3D Printing Summer School: Five busy days, one awesome event! (Part 1)
By Paul Mignone
This summer, we made history. Not only did we run the very first 3D Printing Summer School in Australia, we trained and certified the first Digital Blacksmiths in the world. Here is a brief, day-by-day summary, as well as a shout out to everyone that made this fantastic event possible.
Day 1
We kicked off with safety. Michelle Mackay introduces the students to the workshop and sets out all the safety rules and what they can/cannot do. We then moved forward with an introduction by Bernard Meade and Paul Mignone (apologies I don’t usually refer to myself in the third person ;-), who highlighted the diversity within our first batch of digital blacksmiths in training. 25% of the attendees were women (which is higher than average in technical fields) and professions ranged from architects to engineers and even hobbyists. The pie chart below really highlights the spread.
One big diverse family!
The first job started with a simple exercise: print the ever-so-adorable Stanford bunny. Cute when printed solo, adorable when printed en-masse. The students had to scale the model so that it takes approximately four hours to print. In that time students received the following:
- A brief introduction by Rohan Workman, manager of Melbourne University’s entrepreneurship program for Melbourne University students and researchers known as the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP). Rohan explained the opportunities for students to apply for funding, workspace and mentoring.
- Tech staff specialist Ian Furmston, educated students on properly using workshop equipment (e.g. the drill and grinder). This was done to help them in finishing off their 3D printed products and to prevent injury when using such tools.
- Paul Mignone educated students about sourcing 3D geometry from online repositories such as thingiverse and GrabCAD. He raised awareness to things such as poor quality models and legal implications.
- Bernard Meade finished off with an impressive awareness session of 3D printing technologies currently available to students.
Students were given free rein to print whatever they like from the internet before the start of Day 2. Before the end, we managed to get a photo of all the bunnies together. As mentioned, adorable when printed en-masse.
Enter the Rabbits!
Day 2
Three gangstas kick off day 2!
Students arrived early to pick their creations. To the group that printed out the gansta chess pieces, a massive kudos to you! I’m now considering printing out a set for myself! We kicked the day off with Ben giving a demonstration on how to use scanning technologies to create a 3D model. He demonstrated both professional and consumer (Autodesk 123D catch on iPhone) level scanning technology.
Ben scanning up a minion!
We then move on to David Flanders and his introduction into idea generation and basic Computer-Aided Design (CAD) using 3Dtin. If I opened a dictionary and looked up ‘conceptualise’, I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw David’s face. The man knows how to make you think about items most people would dismiss, and get you to design them better!
David. He’s an ideas man!
The day finished with Dinesh Kantheti, the mastermind behind the 3inter 3D printer, give a fantastic lecture on the types of materials available to 3D printers, and some of the pros and cons for each. Photos from Day 1 and Day 2 can be found on facebook here.
Dinesh talking materials!
