Guest Speakers

Our first guest speaker this week was Alan Amling from UPS. Alan had a wealth of experience in the 3D printing and making space – at present, he worked in a logistics division of UPS.

Alan shared about how UPS is a redefining how the industry views logistics/supply-chain companies. The company is preparing to launch their own on-demand 3D printing manufacturing network. They plan to link their global logistics network with 3D printers at UPS Stores around the United States. Alan shared about how they’ve established a key partnership with a 3D printing factory in Louisville, KY. They are essentially creating a new, single-stop solution for additive manufacturing and logistics. The new platform will make 3D printing more accessible to a wide variety of potential users, from small businesses to mid-size companies.

Alan shared how the current business model of consumer-facing production is “best fit.” For example, we get to select from size 8.0, 8.5, and 9.0 for shoes – these sizes are already set and mass-produced. We choose whatever size happens to fit us “bes”t, although it may not be “perfect” fit. Alan shared that UPS is essentially breaking into the space of custom production on a user-by-user basis. He referenced Adidas, who has paired up with a rising new Silicon Valley printing company called Carbon. Using their new proprietary Continuous Liquid Interface Production technology, Adidas can custom-make shoes to exact scans of users’ feet.

Following Alan, we had the privilege of hearing from Dot Silverman, who truly embodies the maker mindset. She is a graduate student in Educational Psychology here at the University of Illinois. She studied Physics at Pomona College, and went on to work for Instructables, Autodesk, and the Harvard Wyss Institute. As she spoke to us, I found myself captivate by her engaging and outgoing personality.

She introduced to the amazing frontier of Bio-Hacking. Dot explained to us that traditional mindset of making calls printers, lasers, and fabrication to mind. In contrast, Bio-Hacking by definition  is a fairly new practice that could lead to major changes in our lives. It would be fair to call it “do-it-yourself” biology. It is the freedom to explore biology, growing organic things, and understanding different aspects of our physical world. Dot helped me understand that creating a microcomputer to control the movements of a cockroach is just as much “making” as printing a 3D widget is. I was particularly interested in what she shared about Backyard Brains, which is an educational tool targeting young students. It allows anyone to learn practically about neuro-scientific principals by studying our own brains, electrical impulses, and even those of insects.

Final Project Ideas

At the end of class, we had time to ideate potential final project ideas with our teams. My team, Animakers, thought of 2 potential ideas we could focus on this semester:

1. Grocery bag holder

We came to a common pain point of trying to carry dozens of grocery bags in our hands to our cars/homes during our weekly trips. We realized we could potentially create a solution that would target college students at the grocery store. We would improve on some ideas for this product that already exist (and at a lower cost!)

2. Steering wheel ball

Secondly, this idea is specifically targeted at elderly drivers, or those with low arm strength. which makes turning a wheel into a tight turn significantly strenuous. This ball/tool would allow an easier contact point to turn the wheel using significantly less force. We also looked into existing designs and considered how we could make it even more accessible.