UPS Speaker Takeaways:

This week we heard from 2 inspiring speakers on very different topics. The first was Alan Amling who works for UPS on their Corporate strategy and global on-demand manufacturing team. He gave us an interesting look into how UPS is shifting their business model and opening up new 3D printing labs to reach some of the products on-demand market. The part that I found most interesting about his talk was that unlike most of the other speakers we’ve heard from, he admitted that 3D printing is not going to single-handedly take over the world and revolutionize everything. Throughout each of the talks we’ve heard, I’ve had some skepticism about how fast 3D printing is going to take over manufacturing and the ability it has to completely replace certain processes. Alan compared the relationship between 3D printing and manufacturing to microwave ovens versus traditional ovens. When the microwave was first invented, many believed it would replace traditional ovens. It has not replaced traditional ovens however it has become a regular household device alongside the oven. This, Alan believes is exactly how 3D printing and manufacturing will become. 3D printers will become prevalent in most manufacturing processes however will not completely replace traditional manufacturing but rather complement it.

Additionally, Alan had an interesting comment stating that a device or process does not need to be everywhere or take over a space to revolutionize an industry. He brought up Ecommerce and retail discussing how currently Ecommerce accounts for only 9% of all retail however it has still completely revolutionized the way retail businesses operate. The last takeaway I got from Alan was to “Get on a fast-moving train, you’ll excel faster than your peers”. By this, he meant to learn the skills that are becoming more prevalent now before they are everywhere because that will only help excel our careers in the future, specifically this 3D printing course provides a unique skillset that is very marketable to future employers.

Biohacking Takeaways:

The second speaker was Dot Silverman who introduced us to the idea of Biohacking and several amazing projects and products currently on the market or in the works. One of the projects that she had worked with was a material from Ecovative that is a sustainable replacement for polystyrene. This material is grown from a combination of processed agricultural waste and mycelium which then is set in growth trays to grow and take the shape of the trays in which they are set.

This material is incredibly promising as it provides a compostable alternative to polystyrene which takes from 500 years-forever to break down according to this study on biodegradability https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1543-measuring-biodegradability. This idea was the most interesting to me as I care a lot about the waste created daily and finding sustainable substitutes to single-use everyday products.

Team Ideas:

Our team has been exploring various ideas for potential final products. For a while we were looking at 3D printing a map of the campus for DRES however this week, inspired by the speakers we decided to change topics and go in another direction. We are interested in exploring the capabilities of the Ecovative polystyrene substitute that Dot introduced and coming up with a common object replacement such as polystyrene coffee cups, plastic bags, or plates made out of this material.  The second idea we are exploring is the potential of using 3D printing on nails combined with a sustainable and healthier nail glue that would be more natural than current nails on the market today. A third idea we are currently discussing is participating in the “Growing Local Community” project led by Ultimaker (https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/52447-growing-local-community-project ) and incorporating the Mycelium material into our 3D printed garden design. We still have quite a bit of brainstorming and going discussing as a team however our goal for this week is to look further into each of these ideas and determine the most realistic and interesting route to take for our project.