This week in class was a very interesting and productive. We first had a guest presentation from Alan Amling, who works for UPS. He talked about how UPS has started creating 3D printing factories so that they can custom print parts for a variety of companies and how their research into 3D Printing materials. I had heard about UPS’s endeavors into 3D printing in a class I took last semester about Logistics so it was really cool to hear from Alan about how they have accepted this technology because they realized that 3D printing is going to revolutionize the industry that they operate in. It was also very insightful to hear Alan’s thoughts about how the industry landscape is changing and why we have an advantage being able to take a class that embraces 3D printing and the maker culture.

Our next guest lecturer was from Dot Silverman who talked about her work in Biohacking. This is an area that I have always read about the cool stuff that has been going on but don’t really have a lot of knowledge of. It was really cool to hear from someone with a lot of knowledge and excitement about biohacking. It was also great that she brought in example of some of the things that she has worked on and allowed us to look at them. My favorite has to be the Mini PCR because I was able to figure out what it did before she even talked about it.

In class, we also had time with our groups to start coming up with an idea for our semester project. The night before class, both my basement and Chelly’s basement flooded due to the intense rains that we had that week. I was forced to stay up all night to deal fight the 8 inches of water in my basement. That got us thinking about our first idea which is a low-cost mat that someone would place in an area that is prone to flooding that would give the user an early warning of the presence of water. Vishal gave us some good guidance and asked us to think of a solution that would alert the user that a flood was going to happen even before the presence of water. Our other main idea is a vertical farm solution that would be tailored towards college students. The idea is that college students often don’t have the time or space to grow their own produce. This concept would give students an opportunity to grow plants that would be used in cooking in their own living rooms. We even thought about adding sensors that track the amount of water in the plants or even a tank of water that waters the plants automatically. Vishal again gave us good advice and challenged us to make it a product that can be easily replicated by regular college students.