Check out Jordan Miller’s announcement for AMRI: Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute, on the RepRap Blog:
For a while now, several of us have been thinking of a way to positively and constructively reinforce the unbelievable talent in the #reprap community, focus thinking, structure projects, and landscape a general framework in which progress can be made.
So today I’m pleased to announce the launch of AMRI: Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute.
Inspired by Google Summer of Code and work going on at Blender Foundation, AMRI seeks a return to some of the ideals behind the RepRap Research Foundation. The goal is to provide breakthrough mentorship, infrastructure, and research funding for promising young makers to pursue their interests using the scientific method.
The summer fellowship program currently has two components:
- engineering design challenge, optionally followed by:
- fundamental scientific investigation (pending the success of the engineering design challenge)
The end goal is unreservedly profit, if by “profit” you mean: gaining knowledge. Financial gains can be important, though they are secondary considerations at AMRI.
Here, we are taking a concerted effort to apply the scientific method to challenges in advanced manufacturing.
We have four outstanding fellows and amazing research projects about to get underway here at Rice University:
- Andreas Bastian – “3D Printing via laser-sintering of thermoplastic powders“
- Steve Kelly – “Ink-jet printing of genetically modified living bacteria“
- Anderson Ta – “Digital light projection (DLP) photolithography of plastics and hydrogels“
- Ravi Sheth – “Bacterial cellstruder for synthetic biology studies“
This year, AMRI runs from August 1st-August 31st. We have already started. This fellowship program is is an experiment. A soft-launch. We have some makers that were personally invited to take part in our experiment, sketch out research projects critical to Science, and make progress….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
