an open source software package for image visualisation and analysis. More specifically, 3D Slicer is tailored towards the analysis of medical scan data such as that generated via MRI and CT scans. Although 3D Slicer has a wide range of functionalities, this workshop was primarily focussed on generating 3 dimensional volume renderings and surface models of anatomical features from medical scan data.

After giving an introduction on the principles of image processing, I conducted a tour of the 3D Slicer graphical interface, then gave the participants a series of challenges to generate 3D surface models of different anatomical features.

The first step towards generating a 3D model involves image segmentation, which is the process of separating an image into distinct components to make it more meaningful for software to analyse. This is done by assigning each pixel belonging to a particular object a label.

Segmentation of a photo into three distinct components. 

Anatomical structures are segmented from medical scan datasets in 3D Slicer by generating a labelmap over the feature of interest. Anatomical structures we segmented during the workshop included bone, lungs, airways, lateral ventricles, and a trachea and larynx. We explored both manual and automated segmentation methods, their appropriateness being predominantly dependent on the level of contrast between the feature of interest and the surrounding volume.

A particularly challenging case was manually segmenting the trachea and larynx from an MRI scan. Below is a picture of the original scan data, the segmented labelmap, the generated 3D model, and a 3D print of the model to-scale.

An MRI scan of a child’s trachea and larynx. These were manually segmented before a 3D surface model was generated and then 3D printed to scale. 

In addition to segmentation, we also touched upon basic image registration, adding annotations such as fiducials and rulers to a dataset, using statistical tools to calculate volumes of segmented regions, and creating scene views.

The generation of 3D models of anatomical features may be beneficial to many researchers and clinicians, for teaching and training purposes, surgical planning, the creation of custom fit implants and prosthetics, and simple visualisation.

As well as using local installs of 3D Slicer on laptops, we are also currently exploring the effectiveness of running 3D Slicer from the NeCTAR Research Cloud via resbaz.cloud.edu.au (which is powered by the DIT4C engine). A couple of participants tried this approach out with promising results. One major benefit of running graphically intensive software from the cloud is that performance is not limited to the specifications of  local devices, and resources can be scaled as required.

Major points of feedback from this alpha 3D Slicer workshop was that participants preferred more practical content to theory, and wanted to get hands-on with the software as quickly as possible. It was great to see ideas flowing near the end of the workshop from participants about how they might apply 3D Slicers functionalities to their own research projects. Some participants were also interested in exploring whether 3D Slicer could be applied to non-medical applications, such as in the Materials Engineering field.

The alpha training material can be viewed and commented on here.

Please keep an eye out for more training sessions, soon to be announced! If you have any questions, please don’t helistate to contact me at louisevanderwerff@gmail.com or tweet me @LouWerff.

Sharks Den Day 2

By Aliza Wajih 

Hi everyone! This is an update to our Shark’s Den event, which is the first attempt to support start-up business and bring people of different qualities together in one room to come with ideas that will change the world.

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This week we started by a crash course to TinkerCAD by Vincent Khau. The lesson soon transformed into a game of start-up charades! It challenged our abilities to communicate ideas, work collaboratively and most of all test our patience. The idea of the first challenge was to bring together two member of the team the CEO and CMO and have them look at a picture, they then had to describe the model in front of them to their CTO who would have to design it using Tinker CAD. The idea on this exercise was to demonstrate the importance of good communication in a team, as well as the difficulty of conveying your ideas to another person.

For the next hour the teams worked on an ideas they are passionate about, or as Paul puts it their “Gazillion Dollar Idea” . With such a diverse crowd we had teams looking at ergonomic issues where a design for customised mouse for gamers was introduced. The idea of the fancy doors that was carried from last week were made better. Environmental issues were also tackled by proposing indoor compactor bins!

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Team #1 presenting the indoor compactor bin

All ideas were brilliant and were pitched at the end of the day in a presentation by the CEO and a draft using TinkerCAD . This session was the followed by the “pivot” where CEO’s went against each other to defend their ideas and design. In the end it was established that as a start-up business most businesses have to pivot their idea meaning they have to take a different look at their business model and really evaluate if their product is viable and will survive in the market. So, sad face, no one won the gazillion dollar this time because the teams have to rethink their designs and ideas, but they are all as determined as ever to really go out there and bring home the prize!

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Stay tuned till next week!

From Concept to Creation #CADventures with AutoDesk Inventor!

By Aliza Wajih

Hi Everyone! Here is another great story from the Research Platforms!

Last week we ran our hugely successful CAD course for the first time after #ResBaz! We used Autodesk Inventor to teach 3D modelling and once again had a fun and wonderful learning experience. The workshop was fully booked within the first 2 weeks of advertising and there were plenty of requests for more… so keep an eye out for them because we will be running more CAD workshops very soon!

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Paul Introducing ResPlat and ResBaz 

The purpose of the course was to give a basic introduction to Autodesk Inventor as well as help participants develop an intuition about the how to take an idea, transform it into a 3D model and modify it so that it can be printed or manufactured.  

After introducing the fundamental concepts of design we looked at some practical examples with a capstone project of designing a fan using some basic Autodesk tools. This was the best way to show participants that even the very basic knowledge of CAD can enable you to make very complicated designs. It was also a great way to demonstrate that what we learnt in class is directly applicable to real world problems. Below is a picture of Ali Daneshpour who went ahead and 3D printed a model of that fan and brought to class for everyone to see!

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Ali With his 3D printed fan and CAD model

Later that week I also discovered a similar model of the fan being used a propeller for a ship. You can imagine the excitement to see that what we did in class with just a few basic tools can be used to design a giant propeller! The link below will take you to that page

Moving onto our next challenge, The Lego Man was also a great success and had people learning and having a little bit of fun with animation and assembly! This is regarded as one of the more challenging aspects of design but everyone made it took very easy! Check out Jaimys’ Lego man and his rock star moves!
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Lego Rockstar with Jaimys

To see all our adventure follow #cadventures on twitter and see everything that happened on the day! 

Participants and feedback

To give you a little background information about our participant, we had a diverse group of talented researchers from molecular chemistry, architectural and engineering background. We encourgae a collaborative and friendly environment in our workshops, so even though most of our participants were not of similar academic backgrounds everyone not only worked with us but also helped each other overcome challenges while collaborating in smaller groups.

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 Group work in progress on day 2…

From the amazing feedback we received, the course was taught well, ran at good pace and everyone found the helper were always there to fix bugs and clarify doubts (for the participants reading this… Thank you for the lovely feedback). I would like to thank the helpers,Paul Mignone (@PJMignone), Vincent khau (@thevinniek), Bobby Lii, Karlo Julian, and Tony Zathila , who put in tremendous effort to make this another successful course.

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Another day of overwhelmingly positive feedback for @awajih08 and her #cadventure team #resbaz .@ResPlat pic.twitter.com/uSlCrPjomX

— Paul Mignone (@PJMignone)
June 30, 2015
And last but not least, I would like to thank all the participants who came to the workshops. I got to meet some brilliant people and I am glad that my team and I could help them with their work and research. It makes me feel that I am part of a bigger community and that all the hard works has paid off. (#myresearch) Keep inspiring us!
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Vincent talks #SharksDen: Day 1

by Vincent Khau

Hey everyone!

My name is Vincent Khau, the newest recruit to join the ranks of Research Bazaar! I will be coming on board with the rest of the team as a Research Community Coordinator, working primarily with TinkerCAD and 3D printing, although some of you may recognise me during your #CADventures as one of Aliza’s minions for the Inventor 3D modelling course. I’ve completed my Bachelor of Science just last year, and am currently studying a Master of Engineering (Mechanical) at the University of Melbourne (so I’ll definitely be seen around campus a great deal!). Feelings about joining the community? EXCITED!

Recently I participated in the exciting Shark’s Den Challenge hosted by Research Platforms. If you are, like I was prior to the event, slightly afraid that this might be a gambling den populated by card sharks, let me reassure you by explaining what this event actually is. The Shark’s Den Challenge is an opportunity for technical enthusiasts, entrepreneurs-in-the-making, and innovators to meet new people, form teams, and get creative by designing a product (over consecutive Wednesdays) that they will be pitch to a panel on the 29th of July. Successful teams may have the opportunity to pursue their design with the Melbourne Accelerated Program (MAP)!

My aforementioned premonitions quickly dissipated with David and Paul’s warm hospitality, and with so many interesting and affable people to meet and talk to, the first event on the night was a quick 2 minute ‘speed dating’ of the 20+ crowd where we discussed our strengths and whether we saw ourselves fitting into CEO, CTO, CFO, or CMO roles. The participants who gave the best first impressions were then nominated as CEOs and the teams were picked for the upcoming weeks.

In these teams, we were confronted with the challenge of innovating on an invention which has been around since… well since forever really; the door. After coming up with prototype designs (a foam door with key-less entry and a 'quarantine zone’ that cleans you? What’s not to like!), we immediately started working on a pitch to present our design to the other teams (with CFOs taking frivolous notes as to who were our main competitors).

With an event that was so enjoyable, with so many fascinating ideas being shared, some teams even stayed well beyond the end of the event to continue discussing the next steps to their designs! It was truly an amazing experience to see the power of idea sharing at work, and I am really looking forward to next session on Wednesday 8th July. Can’t wait!

3D Slicer Alpha Training Workshop

by Louise van der Werff

Following my last blog post, I have been busy meeting members of the community and developing training material for the new 3D Slicer workshops soon to be on offer via the Research Bazaar. It’s getting to the point where I would love to share some of this material with the community, but the content and pace of the course is far from polished.

Thus I am on the search for a few willing participants (aka. guinea pigs) to come along and be a part of my alpha training workshop. This workshop will not run smoothly, there will be ‘bugs’, and it will be incomplete. This is an opportunity to gain constructive feedback and guidance from others regarding the content, pace, and length of the workshop.

Image: Volume rendering of a DICOM dataset using 3D Slicer

Below is an 'expression of interest’ form, which you can fill out if you are interested in being part of the alpha training.

Th workshop will be run across three consecutive afternoons (Tuesday the 21st, Wednesday the 22nd and Thursday the 23rd of July) from 3pm - 5pm in the Doug McDonnell building (Level 3) at Melbourne University. All participants are invited to hang around for a drink (coffee/tea/beer/wine) after each session to provide feedback.

There are only a limited number of spots available, and we will try to pick a complimentary team from those who have expressed their interest. I will contact interested parties by Tuesday the 14th of July to let them know if they can attend. If you don’t get picked, don’t worry, a larger, beta training session will be organised soon after.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact myself, at louisevanderwerff@gmail.com, David F Flanders at dff.melb@gmail.com

Meet Louise - 3D Modelling Medical Scans!

Hello all,

My name is Louise and I am the newest member of the Research Bazaar team, having just started as a Research Community Coordinator with the team at Research Platform.

After completing a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Engineering (Materials) at Monash University in 2008, I went on to do a PhD in collaboration with Monash University, CSIRO, and Smith & Nephew. During my PhD I developed novel multi-component composite fibres with thermochromic behaviour. In other words, they changed colour with temperature changes (think mood rings in fibre form). Tuned to work in the physiological temperature range, these fibres were created as a potential method for thermal mapping of wounds beds, via their incorporation into bandages.

Later down the track, I was involved in a Researcher in Business program within CSIRO, helping Australian medical devices company Anatomics develop their porous polyethylene surgical implant material PoreStar. Outside of academia I have pursued my own developing interest in 3D printing by purchasing a Makerbot Replicator 2X, combining my knowledge and interest in polymer processing with my passion for DIYing and craft. With this new and exciting piece of hardware I taught myself some rudimentary 3D modelling skills and combined 3D printing with silicone moulding, epoxy resin casting, and general crafty inspiration to come up with some cool new products I now sell online and at markets under the brand name Wordosaurus Text.

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a. my Makerbot replicator 2X, b. a treble clef 3D model in MakerWare c. a silicone mould of the 3D printed master shapes d. A final epoxy resin cast.

I have joined the ResBaz team at Research Platforms to develop awareness and run training sessions relating to medical image processing, in particular the generation of 3D models from medical scan data in the DICOM file format. DICOM image files are produced by a range of medical imaging equipment, (MRI, CT, PET, XRay etc), and consist of a series or stack of cross-sectional image slices across a region of interest in the body. By combining these slices a 3 dimensional representation of the body can be generated.

Generating 3D models of anatomical features from DICOM image files can be beneficial in multiple scenarios. Physical 3D prints of anatomical features such as bones may be used for teaching or training purposes, for the planning of a complex surgery to reduce overall theatre time and risk, and for the creation of implants custom designed and fit to a particular patient. The “3D Printing for Medical Applications” seminar (#3DMed), held on the 14th of April this year, highlighted many applications in which this functionality has been harnessed, and how it could be harnessed in the future.

The software around which the training will be designed is 3D Slicer, an open source community platform with a wide range of capabilities. It’s modular nature provides flexibility and the ability to add on new functionalities as required.  It’s interactive visualisation capabilities includes the ability to display arbitrarily oriented image slices; segment, label features and generate colourmaps, and render 3D models of desired anatomical structures.

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Screenshot taken within 3D Slicer from inbuilt example dataset ‘CTChest’

As this training course is in the very early stages of development, there is ample opportunity for community input and feedback in regards to the content of the material covered. This course is intended to provide researchers and medical staff with valuable and relevant image processing and 3D modelling skills. If you feel you would benefit from this course, or if you know somebody who might, please feel free to contact me to discuss your requirements, at louisevanderwerff@gmail.com, or tweet me at @LouWerff.

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