3d Printing Lecture Series, Lower Hutt, Oct 1/8/15

Anyone else aware of and attending these (the lecture titles are links to the booking page)?


3D printing – From organs to houses to knives

Interested in learning about 3D printing? Is it just printing guns or is there more to it? Hutt City Libraries is running a lecture series in October on 3D printing and its application to construction, health and design.

Hutt City Libraries is committed to nurturing digital awareness and literacy as Hutt Valley is home to many of New Zealand’s scientific institutions, and a significant number of high tech and manufacturing export businesses.

Lectures are being held in the Little Theatre and are supported by exhibitions in the Little Theatre foyer, War Memorial Library and The Dowse Art Museum.

1 October 2014 7-8pm│3D printing and construction

How is 3D printing being used in manufacturing? Hear Dr Ian Miller of Callaghan Institute talk about how metal manufacturing is being transformed. Eleanor Howick from Callaghan Institute will give an overview about 3D printing.

8th October 2014 7-8pm │ 3D printing and health

Dr Tim Woodfield is an international leader in how 3D printing can be used in regenerative medicine. He will talk about his team’s research and what is happening worldwide. e.g. stem cells and 3D printing; joint replacement.

15th October 2014 7-8pm │ 3D printing and art/design

One of the country’s leading researchers into 3D design – Tim Miller, Victoria University School of Architecture and Design will speak how 3D printing is being used in design. What are some artworks and design work being done around the Wellington region that have used 3D printing and what can we expect to see in the future?

Damn. Would be keen if it was 450km further south. Would be interested to read your comments on the lectures

Thanks butterfinger. I've just signed up for the first two.

First lecture tonight, and what a turnout!

We arrived at about 10 to 7, and there were maybe 25 people milling around looking at the printers on display in the foyer, so we thought, "this is us, the website said about 25 had registered, so it's good to see everyone show up". Little did we know! One of the organizers said that they were about to start, so we walked into the 300 seat theatre expecting to find it empty, but it was nearly full to capacity! More came in after us and had to squeeze in where they could, so I think there were nigh on 300 people there.

The mayor opened and we could tell he was very pleasantly surprised - I think we can expect to see more things like this being put on. Clearly popular!

Eleanor Howick gave the first part of the talk, concentrating on shall we say "our kind of printing", namely reprap style stuff. Quite interested in trying out her photo stitching approach to model generation from real-world objects. We've not tried that before. Great to see her show a real world example where a 3D print repaired a domestic appliance that would otherwise have been binned.

Next up was Dr Ian Brown, who discussed his metal sintering work, which was very interesting. A million dollars per machine puts it way out of reach for home users of course, but thinking in terms of 10-20 years we could see how having components printed in specialist local fabs is certainly feasible.

All-in-all a very worthwhile evening out. My sons, who are 8 and 10, came away bubbling with ideas, and for me that's what it's all about!

300 people willing to get off their bottoms and go to Lower Hutt on a midweek evening to see a 3D printing lecture - that was probably the best bit.

Thanks hugely for reporting back butterfinger. Sounds like it was inspirational.

It was an excellent evening. Both speakers were very interesting.

It was good to find out that kiwis are still keeping at the leading edge of 3D printing.

I look forward to the next two talks.

Hopefully the guy with the cell phone and absolutely no manners whatsoever will decide 3D printing isn't for him.

I just got back from the 3rd session. Tim Miller from Vic Uni. A very interesting talk on the history and current state of 3D printing, with several interesting video clips. What really interested me was a free form metal printer.

I couldn't make last week, so I can't talk about that. Tonight there were 30-50 empty seats, so a few less than the first one.

Butterfinger, you will be pleased to know that the introductions started with a suggestion that phones be switched off.

We were there! Yeah - loved the wry laughter from the audience when the lady told them to switch off phones.

Really enjoyed Tim's lecture. My sons found the content really interesting, and also commented on his style - really relaxed and enthusiastic.

This has been a great series, and I hope they do more. The library have announced that they'll now be running some workshops for beginners, which is encouraging. Clearly they've been pleased with the popularity.

One other good thing that came out of it was I now have two wee chaps begging me to build a Delta. They don't need to talk to me - they need to work on their mother!

Good morning all
As Butterfinger mentions there is a Workshop series being run by the Hutt City Libraries in November to follow on from the lecture series. You can find out a little more about them and book here:

http://chalkle.com/huttcitylibraries/3d-printing-beginners-workshop/3787

Four workshops are being run and being held in different venues and a variety of times in an attempt to make them as accessible to interested people as possible. The places and times I have to hand are:

War Memorial Library - Monday 10 November, 5.30pm-8pm
Petone Library - Wednesday 12 November, 6pm-8.30pm
Naenae Computer Clubhouse - Saturday 15 November, 9.30am-12noon
Eastbourne Library - Wednesday 19 November, 10am-12.30pm

from the Hutt City Libraries website.

Unfortunately the Chalkle website used for booking places appears to be quite user-unfriendly (aka broken) so actually getting to book a session looks challenging.

They are going to be very much introductory workshops aimed at people who are interested in getting into digital fabrication and wanting some pointers on how to get started rather than those with printers who are looking to extend their skills. The workshops are only two hours so there is just enough time to introduce people to Blender, Sketchup, and Sculptris, Thingiverse, and show participants the process of getting a model checked and prepared for printing. It is hoped that the short hands-on session with the software will give new users enough of a taste test of the tools that they will get a feel for their preferred way of building models. They will then be given some pointers about where they might look to further develop their skills with the software that works best for them.

So, if you know of anyone who might be interested in learning the basics, this series will at least set their feet apon the path.

Once the rough edges have been knocked off the workshop material I intend to make it freely accessible through my website www.techmonkeybusiness.com in the hope that it is useful for others looking for 3D Printing introductory material.

Howdy Y'all
Just to update the note above. I have since put all the material for the workshops on my website. Hopefully anyone else looking to run a workshop for adults will find this material useful or at least a good starting point.

The webpage is Techmonkeybusiness - Workshop notes.

It looks like the Hutt City Library wil be looking to run four more workshops early next year (March 2015).