For families of children with hearing loss, the cycle is relentless: a new earmold fitted, months of appointments, and then another visit because a child’s ear has grown past it again. The ALLEars project, a large-scale collaboration between Western University and Boys Town National Research Hospital in Nebraska, is setting out to break that cycle entirely, using AI to predict ear growth and 3D printing to manufacture earmolds before they are needed.
The project is backed by a US$4.4 million grant over four years from the Oberkotter Foundation, which supports initiatives focused on language development and literacy for children with hearing loss.
“By using innovative and rapidly evolving technology to address long-standing challenges in delivering quality care, this project will accelerate solutions and make a tangible difference in the lives of children who are deaf or hard of hearing,” said Teresa Caraway, CEO of the Oberkotter Foundation.
The Problem No One Has Solved
The World Health Organization estimates that 34 million children worldwide are deaf or hard of hearing, and for the majority who use hearing aids, soft custom earmolds are not optional, they are what make the devices function. Yet the same early childhood years that make hearing intervention most critical are also the years of fastest physical growth.
“In the first few years of life, children are going through a really rapid period of growth,” said Susan Scollie, professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western, an audiologist and lead on the ALLEars project. “That growth can repeatedly interrupt their hearing aid use during the critical language development years.”
The consequences are immediate. One parent, Emily, described what a replacement cycle looks like in practice for her eight-year-old son, who has worn hearing aids since he was six months old: “They go through a lot. On occasion, we’ve needed to replace an earmold because of wear and tear, and it can take 14 to 21 days to get earmolds back after an ear impression. Two weeks is a long time for him to have to wait to get his hearing back to where it needs to be.”
Predict, Print, Prepare
The ALLEars project inverts the existing model entirely. Rather than reacting to growth after it happens, the system scans a digital impression of a child’s ear, uses AI to predict how it will change, and 3D prints future earmolds in advance.
The AI engine central to the project is being developed by Soodeh Nikan, professor in the Faculty of Engineering and AI lead for ALLEars. “AI is able to learn features of the ear by examining a large ear impression dataset and translate this to predict the future shape of the ear,” explained Nikan. “This is the first project of its kind to use AI technology for predictive earmold modeling.”
The team is also developing a mirroring technique, using AI to infer the shape of one ear from the other, reducing the number of impressions young children must undergo. “AI helps reduce the repetition of earmold impressions, so if a child receives an impression on the left ear, they don’t need to repeat it for the right ear.”
At Boys Town, a parallel research stream led by Vice President of research Ryan McCreery is applying machine learning to acoustic prediction, determining how sound changes within a growing ear canal to ensure children receive the correct amplification from their devices as they develop.
From Digital File to Physical Earmold
Once the AI generates a predicted earmold shape, the file moves to Joshua Pearce’s engineering lab at Western, where postdoctoral researcher Alessia Romani is developing the 3D printing workflows needed to translate the digital model into a physical object that is accurate, comfortable, and reproducible at scale.
The manufacturing challenge is considerable. “The earmolds we’re producing are extremely small, so we’re trying to develop new methods – in software, firmware and hardware – to manufacture extremely small, but also resilient earmolds so that they can be used by children,” said Pearce.
Crucially, the team is designing the entire workflow to be open-source, freely available to audiologists and healthcare providers worldwide, with particular focus on low- and middle-income countries where access to earmold manufacturers is limited or nonexistent.
For Scollie, the implications extend well beyond any single university or clinic. “If we can reduce appointments, expand global access to earmold manufacturing and solve a daily clinical challenge for audiologists, it will be game‑changing. This project is a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity.”
AI and 3D Printing Are Converging in Healthcare
ALLEars reflects a broader strategic opportunity taking shape across the medical field: the combination of AI’s predictive capacity with 3D printing’s ability to manufacture on demand is shifting healthcare from a reactive model to a proactive one.
Several efforts illustrate where this is already heading. Researchers at Washington State University developed an AI-guided 3D printing process capable of producing detailed organ replicas optimized for each patient’s anatomy, allowing surgeons to receive a patient’s MRI in the morning, print a model in half an hour, and spend the remaining time preparing for surgery.
Elsewhere, Axial3D raised $18.2 million to scale its AI platform, which converts patient CT and MRI scans into detailed 3D printable files for personalized surgical planning, custom implants, and patient-specific device workflows, with its CEO stating the technology has the power to impact millions of patients globally. Together, these efforts point toward the same destination ALLEars is pursuing: a healthcare model that knows exactly what a patient will need.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, don’t forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn.
Explore the full Future of 3D Printing and Executive Survey series from 3D Printing Industry, featuring perspectives from CEOs, engineers, and industry leaders on the industrialization of additive manufacturing, 3D printing industry trends 2026, qualification, supply chains, and additive manufacturing industry analysis.
Featured image shows Susan Scollie, audiologist, professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and lead investigator on the ALLEars Project. Photo via Western Health Sciences.
