Today I printed the file bracelet.x3g on the MakerBot, which took roughly 50 minutes to complete. This is one of my favorite prints because it illustrates a very necessary design feature for thin objects such as this. Before the MakerBot can start printing the actual bracelet, it lays down a thin and flat scaffolding. This […]
This week I read an article by Heidi Ledford and Nature magazine in the Scientific American. 3D printed food seems to becoming more of a reality in two big ways! First, the professionals are getting on board: This week a small group of chefs and technophiles gathered in the Netherlands for the first conference dedicated to 3D printed […]
This week I folded the three remaining polyhedra nets that I started last week. First up is the regular tetrahedron, more commonly known as a pyramid. The tetrahedron is made from 4 equilateral triangles. We also have a net made from 8 equilateral triangles. This net folds into a regular octahedron with four triangles […]
The IGL is home to a Silhouette Cameo printer. This printer allows us to cut designs into card stock paper. While the possible uses of this machine are endless, our primary use of this printer is to cut polyhedra nets. Recall that a polyhedron is a solid living in three space made from flat faces, straight edges, and […]
This week I read a piece from Entrepreneur by Laura Entis. Laura discusses Kegan Schouwenburg’s company SOLS, a company that specializes in custom 3-D printing orthotic insoles by scanning customers’ feet. The most exciting news: SOLS is about to launch a direct-to-consumer line of insoles. Instead of having to visit a doctor, buyers will soon be […]
Welcome back from Spring Break everyone! I hope you had an excellent week away. This week I read an interesting article by science correspondent Hannah Devlin at The Guardian. Joseph DeSimone, a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, points out that the process we normally consider 3D printing “is actually a […]
Altgeld Hall, beloved home of the mathematics department, was built in 1896-97 and was originally used as the university library. It later went on to become the College of Law, before finally becoming the house of the Department of Mathematics in 1955. For more historical information, click here. It takes a substantial amount of time […]
Today is 3.14.15! The Illinois Geometry Lab co-organized a massive pi day celebration with the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We had an excellent assortment of activities, including talks, an illustrated history of pi, crafts, and free pie! We had a great showing for the baking contest. To reward the […]
Martin Burke, a Chemistry faculty member at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, focuses on the synthesis of small molecules with protein-like functions. This week William Herkewitz at PopularMechanics announced: In a new study published in the journal Science today, Burke has announced the specs of a chemistry’s own version of the 3D printer—a machine that can systematically synthesize thousands of different […]
Voronoi diagrams are irregular tilings of the plane. One places n points in the plane and forms polygons based on the following rule. Fixing a point in the plane, you compare its distance to each of the n designated points. The point will be in the interior of a polygon formed around the nearest point. […]