In a year in which it has been easy to get distracted by 3D printing’s financial sector news — the once scrappy open source startup MakerBot swallowed up into industrial mainstay Stratasys on one hand, and the tremendous crowdsourcing stretchgoal smash success of new names launching products from handheld 3D scanners to handheld 3D printers on the other — here is a thrilling story about 3D printing’s scientific and research future. And it appears to be a particularly maker-friendly future indeed!
Check out a video created by the hosting institution, Rice University, above, and the introduction to the this year’s final presentations below.
2013 AMRI Fellowships Wrap-Up and Final Presentations:
This summer, four fellows representing some of the best young talent in advanced manufacturing descended upon Houston to work on rapid prototyping thrusts for one month. This all fell under a new organization started by Jordan Miller, newly an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University, Matthew Wettergreen, and an interdisciplinary team of advisors and thought leaders. This is AMRI: Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute.
We are heavily motivated by mentorship and education. We feel a responsibility to translate our knowledge in a way that can be easily understood by students of all ages. The fellowship component of AMRI presents a perfect opportunity to work with smart, motivated rising stars in the maker, science, and DIYBio communities and arm them with tools and conceptual frameworks from the scientific community.
We hope you are able to share in our excitement about this organization either by simply reading about it, or by joining in the discussion, or even by making a tax-deductible donation to the 501c3 institute here.
About AMRI
The Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute is focused on providing breakthrough mentorship, infrastructure, and research funding for promising young makers to pursue their interests using the scientific method. It accomplishes this through an intensive fellowship where mentor and student work closely together to tailor the learning based on a three-tiered framework closely resembling the engineering design process: a) define, design, and develop, b) quantify and qualify, and, c) document and deploy. The conclusion of each fellowship will see all fellows publicly presenting their work to an open audience of peers and the general public as well as publishing all their work online free for all to use.
In the summer of 2013 AMRI welcomed its first fellows for a one-month pilot program at Rice University in the laboratory of Dr. Jordan Miller.
For more information about AMRI, please see the announcement post to the Rep Rap blog earlier this month….
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!
