15 year old entrepreneur and engineer Thomas Suarez met with us in NY this past spring, and we wanted to congratulate him for stirring up quite a bit of 3D printing viral interest this past week after announcing that he is planning to launch a high-performance desktop 3D printer, based on his first patent! (Also, check out a quick snap of him featured in Bloomberg Business Week this past April, numbering Ladyada among his role models.)
Here’s an interview with him from BBC News:
15yo Thomas Suarez Designing + Patenting His Own 3D Printer:
The teenager tinkers with 3D printing technology when he’s not in school or codes new apps for smartphones or Google Glass (which he wears all the time outside of school).
He also has his own company, CarrotCorp, formed when he was 11 years old and making his first apps.
…”There’s something that makes me want to keep going and keep innovating,” he says, laughing at being asked if he’d be better off outside climbing trees or riding a bike.
“I feel that my interests will always lie in technology. Maybe I should go outside more but I just really like this stuff.”
Thomas is completely self-taught when it comes to coding and business, although he gets help from his parents on the business end.///
Great to be in @Bloomberg Business Week! pic.twitter.com/w6Rxxwt5Mu
— Thomas Suarez (@tomthecarrot) April 26, 2014
Just met Ladyada at @adafruit HQ!! This place is awesome! pic.twitter.com/1O84yxZ4Eg
— Thomas Suarez (@tomthecarrot) April 24, 2014
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! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. 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!