In just three months, Maker Commons has logged over 18,000 hours of print time and over 2,000 successful prints. This 3D printing center at Penn State University features the MakerBot Innovation Center, which has 32 MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printers. Every PSU student is allowed access to Maker Commons’ convenient 3D print delivery service. Students can simply upload a 3D design via the Maker Commons website and request that it be printed and shipped to them. Faculty members can also use this system to request 3D-print objects and models for class. The lab is helping to expand the university’s entrepreneurship and research efforts. Students are benefitting from rapid prototyping and exciting new class projects. PSU’s enjoying the gift that keeps on giving from MakerBot: large-scale 3D print innovation.
The convenience and creativity of 3D printing has captured student interest, inciting a wave of excitement that can be felt throughout campus. One PSU engineering professor challenged students to design a 3D-printed boat that could hold a large number of pennies. The challenge resulted in over different 100 boat iterations. Student groups like the PSU Lunar Lion Team use Maker Commons to train new members in 3D printing. The team uses 3D printing to help make spacecrafts that they hope to land on the moon. Others are re-creating old, hard-to-find objects from the PSU Special Collections Library. “We’ve allowed for experimentation and exploration, not being controlled what was being printed. This allows students completely new to 3D printing to learn the technology while using it ‘just for fun,’ and then progress on to designing projects for class,” shares Ryan Wetzel, Manager of Maker Commons.
For these reasons and more, Penn State is interested in adding another MakerBot Innovation Center to campus sometime in the future.
To discover how Penn State empowers an entire community of STEAM innovators with the MakerBot Innovation Center, download this case study.