Mary MacIntire

Contributing Writer

The Women in STEM and Supporters club (WSS) held a 3D Printing Workshop last Thursday, Sept. 19, with Professor Farris-Labar, who teaches a 3D printing class in the Fine Arts building. This workshop offered students an introduction to this technology and an overview of the different fields that use it.  

Professor Farris-Labar discussed the capabilities of 3D printing for all aspects of STEM, including art, which is known as STEAM. More and more, this kind of technology is being used in many different fields. 

“It is a type of technology for everyone,” Professor Farris-Labar says, “it’s not just for art or engineering or product design, it’s for everybody.” 

3D printing is a process for making a physical object from a 3D digital model. This is usually done by laying down many thin layers of a material. The kind of materials used can vary depending on what you want to create. 

Some of the examples she gave in her presentation were accessories, clothes, prosthetics, product design and even living cells. 

“They have 3D printed skin for burn victims,” Professor Farris-Labar explained. “If you are on a list waiting for a donor, maybe you could have your DNA used from a drop of blood to start growing the stem cells in a form that came from data of a CT scan. There is so much more involved… but yes, it is happening, and it is possible, and it is going to get better.” 

Some 3D printed examples that were passed around at the workshop were made by Professor Farris-Labar and her students. They included charms for jewelry, toys and model bones. 

The reason that 3D prints can be so accurate is because they are based on digital designs or 3D scans of people or objects. This can make it easier to tweak product design models without having to spend money on expensive materials that would normally be used to make them. However, like all technology, there can also be errors or bugs when working on a print. 

Websites such as TinkerCAD, Thingiverse and Scaniverse offer options of 3D designs or scans that can be downloaded to make yourself. For example, Thingiverse offers hundreds of designs of different objects such as keychains, hairclips, small tools and much more. These were a few of the websites used during the workshop to help brainstorm ideas of what we would want to make. 

The workshop also acted as a refresher for some students who have learned about 3D printing in the past.  

“I have not done something like this since elementary school, so this was like a refresh to me,” says freshman Yana Arbo, “but it is also cool to see that there are other things you can work with… I only knew of TinkerCAD, now I know that there are others.” 

Professor Farris-Labar’s 3D printing class gives students the opportunity to use this technology to create and print their own designs. With these methods being used more for building and creating, the options for what can be made with a 3D printer are almost endless.