Hearts for Carle College of Medicine

The University of Illinois is proud to be opening Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Olivia Coiado, a teaching assistant professor within the college, explains that this is the first college of medicine in the nation that is specifically designed to blend engineering and medicine together. This new college is looking at revolutionizing health by making students physician innovators. Students will learn how engineering and technology can be used to easily solve complex healthcare related problems.To showcase this new college they are hosting a series of open houses throughout the next year. At each open house, participants will leave with a 3D printed heart printed by the MakerLab! We are printing 75 hearts a month for these different open houses and are even hosting some of them. At our open house, we plan to explain how 3D printing can be used within the medical field. From 3D printed casts to teeth implants the possibilities are endless. We are very excited to partner with Carle College of Medicine to be able to explain how 3D printing and technology can blend with medicine to create new innovations and discoveries.  

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Designed and Printed at the Lab- Train Placard

For those born in the technology age, every wonder what people did before? How did people communicate without phones? What was it like having to travel by boat to cross the ocean? How did you keep track of hazardous chemicals on trains? We learned a lot about the last question from maker, Don Wittmuss. He came in hoping to replicate an ancient train placard to use as a casting or a mold. A train placard is a small sign that is placed in a noticeable location that tells what the car is carrying. This is used a lot of the time in relation to harmful chemicals that may be in the car. This small placard let anyone who was loading or unloading that car to be careful and wear protective gear. Mr. Wittmuss wanted us to model and design at the lab a 119 train placard. The numbers 119 signified that the train car was holding compressed gas that was both flammable and poisonous. Guru, William Jones, was able to design this small placard from scratch in just under an hour. The final product looks amazing! Mr. Wittmuss is now going to take our 3D designed and printed model to make metal and wax castings of the placard.

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Pygmalion Tech Demo

We were honored to participate in the Pygmalion Tech Demo hosted at Krannert Center a few weeks ago. As you can imagine, this demo involved hundreds of newly inspired ideas from prototypes to demo stages to upcoming new technology. Some projects include HTC VR glasses (virtual reality glasses), a new video game called Agents of Mayhem, the Makergirls, an electronic accordion and many more! Everyone was showcasing their products and most tables were running demos making it a very hands on event. The hope of the Pygmalion Demo was to make people more aware of the different forms of technology that they may not have known even existed. The MakerLab was there to promote creating your own ideas and printing them into reality. We had a 3D printer printing MakerLab keychains and a bunch of cool 3D printed parts to showcase to visitors!

One of our gurus at the event, Linxi, was kind enough to share a story about a visitor that was interested in the MakerLab at the demo. She recalled that one such visitor was a junior here at Illinois majoring in accounting. He was at the demo trying to find more technologies that could be integrated into businesses. Technologies such as using 3D printing for prototyping. Prototyping can often be very costly and time consuming. But with 3D printing that same prototype companies can save a lot of money in the long run. Stop by the Makerlab to see how 3D printing your prototype can save you money!

Check out our other stories or create a new one by stopping by the MakerLab. Having trouble making your design come to life? Contact us for help! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Volunteer Spotlight- Vanessa Yang

The MakerLab volunteers are a really important part of the lab. They help day to day welcoming makers, and assist with workshops and fixing printers. Today, we will introduce you to one of our volunteers, Vanessa Yang!

Vanessa is a freshman in the College of Business here at Illinois. She is hoping to double major in Information Systems/Information technology and either Marketing or Finance. Vanessa found out about the MakerLab through a email sent by one of the deans of the College of Business. And she is so glad that she decided to apply as a volunteer here! She wants to gain valuable knowledge of the 3D printing world as well as having the chance to 3D print her own creations. Here at the MakerLab, we like to get volunteers involved with projects around the lab. Vanessa chose to join our Print a Month project. This project has volunteers chose a print each month related to the something they care about! For this month, Vanessa chose to 3D print a woodblock print called The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. This woodblock print created by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai depicts a huge wave about to come crashing down on some fisherman. Vanessa chose this as her print for September because of it was her favorite woodblock print! Next month, Vanessa hopes to do something spooky in honor of Halloween. Vanessa loves working at the MakerLab because of how unique it is and would encourage anyone to stop by!

Stay tuned for MakerLab updates by liking us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter or Instagram. Want to be featured in a blog post? If you have an interesting story that you would like to tell about making at the lab, share it with us!

3D Printed Pollen Grain Explains Changes in Landscape

Recently, the MakerLab received a request from iSWOOP, a program that helps national park managers aid researchers in their quest to explain their studies to the public. This makes sure that the public understands the research going on and the significance of the results found. One such program currently going on at Acadia National Park is What can we learn from pollen in a tree. Researchers Jacquelyn Gill, George Jacobson, Molly Shauffler, colleagues from the University of Maine have spent many hours researching how the history of landscape change can be found by inspecting the pollen in sediment cores. The Illinois MakerLab is helping these researchers explain their findings to the public by 3D printing bright yellow pollen grain that could be held in the palm of your hands. The researchers can then use these hand held pollen grains to explain to kids and adults alike how the pollen shows changes in the landscape. Researches studying the pollen hope to show that what we learn of past conditions can influence our decisions and shape our expectations for life in Maine and elsewhere in the coming century. Funded by the National Science Foundation, iSWOOP is currently active at Acadia National Park, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Check out our other stories or create a new one by stopping by the MakerLab. Having trouble making your design come to life? Contact us for help! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Welcome Back!

The Illinois MakerLab is now open for business! Check out our hours and find a good time to stop in to explore what's new at the lab?

Snapchat Goggles

We are excited to announce that we now have Snapchat Goggles at the lab! What are those you may ask? Imagine sunglasses that have a built in camera. That camera is automatically connected the the Illinois MakerLab's snapchat. When you take a picture/video with that built in camera it automatically uploads it to our snapchat! Stop by the MakerLab at anytime to come and try out our new goggles!

Fidget Spinners

We are now offering a workshops to 3D print your very own fidget spinner! This workshop can be used to replace the Basics 3D printing Workshop as you work towards your Digital Makers Certificate. Fidget spinner workshops are offered about twice a month of Fridays!

Mini-Camps

We are now offering two new mini-camps along with our Minecraft camp! Our Build a 3D Printed Drone camp allows participants to code and create a 3D design of the drone they wish to print. Participates will learn OpenScan as the CAD Software to design the drone as well as how to assemble the correct electronics to make their drones work! Our second new mini-camp is 3D Printing a Talking BOT! This camp will allow participants to build their very own talking bot using a raspberry pi(a small computer)! Afterwards will 3D print its shell and make it talk to you! Both new mini-camps are for kids ages 13-17.

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Want to be a volunteer at the MakerLab? Apply to join the Fall 2017 MakerLab team! We would love to have you here! And don’t forget! Like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram to get the latest news.