Already I can tell that this class will succeed my expectations when it comes to learning and gaining experience with a useful, intuitive technology.  Like most of you, I had a small amount of familiarity with 3D printing before class, but after hearing John’s presentation I realized how little we know about how far the technology can take us.  If 3D printing can captivate the attention of someone as smart as John Hornick, then we should really use this class to our advantage to utilize every resource available to us in the lab.  From what I gathered about the class so far is that we all come from diverse backgrounds and have a variety of talents and interests.  The beauty of 3D printing is that it does not matter who you are, or what resources are available to you – if you have an idea, you can create it. Therefore, as a class we have the potential to generate items and ideas through the mentorship of Vishal and the inspiration of others.

I first learned about 3D printing from a youtube video.  It was about five years ago, if I had to guess.  The additive manufacturing technique I saw in the video was like nothing I had ever seen in my life.  Luckily, I was able to take an autoCAD class my senior year of high school that would introduce me to the technology again.  At my high school we only had one 3D printer and people could only print out small shapes they designed using minimal autoCAD experience and motivation.  Five years later, the performance and engineering of the technology has vastly improved and we will, as rumored, will have access to advanced 3D design technology on the computer.  I come from a background in art and design, so I think the creation process and sheer joy of making will come naturally to me.

I am excited to take this course because I know that most of the learning will be done mostly through interaction with my classmates and hands-on learning.  From each other we can not only come across new objects and ideas, but also open our minds to thinking about the future.  Maybe few of us will actually hold jobs in the 3D printing industry, or have any kind of association, but unless we familiarize ourself with new technology then as businesspeople, our careers could be jeopardized long-term. Hopefully working with this technology will inspire us to restructure about how we think about technology and motivate us to stay ahead of the curve.