Did you know that 1.1 billion people in this world live every day without a supply of clean water, and that 3,900 children die on a daily basis of water borne diseases?¹

Something really exciting started this week, and YOU are at the heart of it. In collaboration with MakerBot and the UK-based rapid prototyping firm Econolyst, techfortrade is offering up a $100,000 prize for a groundbreaking, world-changing innovation. This is an opportunity for all of our brilliant readers, you engineers and scientists, moms and dads and kids and everyone in between, to share your ideas for reducing poverty and growing local communities in the developing world.

Consider this — in 2006, the World Health Organization estimated that unsafe injection practices caused 1.3 million early deaths worldwide, or a more sobering “26 million years of life” lost. But an auto-disable syringe now in use in some locations may prevent the possibility that blood-borne diseases spread through contaminated needles. Could you have prototyped that syringe on your MakerBot; or better yet, can you make a better one?

What you need to know

Techfortrade is an organization that aims to energize small businesses in the developing world using mobile phone technologies. Did you know that by 2015, an estimated 400 million mobile phone users in Africa alone will not have electricity regularly supplied by a power grid? Accordingly, entries in the Challenge should

…exploit developments in 3D printing, mobile phone based scanning technology and web based design applications to improve the incomes and livelihoods of people in developing countries.

Are your gears turning yet? Techfortrade offers a couple ideas:

…entries could involve using 3D printed models and parts to improve agriculture practices, water supply or filtration processes, or energy supplies for rural or impoverished areas. An example suggested by techfortrade is creating parts on a 3D printer for broken waterpumps that can then be easily fixed by locals, rather than having to source parts and repairs from elsewhere. The technology could also be used generate income by manufacturing entirely new products from re-cycled plastic.

We’ve seen some great stuff at MakerBot along these lines. For example, this water purification system or the Freedom system that connects rural farmers with 3D printers. But we know there are many more seeds of ingenious devices waiting to be released into the world.

The participating organizations are eager to help participants brainstorm their ideas with each other and with industry experts. MakerBot will be hosting a workshop at our headquarters in New York City, and other events will take place in London, Nairobi, and Johannesburg. We’ll have more details on the New York workshop closer to the day, but here’s the full schedule.

New York, MakerBot Hedquarters – 12th May 2012
Johannesburg, Hackerspace – 22nd May 2012
London, Westminster Hub – 17th May 2012
Nairobi, Nairobi University FabLab– 25th May 2012

Click here for full information on the 3D4D Challenge.

 

1. According to the World Water Council [↩]

Did the blog seem slow yesterday? Oh that’s only because we were being visited by TEDx celebrity Thomas Suarez, the 12-year-old mobile app developer who gifted the world with Bustin Jieber, a Justin Bieber whack-a-mole.

The Biebs has apparently seen the app and finds it funny. Such a stand up guy, and it’s no surprise he and Thomas are being honored by the Tribeca Film Festival at its Third Annual Disruptive Innovation Awards. Also among the honorees is MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, who is being recognized for his leadership in developing a cutting-edge, open source 3D printing ecosystem. Here’s the video of Thomas’ TEDx talk about learning to make apps.

 
Here’s a nice little coincidence: Thomas, on top of being a highly motivated innovator and impressive speaker – and a great kid – is a big fan of MakerBot. While in New York for the awards at Tribeca, Thomas stopped by our headquarters. I thought he was doing us a favor in gracing us with his presence, since we were all huge fans even before the Tribeca announcement, but the admiration was definitely mutual.

At every pass through different parts of the office, Thomas pointed out different things to us that only a real enthusiast could know. When one of our technical staff breezed by, Thomas stopped him: “Hey! You’re the guy that did the…” We tried to prompt him with why he recognized Sam, but our suggestions were actually not right. “No, it was the ReplicatorG video!” And he was right.

In the BotCave, Thomas pointed things out to his dad who told me his son was the 3D printing expert in the family. Incidentally, the senior Mr. Suarez was looked over for a VP post in Thomas’ company Carrot Corp., but ended up accepting a Manager position instead. I have the business cards on my desk to prove this relationship. Over lunch with Bre, Thomas tried to gently explain a few finer points to some of our non-technical staff. “Do you know what Skeinforge is?” he asked politely. We do know, but that’s exactly how a skilled tech evangelist speaks to someone he’s just met about something he thinks is really cool.

The Suarez family also recently acquired a MakerBot Replicator. We have been following his tweets and Thingiverse activity, just waiting to see what he cooked up for the Tribeca event. He brought us a sneak peek, and I’ll share pictures of it on this blog just as soon as he’s made his appearance tomorrow.

Good luck, Thomas!

 

There are two excellent posts from Shane Graber, or sgraber on Thingiverse, about using a MakerBot for your aquarium. The first of these is a general introduction to aquarium owners themselves as to why 3D printing can be useful for that hobby. I have to be honest, I had never thought about it, but Shane makes a pretty good case:

Picture this: It’s late Saturday night and you hear a noise coming from your fish room. Upon investigation, you find your return pump is buzzing loudly and not pumping water. “Huh? What’s going on here?!” You disassemble the pump and discover that an impeller blade has sheared off, and you don’t have a replacement on hand. … However, you are no ordinary hobbyist because you have a 3D printer at your disposal. You fire up your favorite modeling program and quickly model a replacement impeller then hit the [Print] button. The printer begins spitting out molten plastic.  15 minutes later you are fitting your replacement impeller in place and have saved yourself a lot of heartache and worry — and possibly the lives of many critters in your tank.

Well gosh, when you put it that way. Printing replacement parts is always a compelling reason to have a MakerBot at home. It’s even more compelling when it’s a matter of life and death!

Today Shane posted another great piece on Advanced Aquarist about 3D printing parts for the entire process of fragging and propagating coral in your aquarium. I know what you’re thinking: if only that previous sentence had more ‘p’ and ‘r’ sounds. I’ll try harder.

The post is a great tutorial in fragging, showing you different kinds of plugs you could use and why, and explaining that for parts you want to sink in saltwater, PLA is a better option than ABS. Shane printed all these parts on his Cupcake CNC, including the coral frag plugs that he designed, and they look fantastic. It’s also so interesting to hear about this application of 3D printing that I had never considered.

What is your hobby? How much of what you do for that hobby could be printed on a MakerBot?

 

Tinkercad just profiled a cool MakerBotter: Thingiverse user MakeALot, who also occasionally goes by the name Mark Durbin. You may remember Mark as the creator of the Amsterdam House chess set, which took Second Runner Up honors in the recent Tinkercad design challenge.

Go have a read! But also note that Mark’s “house backs onto fields which often contain cows, horses and even sheep, sometimes; you look into the back garden and appear to have a herd of cows.”

I love the idea of a MakerBot printing away out in the pastures. This makes me want to see a picture of where each of your Cupcakes and Thing-O-Matics and Replicators sit in your home or office. If you’ve got a photo, send it over!