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Best Tech and Marketing Blogs: Roundup for December 2018 http://bit.ly/2EYqIp5 In this month’s roundup of the best of the best in tech and marketing blogs, our researchers found the following helpful articles:
Amit Agarwal, Digital Inspirations, www.labnol.orgIn a December 3rd post found on Digital Inspirations, Amit Agarwal discusses the importance of taking advantage of push notifications for Google forms for mobile phones to help keep your business productivity surging forward. Simple to install, these notifications can be customized for smartphones and tablets and enable you to read submitted forms from your device as well as to forward along automated responses to the sender. Mr. Agarwal wisely points out that, “A fast response time is the key to success, especially in areas like customer service and closing sales leads, and mobile notifications will ensure that your important form entries are never lost in the daily deluge of emails.” To read Amit Agarwal’s full article, click here: https://www.labnol.org/internet/google-forms-mobile-notifications/29203/
Amy Porterfield, www.amyporterfield.comAmy Porterfield shares social media marketing wisdom in her November 22nd podcast titled “Success Secrets to Serving the Smallest Viable Market.” Seth Godin joins Porterfield and also provides his perspectives regarding the most effective means of reaching this elusive group. A critical quotation which stands out from this podcast is this statement by Godin, “Find a corner of the market that can’t wait for your attention. Go to their extremes. Find a position on the map where you and you alone are the perfect answer. Overwhelm this group’s wants and dreams and desires with your care, your attention, and your focus. Make change happen. Change that’s so profound, people can’t help but talk about it.” To learn more about Porterfield and Godin’s recipe for marketing success, check out the podcast at the following link: https://www.amyporterfield.com/2018/11/238/ Ann Handley, www.annhandley.comDecember 2018’s blog post from Ann Handley focuses on lack of genuine engagement and “going through the motions” as obstacles to success in B2B marketing. In her presentation and subsequent blog post titled “Slay the Ignosaurus; Change Your Life,” Handley states that, “The way to slay the Ignosaurus is always to be learning. Always be on the lookout to level up in three ways: through actual education of all kinds, through ideas that challenge you and maybe scare you a little, and by surrounding yourself with curious and engaged people.” For more of Handley’s tips on innovative marketing approaches, you can find her blog post at: https://annhandley.com/ignosaurus/
David Walsh, DWB, www.davidwalsh.nameDavid Walsh’s November 27th, 2018 blog writings centered around simple improvements to enhance the functionality of CodeMirror. With an emphasis in providing a better overall performance of the column feature, Walsh outlines his solution in these words, “CodeMirror does provide easy methods for getting the start and end lines in viewport (lineAtHeight), but there’s not a similar functionality for column. I opted to get the scrollLeft position of CodeMirror’s scroller, then use the default character width and other dimensions to get the approximate column at that position. My user testing found this method to be very reliable, either at the exact character or one character off (likely due to subpixel math).” For a better understanding and visual representation of Walsh’s code improvements, you can read his entire blog post here: https://davidwalsh.name/viewport-lines-columns-codemirror
Ben Thompson, www.stratechery.comBen Thompson’s December 4th blog post for Stratechery titled “Aggregators and Jobs-to-be-Done” asserts that the number one priority of successful companies must be to identify who and what they are and to endeavor to strengthen the user experience to build brand loyalty. In a previous article titled “Aggregation Theory” of which a small portion is included in the December 4th post, Thompson says, “By extension, this means that the most important factor determining success is the user experience: the best distributors/aggregators/market-makers win by providing the best experience, which earns them the most consumers/users, which attracts the most suppliers, which enhances the user experience in a virtuous cycle.” To better understand how Thompson’s user experience principles can enrich your business, you can read his entire blog post here: https://stratechery.com
Robert Cringely, I, Cringely, www.cringely.comWith Apple’s plans finally set to unveil 5G on their eagerly awaiting public in 2020, Robert Cringely’s timely article “Apple knows 5G is about infrastructure, NOT mobile phones” sheds some light on whether or not Apple has missed the boat by allowing its competitors to release 5G enabled phones nearly a year before they make the same leap. Cringely states that the move from 5G will not change the mobile phone user’s experience from its current incarnation known as LTE or 4G. Among Cringely’s claim is the belief that not only is Apple not “behind the times,” but the promised Android 2019 5G rollout will not occur during its projected time. Cringely takes his support from this statement: “The current 5G roll-out is by far the most expensive network roll-out in wireless history. That’s because where previous network technologies generally made more efficient use of existing spectrum, 5G requires new spectrum — lots and lots of new spectrum …Whatever amazing 5G mobile apps appear, the very earliest we’ll see them is 2020 or later when the 5G roll-outs are finally complete. And isn’t that when Apple is supposed to be shipping 5G phones? See, they aren’t too late at all.” To learn more about the latest plans for a 5G rollout from Cringely’s perspective, read his entire blog post here: https://www.cringely.com/2018/11/21/apple-knows-5g-is-about-infrastructure-not-mobile-phones/
David Risely, Blog Marketing Academy, www.blogmarketingacademy.comIn David Risely’s latest blog contribution on Blog Marketing Academy, he outlines the relevancy and intricacies of using Twitter to expand the reader base. “10 Best Practices To Actually Make Twitter Work To Boost Your Site Traffic” insists the platform has changed and to maximize this tool in blog marketing, users must also change the way they use it. One of the most effective strategies that Risely recommends is to make use of the “tease.” He states, “Nobody said that a tweet (or a retweet) of one of your blog posts had to be the headline of the post. Why not TEASE them to click? You’re basically opening up a little loop. You’re sparking their curiosity. And, for them to satisfy that curiosity, they have to click to see what you’re talking about.” To read Risely’s full article, click here: https://www.blogmarketingacademy.com/twitter-traffic/
Jeremiah Owyang, http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/Jeremiah Owyang tackles the topic “Many Industries are Impacted by Modern Wellbeing” in his November article for Web Strategist. This piece explores the role of social technology in helping people to live better and healthier lives. Owyang outlines different social sectors in which technology is simplifying and enriching people’s lifestyles. He relates that, “The Modern Wellbeing market, which enables humans to take healthcare, mental care, physical care, directly into their own hands. They are (for better or for worse) self-analyzing their bodies and minds with consumer technologies and relying on each other, and emerging AI systems to self-prescribe ways to help them be healthier, improve their mood, and beyond.” To better understand how social technology has the power to improve the quality of life, read Owyang’s blog post here: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
John Gruber, The Daring Fireball, www.daringfireball.netDecember has been filled with excellent informative blog posts by John Gruber. One that particularly stands out is an article entitled “Proof That IOS Still Hasn’t Gotten Undo Right.” After a thorough study of the published record of Apple’s App Store awards for 2018, Gruber came to the conclusion that Apple’s two biggest winners of the year, Procreate Pocket (iPhone) and Pixelmator Pro (Mac) both shine, yet IOS software disappoints when it comes to the Undo process. While the Mac version retains consistency of the Undo function known to users since 1985, IOS has introduced a new and perplexing means to Undo and Redo in Procreate Pocket, and it is not the constant used with other Apps for iPhone and iPad. He expands to say, “But it speaks to how weak this convention is that Procreate Pocket could do something not just different but totally different—multi-finger taps with no on-screen buttons—and not just get away with it but be celebrated by Apple for it.” To learn more about Gruber’s suggestion for an improved IOS Undo process, read the full article here: https://daringfireball.net
Jon Loomer, www.jonloomer.comJon Loomer’s December 3rd blog post “Facebook Attribution: View Top Sources for Conversions” gives powerful insights into better understanding the Facebook consumer and how they use the platform to benefit their lives. This approach to marketing encourages the use of what is known as Facebook Attribution to gain an overall perspective as to the effectiveness of your social media outreach efforts. According to Loomer, Facebook Attribution offers the best means to track both paid and what he terms “organic” (free) traffic to your website. It is simple to use and offers powerhouse reporting services with impressive accuracy. Loomer claims that Facebook Attribution opens the door to other outside services which can complement current marketing strategies. He states, “It’s been years since I spent money on Google. My strategy is heavily focused on Facebook ads, my email list, and website content. But, thanks to Facebook Attribution, I’ve decided to give AdWords another shot. That, my friend, is one example of why Facebook Attribution is so powerful. It helps you see things you may otherwise miss — or completely ignore.” To better understand Facebook Attribution and Loomer’s take on its benefits, read the full article here: https://www.jonloomer.com/2018/12/03/facebook-attribution-view-top-sources-for-conversions/
Rebekah Radice, Brand Authority Podcast, https://rebekahradice.com/brand-authorityIn her December 3rd podcast, Rebekah Radice, an expert in brand authority, tackles the topic of “How to Set Professional Social Media Boundaries.” Radice pinpoints corporate pressure as a catalyst for many to make poor decisions in an effort to expand influence and build a brand. She encourages company leaders to determine their own boundaries and to stand firmly by them. She proclaims, “In an online world where every temptation is right around the next corner, it’s critical you nail your own boundaries down. It’s where you draw a line in the sand and say, “this is as far as I’m willing to go in this conversation, with this piece of content, with this particular topic.” To listen to Radice’s full podcast or read a partial transcript, click here: https://rebekahradice.com/brand-authority
What are your thoughts on this roundup of our favourite December articles? Let us know in the comments below.
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Researchers Delve Further Into 3D Printing Mechanical Metamaterials http://bit.ly/2Srerx0 Researchers from the Netherlands and Italy have recently published their findings on complex 3D printing research in Multi-material 3D printed mechanical metamaterials: Rational design of elastic properties through spatial distribution of hard and soft phases, authored by M.J. Mirzaali, A. Caracciolo, H. Pahlavani, S. Janbaz, and A.A. Zadpoor. Exploring the creation of mechanical metamaterials beyond previous designs of geometrical micro-architectures, a research team consisting of scientists from TU Delft and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano worked with 3D printed lattice structures to make multi-material cellular solids. The ultimate goal was to customize the elastic modulus and unusual properties like Poisson’s ratio in varying directions. Other unusual properties in mechanical metamaterials include:
Some previous studies have been performed so far with negative Poisson’s ratio in hopes of manipulating properties for metamaterial functions.
For this study, the team combined new geometrical designs with complex spatial distributions, 3D printed, to customize the Poisson’s ratio and the elastic modulus. They also used computational models in the design process, after which many different samples were 3D printed, with three different unit cells put into use. An Object500 Connex3 3D printer was used to make the fifteen samples used, with five being left soft and the others made with multiple materials. Hard samples were printed with VeroCyan, while soft were made with Agilus30 Black. Gripping systems and pins were also created, using an Ultimaker, 3D printing with PLA.
Accuracy was confirmed for ‘numerical simulations’ by measuring them against testing models.
What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com. [Source / Images: Multi-material 3D printed mechanical metamaterials: Rational design of elastic properties through spatial distribution of hard and soft phases]
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 29, 2018 at 03:06AM Weeklong Camp Introduces Girls to 3D Printing, Robotics and More http://bit.ly/2SxdZ08 Although progress is being made, there is still a disparity between the number of men and women in STEM fields. So it’s always encouraging to hear about initiatives that are encouraging girls and young women to pursue STEM subjects. This past July, the Hamburg University of Technology hosted an international group of girls in grades nine through 12 for a week-long Robotics Camp. Participants came from Germany, Span, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and Israel to learn not only about robotics but 3D printing, laser cutting and engraving, and more. Girls who participated in the camp learned the basics of computer science, electrical engineering and CAD-based programming, as well as opportunities for careers in the STEM field. They also benefited from networking opportunities and the ability to share ideas with like-minded people.
One afternoon during the weeklong camp included talks from seven female leaders in the STEM world. These included:
The idea for the camp was actually come up with by two teenage girls from Barcelona named Leah and Sofia. They participated in a robotics camp at the Hamburg University of Technology during a summer break, and came back so full of excitement that their friends wanted to participate in something similar. Along with their father, they approached the school about setting up an English-language robotics camp for girls, and were met with an enthusiastic response. The first camp this past July was so successful that the university is doing it again in 2019. There will be two sessions, actually – the first from July 1st to July 5th, for both girls and boys, and the second from July 8th to July 12th for girls only. While coed STEM camps are great, there’s something to be said for girls-only camps as well. Part of the issue for girls in STEM is that many of them feel like they’re unusual for liking science, technology, engineering or math, that those are “boys’ subjects” and that they face a disadvantage in breaking into those fields. Meeting other girls who share those interests, and hearing from women who have found success in those fields, is invaluable. Applications are now being accepted for the 2019 camps. Interested parties should emailinfo@robotics-institute.com with a written motivational letter, most recent school certificate, a copy of an ID or passport, and a parental authorization form. More information can be found here. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 28, 2018 at 05:19PM MIT Researchers Discuss the Evolution of Their Glass 3D Printer http://bit.ly/2QcvT6M Researchers at MIT were among the first to 3D print glass, creating the G3DP machine a few years ago to create intricate glass structures. Last year, they scaled up the project with G3DP2, a platform that enabled them to 3D print glass on an architectural scale. Now these researchers have documented their work on G3DP2 in a paper entitled “Additive Manufacturing of Transparent Glass Structures.“ The researchers had two main goals in the development of G3DP2:
The new platform, they explain, was designed as a two-part vertical assembly: an upper, stationary thermal module with a digitally integrated three-zone heating control system regulating glass flow and a lower, motion module with a four-axis CNC system that moves the print bed.
The researchers describe the upgrades they made that turned G3DP into G3DP2, one of the fastest 3D printers in the world, independent of material. Their objectives were increased speed and scale as well as improved reliability and repeatability, and they achieved all four. Several tests were conducted, beginning with using pens to evaluate motion, then moving on to actual 3D printing. The researchers discuss how to understand and control the behavior of the 3D printed glass, as well as the specifications, engineering and control of the platform. Once G3DP2 was completed, the researchers used it to 3D print three-meter-tall glass columns for the Lexus “Yet” exhibition at Milan Design Week 2017. The columns consisted of 15 unique 3D printed glass components that were assembled vertically with “thin silicone film joinery and steel post-tensioning systems to ensure vertical stability.” Each column contained a mobile LED light module set on a linear motion system, with the intersection of the moving light rays and the morphology of the glass structures creating a beautiful light show as well as a demonstration of the capabilities of MIT’s 3D glass printer.
Authors of the paper include Chikara Inamura, Michael Stern, Daniel Lizardo, Peter Houk and Neri Oxman. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 28, 2018 at 03:12PM Top 10 3D Printing Aerospace Stories from 2018 http://bit.ly/2LD05Hd 3D printing has played an important role in many industries over the past year, such as medical, education, and aerospace. It would take a very long time to list all of the amazing news in aerospace 3D printing in 2018, which is why we’ve chosen our top 10 stories for you about 3D printing in the aerospace industry and put them all in a single article. Sintavia Received Approval to 3D Print Production Parts for Honeywell Aerospace Tier One metal 3D printer manufacturer Sintavia LLC, headquartered in Florida, announced in January that it is the first company to receive internal approval to 3D print flightworthy production parts, using a powder bed fusion process, for OEM Honeywell Aerospace. Sintavia’s exciting approval covers all of Honeywell’s programs. Boeing and Oerlikon Developing Standard Processes Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, signed a five-year collaboration agreement with Swiss technology and engineering group Oerlikon to develop standard processes and materials for metal 3D printing. Together, the two companies will use the data resulting from their agreement to support the creation of standard titanium 3D printing processes, in addition to the qualification of AM suppliers that will produce metallic components through a variety of different materials and machines. Their research will focus first on industrializing titanium powder bed fusion, as well as making sure that any parts made with the process will meet the necessary flight requirements of both the FAA and the Department of Defense. FITNIK Launched Operations in Russia In 2017, FIT AG, a German provider of rapid prototyping and additive design and manufacturing (ADM) services, began working with Russian research and engineering company NIK Ltd. to open up the country’s market for aerospace additive manufacturing. FIT and NIK started a new joint venture company, dubbed FITNIK, which combines the best of what both companies offer. In the winter of 2018, FITNIK finally launched its operations in the strategic location of Zhukovsky, which is an important aircraft R&D center. New Polymer 3D Printing Standards for Aerospace Industry The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University (WSU), which is the country’s largest university aviation R&D institution, announced that it would be helping to create new technical standard documents for polymer 3D printing in the aerospace industry, together with the Polymer Additive Manufacturing (AMS AM-P) Subcommittee of global engineering organization SAE International. These new technical standard documents are supporting the industry’s interest in qualifying 3D printed polymer parts, as well as providing quality assurance provisions and technical requirements for the material feedstock characterization and FDM process that will be used to 3D print high-quality aerospace parts with Stratasys ULTEM 9085 and ULTEM 1010. Premium AEROTEC Acquired APWORKS Metal 3D printing expert and Airbus subsidiary APWORKS announced in April that it had been acquired as a subsidiary by aerostructures supplier Premium AEROTEC. Premium AEROTEC will be the sole shareholder, with APWORKS maintaining its own market presence as an independent company. Combining the two companies gave clients access to 11 production units and a wide variety of materials. Gefertec’s Wire-Feed 3D Printing Developed for Aerospace Gefertec, which uses wire as the feedstock for its patented 3DMP technology, worked with the Bremer Institut für Angewandte Strahltechnik GmbH (BIAS) to qualify its wire-feed 3D printing method to produce large structural aerospace components. The research took place as part of collaborative project REGIS, which includes several different partners from the aerospace industry, other research institutions, and machine manufacturers. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy funded the project, which investigated the influence of shielding gas content and heat input on the mechanical properties of titanium and aluminium components. Research Into Embedded QR Codes for Aerospace 3D Printing It’s been predicted that by 2021, 75% of new commercial and military aircraft will contain 3D printed parts, so it’s vitally important to find a way to ensure that 3D printed components are genuine, and not counterfeit. A group of researchers from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering came up with a way to protect part integrity by converting QR codes, bar codes, and other passive tags into 3D features that are hidden inside 3D printed objects. The researchers explained in a paper how they were able to embed the codes in a way that they would neither compromise the integrity of the 3D printed object or be obvious to any counterfeiters attempting to reverse engineer the part. Lockheed Martin Received Contract for Developing Aerospace 3D Printing Aerospace company Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, was granted a $5.8 million contract with the Office of Naval Research to help further develop 3D printing for the aerospace industry. Together, the two will investigate the use of artificial intelligence in training robots to independently oversee the 3D printing of complex aerospace components. BeAM And PFW Aerospace Qualified 3D Printed Aerospace Component BeAM, well-known for its Directed Energy Deposition (DED) technology, announced a new partnership with German company PFW Aerospace, which supplies systems and components for all civilian Airbus models and the Boeing 737 Dreamliner. Together, the two worked to qualify a 3D printed aerospace component, made out of the Ti6Al4V alloy, for a large civil passenger aircraft, in addition to industrializing BeAM’s DED process to manufacture series components and testing the applicability of the method to machined titanium components and complex welding designs. Researchers Qualified 3D Printed Aerospace Brackets Speaking of parts qualification, a team of researchers completed a feasibility study of the Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) on a titanium alloy space bracket made with Electron Beam Melting (EBM) 3D printing, in order to ensure that its mechanical behavior and other qualities were acceptable. The researchers developed a methodology, which was implemented on a titanium based-alloy satellite bracket. Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 28, 2018 at 12:03PM
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Columbia University Researchers Invent Way to Simultaneously 3D Print and Cook Food http://bit.ly/2QRMt0G 3D printed food has been around for a while, but compared to other areas of 3D printing, it’s still relatively undeveloped. For the most part, 3D printed food consists of already-mixed ingredients being extruded into fun shapes. Chocolate is a popular medium, as are other foods that don’t need to be cooked afterwards. But a group of researchers from Columbia University has created a machine that can both 3D print food and simultaneously cook it, opening up possibilities for a wider variety of 3D printed foods.
The researchers’ idea of 3D printed food goes far beyond the simple gimmick of making unusual shapes; they believe that the technology can be used to create customized concoctions for people with special dietary needs.
He also believes that a system could be developed in which people can “download” food to 3D print and share it with others digitally.
Laser cooking actually has some advantages over traditional cooking, in that it is much more precise. It can also brown foods much more effectively than microwaves, which tend to leave food mushy.
He expects that 3D printed laser-cooked foods will become commercially viable in the next five to 10 years.
Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. [Source: Express/Images: Jonathan Bluthinger]
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 28, 2018 at 12:00PM 10 Eco-Friendly 3D Printing Stories From 2018 http://bit.ly/2EUD8Pu 3D printing comes with its own environmental concerns, like potentially harmful emissions as well as the use of vast quantities of plastic. But people have also done a great deal to help the environment using 3D printing, whether it’s recycling those vast quantities of plastic along with other plastic waste, or 3D printing devices to improve water quality or resources for insects. Here are 10 ways in which 3D printing helped the environment in 2018. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Yes, 3D printing uses a lot of plastic. But many 3D printing enthusiasts are extremely conscientious about that fact, coming up with ways to recycle not only their discarded prints and filament but other plastic as well. Australian native Darren Loman launched an initiative involving the construction of an industrial-scale recycling plant that will keep plastic out of the oceans by instead turning it into 3D printer filament. Local schools will collect the plastic and send it to the plant, and in return the recycled filament will be given to the schools for use in educational projects. In other plastic recycling news, a new startup called Trimatis LLC recently arose with the intention of turning plastic waste into 3D printer filament. There’s always a need for more filament, and there’s always a surplus of plastic on the planet, so the two naturally go together. A group of researchers took things a step further by recycling the plastic found in e-waste, using solar energy to power the whole process. The United States military is also getting in on the 3D printing and recycling action, presenting its research into using plastic waste to create new 3D printer filament for the manufacture of parts needed on military bases and in the field. The Million Waves Project uses recycling and 3D printing to help humanity as well as the environment, using recycled plastic to 3D print prosthetic devices for children in need around the world. Earlier this year, the organization teamed up with Washington CoastSavers, an organization dedicated to keeping plastic out of the oceans. Recycling isn’t all about plastic, either – researchers from Michigan Technological University published a paper on using wood furniture waste to make a wood polymer composite material that would then be used to 3D print new wood furniture. Even food can be recycled – approximately one third of the world’s food is wasted, a sobering statistic that two organizations are trying to change by taking unwanted food and 3D printing it into new composites. Sweden’s Paper Province is an initiative designed to depend less on plastic altogether, using renewable paper and wood resources to manufacture goods – including a 3D printed kayak. And in evidence that anything can be recycled, a student team 3D printed an entirely recyclable car called Noah. It’s Not All Recycling All right, so most of the environmental impact that 3D printing is having these days has to do with recycling, and that’s ok. But there have been other ingenious uses of the technology to help nature in other ways. We highlighted this story in our roundup of how 3D printing was used to help animals in the past year, but thought it was worth another mention, because the survival of our own species depends on the survival of bees, and an Australian artist’s 3D printed robotic flowers were an extremely creative way of making sure that bees had a safe place to pollinate. It’s a dangerous world out there for bees these days, and they need all the help they can get. Keep 3D printing and recycling in 2019! Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 28, 2018 at 11:57AM 10 Ways 3D Printing Played a Part in Education in 2018 http://bit.ly/2VdXR5I 3D printing is often used in education these days, whether it’s being taught as a subject or used to enhance another one. As we’re moving ever closer to the start of a new year, we decided to save you some time and gather the ten best education stories from 2018 in one article. Siemens STEM DAY The Siemens Foundation focuses on philanthropic efforts in order to continue the advancement of STEM-related education and workforce development, and has invested millions of dollars for this cause in the US. In early 2018, the Siemens Foundation worked with Discovery Education to re-brand its annual Siemens Science Day into a program for more modern educational opportunities: Siemens STEM Day, which is an opportunity for US schools to promote STEM activities for both students and teachers. The program, which doesn’t actually happen on one specific day but is a promotion of STEM lessons and hands-on activities, is meant to be used by students in grades K-12, and offers multiple tools and resources to help reboot STEM curriculum. New 3D Printing Educational Initiatives In February, we provided a round-up of some of the many educational initiativesthat were looking to provide adults with a deeper understanding of 3D printing. Included in this round-up was a new online course for professionals by MIT, new 3D printing courses from the Sharebot Academyprogram, and a joint two-day training course in additive manufacturing from German consulting firm Ampowerand full service prototyping and 3D printing provider H & H. Additional educational initiatives shared in the round-up were 3DPrint.com’s own Additive Manufacturing with Metals Course. learnbylayers Partnered with Kodak In 2017, educator Philip Cotton launched an online 3D printing resource for teachers called learnbylayers that offers lesson plans, project ideas, assessments and more that were designed by teachers for teachers. The site grew quickly, and in February Cotton announced that it had reached a distribution agreement with Kodak. The learnbylayers educational curriculum was added to the Kodak 3D Printing Ecosystem, as the company began offering the internationally-taught curriculum along with its Portrait 3D printer’s launch. Renishaw Deepened Its Commitment to 3D Printing Education This spring, Renishaw announced that it would be deepening its commitment to 3D printing education. The company established a new Fabrication Development Centre (FDC) at its Miskin facility in South Wales, with the goal of inspiring young people to pursue STEM careers. The FDC has two classrooms, staffed by qualified teachers and Renishaw’s STEM ambassadors, that can be used for free by schools or groups of young people for lessons or workshops. The FDC was actually in use by Radyr Comprehensive School students long before it was officially launched by Andy Green, a driver for Bloodhound SSC, a 3D printing user and Renishaw partner which also devotes many resources to education about the technology. Ultimaker Launched New 3D Printing Core Lessons for STEAM Education In April, Ultimaker launched its new Ultimaker Core Lessons: STEAM Set for educators. Eight free lessons, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, are included in the set, which can help teachers in informal, K12, or Higher Ed classrooms incorporate 3D printing into their educational practices and STEAM curriculum. Some of the beginner lessons include 3D printing a coin trap, flashlight, and penny whistle, and can teach young students important skills like how to align objects, using symbols to communicate ideas, and how to effectively work together on creative projects. PrintLab Teamed Up with CREATE Education Team UK-based global 3D printing distributor and curriculum provider PrintLab partnered with UK 3D printing company CREATE Education, a collaborative platform that provides educators with free resources and support, in order to support schools all across the UK with 3D printing. Each company’s educational 3D printing offerings will be combined in this partnership so that UK schools can enjoy unlimited access to full 3D printing solutions for the classroom, which will be locally supported for life by CREATE. Multiple initiatives came out of this partnership to support teachers, like 3D printer loan schemes, funding advice and resources, special training and curriculum workshops, and new educational 3D printing bundles. 3Doodler Introduced New Educational Kits 3Doodler has long supported education, and often releases new STEM-centered educational packages, including its latest classroom product line: the 3Doodler Create+ EDU Learning Pack and 3Doodler Start EDU Learning Pack. Each pack, designed for and with teachers, was designed specially for classrooms from kindergarten to 12th grade and includes 6 or 12 3Doodler pens (Create or Start, depending on the package) and 600 or 1,200 strands of plastic, as well as other tech accessories, lesson plans, and classroom materials. Additionally, the company released its 3Doodler Create+ EDU Teacher Experience Kit and 3Doodler EDU Start Teacher Experience Kit, which are designed to be trial packs for teachers who are thinking about introducing the 3Doodler into their classrooms. Robo Acquired MyStemKits 3D printer manufacturer Robo announced this summer that it had acquired Atlanta company MyStemKits, which provides the largest online library of STEM curriculum in the world. Thanks to this acquisition, Robo is now offering educational bundles that include its classroom-friendly 3D printers, a supply of filament, one-year subscriptions to MyStemKits, and additional professional development and online learning. GE Additive’s Education Program Provided Five Universities with Metal 3D Printers GE’s Additive Education Program (AEP) – a five-year, $10 million, two-part initiative to provide 3D printers to as many schools as possible – chose five universities this summer to receive an Mlab 200R from the program. 500 proposals were submitted for this round of the program, and GE Additive chose German’s Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Ireland’s University of Limerick, the Calhoun Community College in Alabama, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and West Virginia University as the lucky winners. 3D Printing In Fashion Education In a recently published paper, titled “Integration of 3 Dimensional Modeling and Printing into Fashion Design Curriculum: Opportunities and Challenges,” Nicole Eckerson and Li Zhao from the University of Missouri discussed whether 3D printing should be integrated into fashion design curriculum. The researchers noted that while 3D printing has been recognized as a major influence in the work of designers and engineers, educators in the fashion industry are facing a lack of time, resources, and knowledge to teach the technology to students. The two conducted semi-structured interviews with eight 3D printing industry experts and academic professionals for their research, and came up with three distinct themes from their data about why 3D printing should be adopted, and taught, in fashion. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 28, 2018 at 09:36AM Electro-Assisted 3D Bioprinting Method for Low-Concentration GelMA Microdroplets http://bit.ly/2Td0wKX While low-concentration gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) is biocompatible with 3D bioprinted cell‐laden structures, because of its low viscosity it’s hard to stably make organoids, and even microdroplets, with the material. A team of researchers from Zhejiang University in China focused on fixing this problem in a recently published paper, titled “Electro-Assisted Bioprinting of Low-Concentration GelMA Microdroplets.”
They prepared a prepolymer solution by dissolving freeze-dried GelMA “in modified eagle medium (MEM) at a concentration of 5% (w/v) containing lithium phenyl-2, 4, 6-trimethylbenzoylphosphinate (LAP) at a concentration of 0.5% (w/v),” and then filtering it for sterility, before measuring its viscosity. Compressed air was used to feed the bioink into the electro-assisted device.
The team conducted several experiments with their bioink and electro-assisted bioprinting device, including using a high-speed camera, which was set at 1600fps, to examine the various printing states of low-concentration GelMA droplets near the nozzles under the electro-assisted procedure and evaluating the effect on GelMA microsphere size of electrospray parameters. Confocal Fluorescent Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were both used to complete a series of profile characterizations in order to check out the chemical and physical environment that had been set up by the microspheres. The researchers also analyzed the 5% (w/v) GelMA degradation profile, tested the GelMA bioink’s stress-strain curve, and analyzed the pore area of the 5% (w/v) GelMA material.
The researchers also examined the potential for using their electro-assisted GelMA microspheres method in a variety of applications, such as cellular encapsulation, drug-controlled release, and 3D bioprinting. To set up a device for 3D inkjet bioprinting, the team used PLA material to fabricate a special fixture on an FDM 3D printer, which was then added to the electro-assisted printing device.
In order to examine the printability, the team set low gas pressure (0.5kPa) and high gas pressure (1.5kPa), and the microdroplets were extruded down onto filter paper below, which was exposed to 405 nm wavelength light for crosslinking and observed under the confocal fluorescence microscopy after printing was complete. The team’s research showed that electro-assisted 3D bioprinting of low concentration GelMA microdroplets has a lot of potential in applications such as organoid building, drug delivery, and cell therapy. Co-authors of the paper are Mingjun Xie, Qing Gao, Haiming Zhao, Jing Nie, Zhenliang Fu, Haoxuan Wang, Lulu Chen, Lei Shao, Jianzhong Fu, Zichen Chen, and Yong He. Discuss this research and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 27, 2018 at 04:06PM
http://bit.ly/2SoGmh4
LLNL: Magnetically Responsive Metamaterials Instantly Stiffen 3D Printed Structures http://bit.ly/2Alu02j Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) frequently does impressive work with 3D printing materials, including metamaterials. Now the lab has introduced a new class of metamaterial that can almost instantly respond and stiffen 3D printed structures when exposed to a magnetic field. LLNL calls the materials “field-responsive mechanical metamaterials” or FRMMs. They involve a viscous, magnetically responsive fluid that is injected into the hollow struts and beams of 3D printed lattices. Unlike other 4D printed materials, the FRMMs’ overall structure does not change. The fluid’s ferromagnetic particles located in the core of the beams form chains in response to the magnetic field, stiffening the fluid and the lattice structure. This happens in less than a second. The research is documented in a paper entitled “Field responsive mechanical metamaterials.“
The researchers injected a magnetorheological fluid into hollow lattice structures built on LLNL’s Large Area Projection Microstereolithography (LAPµSL) platform, which is capable of 3D printing objects with microscale features over wide areas using light and a photosensitive polymer resin. According to Mancini, the LAPµSL machine played a big role in the development of the new metamaterials, as the complex tubular structures needed to be manufactured with thin walls and be capable of keeping the fluid contained while withstanding the pressure generated during the infill process and the response to a magnetic field. The stiffening of the fluid and, in turn, the 3D printed structures, is reversible and tunable by varying the strength of the applied magnetic field.
Those applications include impact absorption, such as automotive seats that have fluid-responsive metamaterials integrated inside of them along with sensors that can detect a crash. The seats would stiffen upon impact, possibly reducing whiplash. Other applications include helmets, neck braces, housing for optical components or soft robotics. To predict how lattice structures would respond to an applied magnetic field, former LLNL researcher Mark Messner, who now works for Argonne National Laboratory, developed a model from single strut tests. Starting with a model he developed to predict the mechanical properties of non-tunable static lattice-structured materials, he added a representation of how magenetically responsive fluid affects a single lattice member under a magnetic field and incorporated the model of a single strut into designs for unit cells and lattices. He then calibrated the model to experiments Mancini performed on fluid-filled tubes similar to the struts in the lattices. The researchers used the model to optimize the topology of the lattice, finding the structures that would result in large changes in mechanical properties as the magnetic field was varied.
Mancini began the work at the University of California, Davis under her adviser, materials and engineering professor Ken Loh, who is now at the University of California, San Diego. According to Loh, the concept was partially inspired by automotive-based suspension systems. They began by investigating ways to develop flexible armor that could morph or change its mechanical properties as needed.
He also said that the researchers will explore new ways to develop a single-phase material, instead of having a liquid embedded in a solid, and higher performance-to-weight rations. Future work, he continued, “could lead to new technologies, such as flexible armor for the warfighter that stiffen instantaneously when a threat is detected.” Authors of the paper include Julie A. Jackson, Mark C. Messner, Nikola A. Dudukovic, William L. Smith, Logan Bekker, Bryan Moran, Alexandra M. Golobic, Andrew J. Pascall, Eric B. Duoss, Kenneth J. Loh and Christopher M. Spadaccini. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 27, 2018 at 02:57PM |
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