On Friday, April 26th, OPIM Innovate hosted its 3D Printing Workshop. There, lab specialist Eli Udler walked students through the 3D printing process with Tinkercad, an open-source computer-aided design platform. After a brief walkthrough on how to use the online tool, students were then given free rein to pursue and build any of the step-by-step projects provided by the Tinkercad support team. For those students who were beginners or still intimidated by the software, Udler recommended the pennywhistle tutorial. As students worked independently, Udler remained attentive and answered any and all questions as they were asked.

After the workshop, many students left with a better understanding of 3D printing and computer-aided design. However, what made students feel the most fulfilled were the unlimited possibilities of 3D design and the Tinkercad platform. “With all of the tools and shapes we could use, I found it really enjoyable to just see what I could make,” said Neel Chakravarti (Environmental Engineering ’22). This was also the case for animal science major Rafael Samaniego (’20). “It was fun to turn each building block into something more complex,” he said.

We would like to thank everyone who attended the 3D Printing Workshop! Innovate would also like to thank Eli Udler for his participation as a workshop instructor in our workshop series!

 

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