Issues for 3-D Printing in the Classroom

Educators see many benefits to using 3-D printers in the classroom, particularly for science, technology, engineering, art/design, and math courses. However, institutions have also discovered issues indealing with the devices.

Major concerns for schools are managing and controlling access to the printer, printing time and materials costs, and effectively incorporating 3-D printing into classes.

According to a November 2016 report card on the use of 3-D printing in the classroom, 60% of responding schools have 3-D printers available for students, but 87% restrict student access. The survey, conducted by office-solution provider Y Soft Corp., also gave institutions a poor grade for management of 3-D printers and a failing grade for controlling costs of the devices.

“We hear from schools that they buy 3-D printers, but often lock them up so students and users cannot access them because there is no way to manage access and costs associated with their use,” said Tim Green, research director for International Data Corp. “It defeats the purpose of the 3-D printer in education, which is meant to motivate student learning.”

Study Finds Security Risks in 3-D Printers

International Data Corp. (IDC) recently reported that the $2.5-billion 3-D printing market grew by 20% in 2015. IDC also predicted that education spending on 3-D printing hardware and materials will increase to more than $500 million by 2019.

That kind of spending could be very attractive to hackers. New research on 3-D printing security found printing orientation and insertion of fine defects are areas of concern because of the potential harm to users caused by deliberately weakened products.

“These are possible foci for attacks that could have devastating impact on users of the end products, and economic impact in the form of recalls and lawsuits,” said Nikhil Gupta, an associate professor of engineer at New Your University and a member of the team that did the research.

Since computer-assisted design files used in the printing process don’t include printer-head orientation, hackers could change the process without detection, according to the research. Hacking the orientation could make as much as a 25% difference in the strength of a product.

Hackers could also attack printers connected to the Internet, adding internal defects into products as they are being printed. The researchers were able to introduce submillimeter defects, which could weaken the product, that couldn’t be detected using normal monitoring methods.

3-D Printing Sales Continue to Expand

The growth of 3-D printing is beginning to get serious. International Data Corp. (IDC) reported that 3-D printer hardware and materials were a $2.5 billion market in 2014 that increased 20% in 2015.

IDC also predicted that spending on 3-D in the education market will rise to more than $500 million over the next three years. However, most of the spending will focus on materials needed to operate the printers rather than the machines themselves.

Sales of printers that retail for less than $1,000 are projected to jump by 12% through 2020, while professional-grade printers are expected to surge by 20% or more, according to a report for Campus Technology. The higher-grade units made up 75% of total shipments in 2015.

“People and companies that are adopting 3-D printers are routinely realizing tremendous time and cost savings in their product-creation and -development cycles,” said IDC Research Director Tim Greene. “As printer speeds increase and the range of materials expands, a growing number of products and parts, and therefore markets, will be impacted by 3-D printing/additive manufacturing. Already, the 3-D printer mix in the U.S. has changed over the last 12-24 months. While there are still a lot of shipments into the do-it-yourself and consumer market, tremendous growth remains in the segments with a more professional and manufacturing orientation.”

Google Has Shipped Millions of VR Devices

Virtual reality (VR) has become a really, really big thing, and Google has the numbers to prove it.

The company recently reported it shipped five million units of its Cardboard virtual-reality platform in two years. That includes devices that were sold by third-party retailers along with ones given away by Google.

The Google numbers also show that Cardboard has been installed through the Google Play Store more than 25 million times and users have watched more than 350,000 hours of YouTube videos through the app. On the education front, more than 500,000 students have taken VR field trips using the device, according to a report in VentureBeat.

While Google has competition for the VR space, Oculus Rift is still several weeks away from shipping and the HTC Vive is still not available for preorder. And Apple has only just begun to explore the potential of VR, which puts it way behind in the market.

The GHOST in Your Touchscreen

Imagine a touchscreen that can expand while a movie is being viewed and then shrinks back to its original size when the movie is finished, or a smartphone that bends and stretches automatically to shield the user’s fingers while entering private data. Such devices could be on the market in the next five years.

Generic, Highly Organic Shape-Changing Interfaces (GHOST) technology is being developed by four European universities to let consumers use their touchscreens as 3-D displays. Users will be able to pull objects out of their computer screen and manipulate the information as it is suspended in the air with a swipe of their fingers.

Deformable screens and ultrasound levitation technology makes the GHOST research possible, according to a report from Fox News. Researchers have already developed touchscreens that automatically change shape and ways to project data into the air. One prototype allows users to break down bar charts into rows and columns once they have been pulled out of the touchscreen.

“It’s not only about deforming the shape of the screen, but also the digital object you want to manipulate, maybe even in midair,” Kasper Hornbaek, professor at the University of Copenhagen and GHOST coordinator, said in a statement. “Through ultrasound levitation technology, for example, we can project the display out of the flat screen. And thanks to deformable screens, we can plunge our fingers into it.”

Store of the Future May Be a Hologram

For years, technologists have predicted that virtual-reality applications are right around the corner—apps that can provide an immersive 3-D experience to enhance students’ learning, allow a customer to try products, or provide employee training. At long last, they may be right.

Most of the virtual-reality applications so far have dabbled in gaming. Microsoft has been trying to scare up companies to develop more practical software for its augmented-reality headset known as HoloLens. Last week, one company stepped forward with plans to build apps for HoloLens with businesses in mind.

Object Theory, whose founders include a former Microsoft engineer and an entrepreneur who created mobile apps for Starbucks and Whole Foods Market, told the IDG News Service it expects to leave the gaming apps to the entertainment industry and instead focus on business needs.

“High-end jewelry and fashion stores and car dealerships could use HoloLens to show customers products that are customized to their specifications,” said IDG’s article in PC World. “Holograms can help retailers plan store layouts and shelf placement, among other in-store uses.”

Recent advances in the technology that underpins augmented reality are making it more commercially feasible to develop apps that businesses could actually deploy.

UMass Amherst Opens 3-D Printing Center

The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, partnered with 3-D printer manufacturer MakerBot to open a 3-D printing center in the university library. The MakerBot Innovation Center provides students, faculty, and the surrounding community access to 50 MakerBot Replicator 3-D printers, desktop 3-D scanners, and the filament necessary to create 3-D models.

The printers will be linked together to allow for remote access, print queuing, and mass production of 3-D items. MakerBot is also providing training for university staff.

The center will provide a way to bring together departments on campus to work on projects. A makerspace class using the center is already being planned by faculty from the environmental conservation, building and construction technology, biology, public health, public policy, and engineering departments.

Plans are also in the works for an entrepreneur-in-residence program, mini-courses and workshops, and business-plan competitions, as well as support for start-ups and small businesses.

“The MakerBot Innovation Center ties in firmly with the campus’s personality of being entrepreneurial and community engaged and will allow us to work more closely with the local business community,” said Jay Schafer, director of libraries at UMass Amherst. “Having a large-scale installation of MakerBot 3-D printers makes this a resource more broadly available on campus and puts UMass Amherst at the forefront of technological innovation.”

Free 3-D Printing Curriculum Available

A U.S. manufacturer of 3-D printers has created a customizable 3-D printing curriculum for instructors teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. The 14-week course provides educators with supporting presentations, 3-D models, and grading tools that can be continuously refreshed.

Best of all, the courses from Stratasys Ltd. are free.

Materials for the semester-long college course are downloadable and designed to help instructors prepare their students for careers using 3-D printing technology. The first course, Introduction to 3-D Printing: From Design to Fabrication, familiarizes students with the history of 3-D printing and its applications, while providing hands-on experience in design. Two more courses are planned, covering material memory, multimaterial use, and 3-D printing for robotics.

“The introductory materials on 3-D printing that Stratasys offers, from the slide presentations to the videos, were impressive,” Chee Feng Ping, a lecturer at Temasek Polytechnics in Singapore, said in a report in eCampus News. “The students enjoy the hands-on activities, especially the design process with 3-D printing.”

Building a Better Dinosaur

The potential of 3-D printing is attracting a lot of attention in education circles. Campus stores are using it to drive traffic, universities are launching crowdsourcing campaigns to pull in funding, and students are learning everything from design to collaboration.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York is using it to show students how to reconstruct a dinosaur.

Schools Can Crowdfund a 3-D Printer

The maker of a 3-D printer wants to put its product in schools across the country and is asking everybody to pitch in. MakerBot Industries is offering a starter kit along with information on a crowdfunding site to help those interested pay the $2,550 cost of the kit.

The kit includes the MakerBot Republicator 2 printer, raw materials needed to get started, and a service plan from the company. Teachers must describe what they would do with the printer on the crowdfunding site, DonorsChoose.org, to raise all but $98, which must be raised offline.

Autodesk, the maker of 3-D design software, has already signed on to fund 500 projects, and Bre Pettis, one of the founders of MakerBot Industries, has made one of the largest individual donations DonorsChoose has ever received, according to a report in  Bloomberg Businessweek.

While skeptics might contend it’s a project clearly aimed at raising sales for MakerBot, Pettis said he’s doing it because subjects such as shop have been eliminated at many schools, which means students rarely make anything with their hands. Besides, he doesn’t really need the money since MakerBot Industries was purchased by Stratasys for $403 million in June.

Is 3-D Printing Just a Fad?

Will 3-D printing be the future of educational technology or is it just the latest fad? As prices for the units fall, more schools and universities are pondering the possibilities. This PBS video shows how it works and may offer some answers.

Watch Will 3D Printing Change the World? on PBS. See more from Off Book.

Cool New Tech Products to Watch

Keeping up with the latest electronic devices can be daunting. Just last week, two new gadgets were unveiled—one that has real promise for campus stores and the other straight out of Flash Gordon.

The 3Doodler is a handheld device that creates 3-D objects from the same plastic strands used by 3-D printers. The device heats the plastic and dispenses the spaghetti-like strands in a variety of colors that are formed into objects. It can even use biodegradable plastic made from corn.

The device is handy and, at a suggested retail price of $75, could be very tempting to a college student looking to put a fresh spin on their art or science project. The manufacturer hopes to have the 3Doodler on store shelves by the fall.

On the heels of the 3Doodler launch, Google announced consumers would finally get a chance to see Glass, the augmented-reality eyewear the company has been working on for nearly two years. Google released a video depicting the voice-activated product creating video recordings and photos, and sharing images. 

 

Consumers who want to get that first look at Google Glass have to submit an entry to Twitter or Google+ explaining in 50 words or less (or create a video no longer than 15 seconds) why they should be allowed to pay $1,500 for the privilege of giving Glass a try.

Report Predicts Higher-Ed Tech Trends

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) and tablet computers are already having an impact on the ways students learn and teachers teach, according to the NMC Horizon Report 2013 Higher Education Edition, released by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Educause Learning Initiative. The study sees gaming, 3-D printers, and wearable technologies as trends to watch in the next five years.

“Campus leaders and practitioners across the world use the report as a springboard for discussion around significant trends and challenges,” said Larry Johnson, CEO of NMC, in a Campus Technology report. “The biggest trend identified by the advisory this year reflects the increasing adoption of openness on and beyond campuses, be it in the form of open content or easy access to data. This transition is promising, but there is now a major need for content curation.”

The free downloadable report breaks down technology into categories representing near-term items that are already making an impact, midterm technologies that should be making an impact within two years, and long-term technologies that are still three to five years away from wide implementation.

MOOCs and tablet computers made the near-term list because of how quickly both have been adopted into higher education.

The use of learning analytics is in the midterm category for a second straight year because of the continued development of applications that help students retain information through interaction with other students. Use of gaming is also on the rise in classrooms as an instructional tool.

In the long term, the report suggests 3-D printing will become more important as the price of the printers continues to fall and because they provide students with authentic reproductions of shapes and objects being studied. Wearable technology may sound a bit farfetched but items such as jewelry that can alert chemistry students to dangerous fumes or eyewear that connects to the Internet through voice commands (see video below) are already being developed.

“The NMC Horizon Report goes beyond simply naming technologies; it offers examples of how they are being used, which serves to demonstrate their potential,” said Malcolm Brown, director of the Educause Learning Initiative. “The report also identifies the trends and challenges that will be key for learning across all three adoption horizons. This makes the Horizon Report essential for anyone planning the future of learning at their institution.”

Children’s books in 3D

Researchers at South Korea’s Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology have announced the creation of two children’s books that incorporate 3D technology. According to an article from Reuters, when the books are tilted the animation is activated for those wearing 3D glasses. Kim Sang-cheol, team leader of the project, said that the technology could be used for all types of books and eventually on smartphones or museum exhibits but “it will take a while to market this technology to the general public.”