Thursday started out rather better for me than Wednesday – more rested (as I wasn’t nervous for my I3DP talk which had already been given on Wednesday), less dreary in Melbourne weather-wise – and another packed day of 3D printing presentations and demonstrations at the second day of the inaugural Inside 3D Printing conference in Australia!
The day began with an informative keynote from Milan Brandt, Professor of Advanced Manufacturing at RMIT University, followed by Jennifer Loy from Griffith University who gave an interactive talk on design, illustrated by some very intricate 3D printed objects passed around the audience, which she and her students had made.
We then heard from Jacob Choi, a Lieutenant in the Australian Army and well-known to the Swinburne ‘Legal and Social Aspects of 3D Printing’ team as he had spoken at our conference just over six months ago. It was great to hear the development of his work on applications of 3D printing in the armed forces, as well as the threats 3D printing pose to defensive capabilities.
It was also great to hear from Paul Mignone, a researcher and 3D printing research community coordinator at the University of Melbourne, who enlightened us on the changing approach to academic research in this area and what the IT Research group at the University of Melbourne was doing – including their ‘Digital Blacksmith’ course and community along with their national 3D printing training materials repository (which can be found at 3Dprinting.edu.au).
We were then transported to the catwalks of the fashion world with Melbourne start-up XYZWorkshop’s talk on fashion, with plenty of aesthetically pleasing pictures of the 3D printed dress that won them first prize at Singapore Nanyang Technology University’s fashion competition.
Our energy levels around lunchtime were reinvigorated by another appearance from the unstoppable April Staines, this time enlightening us about the World of Female Makers (#SheMakes), from the fact April’s Etsy store has had many more female buyers of 3D printing-enabled sci-fi and fantasy replica props; to the interviews she is conducting among female makers (we are very interested to hear the outcomes!) and the Girl Geek Academy sessions she has championed!
On the subject of education, Paul Taylor from Quantum Victoria gave us an overview of 3D printing in schools (as well as other emerging technologies), which are inspiring creativity and encouraging learning across the next generation in education.
We were pleased to see another Swinburne 3D Printing friend, Dr Thomas Birtchnell from the University of Wollongong, discuss 3D printing for development, from future perspectives on how cities and technologies like 3D printing are going to develop together, to the prospects for 3D printing, in particular in the Global South.
The final presentations of the day were more future-regarding, with Trent Clew-de Castella discussing the game-changer – 3D scanners – the following expert panel discussing trends and imparting their wise advice, and the day concluding with an energetic talk from Pablos Holman on hacking, making, big new ideas, and 3D printing food. I have to say that I remain to be convinced that a 3D printed smoothie from powder will taste as good as – or even better – than a conventionally made one, but it’s still a brave new world for innovative 3D printing applications!
A big thanks to everyone at Inside 3D Printing for putting on two packed days of great talks and exhibits, and let’s hope that the first I3DP Australian edition is followed by an even bigger and better version next year!
