ShapewaysEDU and California Universities Roundup

March 6, 2015

Shapeways EDU recently wrapped up a road trip visiting university students in California who are pursuing 3D printing and oh boy were we impressed! After talking with all these passionate students and professors, our biggest concern is enabling others to realize incredible things with 3D printing. Part of enabling is providing access to these powerful tools and machines. University students have more access than they may realize so here are some ideas to help YOU get started 3D printing on your campus:

• You can incorporate 3D printing into an existing club theme. At UC Berkeley, the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society members are investigating the career opportunities related to 3D printing and design.

• California College of Arts lab manager Zane Murray encourages students to seek out facilities on campus and get help from the knowledgeable technicians working there. For the very interested student, many of these labs offer campus jobs running these facilities, a great way to get hands-on experience before you graduate.

• Stanford University students use their Product Realization Lab to do everything from test an idea to develop a new beta product in their cross-disciplinary facility.

• UCLA and the University of Southern California have joined forces by forming the 3D4E, or 3D For Everyone, club which is comprised of students across majors using 3D printing in their competitions and club activities.

• Southern California Institute of Architecture and Art Center College of Design in LA have more facilities than you can shake a stick at, but lab manager David Cowley at Art Center encourages the students to really use as many types of production processes before they graduate. You won’t always have access to such top-notch stuff once you’re out in the real world!

If you are a student, teacher or staff of a school, make sure to register your Shapeways account for our 10% education discount. Also, students should keep an eye out for our upcoming ShapewaysEDU grant deadline coming up on April 1st. You can apply for up to $1000 in printing credit to support your 3D printing project or research. As always, more details on shapeways.com/education