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Teaming up with MakerBot — the leader in the desktop 3D printing industry — the University of Massachusetts Amherst unveiled its large-scale 3D printing MakerBot Innovation Center at the Du Bois Library in March.
While libraries across the U.S. are implementing new technologies — 95.7 percent have wireless Internet, 25.4 percent have e-readers and 16.5 percent have tablets — UMass Amherst’s MakerBot Innovation Center represents the first large-scale facility in New England and the first ever at a university library.
3D printing is a manufacturing process in which a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) program is used to create a digital model that becomes a solid object when thin layers of plastic, nylon, steel or other materials are printed on top of one another from the bottom up.
The development of desktop 3D printers such as MakerBot’s have made this technology more accessible and allow for cost-effective prototyping.
The Innovation Center’s focus is on facilitating project-based learning and innovation on campus and providing this access to the surrounding community. UMass has a robust ecosystem of students, faculty and researchers who will be allowed to innovate faster, collaborate more frequently and compete more effectively due to the MakerBot Innovation Center.
“We boldly believe that 3D printing is part of the next industrial revolution and the Makerbot Innovation Center is just one more way we support innovative campus-wide collaborations,” says Jay Schafer, UMass Amherst’s director of libraries. “The rapid process from conceptual idea to physical object is powerful and unleashes a host of learning opportunities. It is an exciting new way to engage students at the intersection of the technical and creative arenas.”
“The Makerbot Innovation Center is just one more way we support innovative campus-wide collaborations.” – @UMassAmherst
Schafer explains that deploying the MakerBot Innovation Center forwards the institute’s mission of creating a talented and educated workforce prepared to contribute to the technology-rich economy of the Commonwealth.
“UMass Amherst is an engine of the Commonwealth’s economy, with 130,000-plus alumni living and working in-state,” Schafer says. “As the only university in New England with this kind of facility, we are helping create a talented and educated workforce fluent in the latest technologies.”
Innovation and entrepreneurship is embedded in UMass Amherst’s DNA. Whether it’s the next generation of entrepreneurs being groomed at the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship or faculty discovering new technologies through research at the UMass Innovation Institute, UMass community members have a large-scale need for 3D printing to bring their ideas to reality.
“3D printing has popped up in a few spots on campus and in the library, but the decision to build a center of this size was because it offers the most meaningful impact for the campus and community,” Schafer explains. “It was necessary to establish a large enough facility to allow everyone access to the technology, not just certain subsets of students and faculty.”
It didn’t take long before the MakerBot Innovation Center, which includes 50 MakerBot Replicator Printers, was put to good use.
A group of faculty from environmental conservation, building and construction technology, biology, public health, public policy and engineering already has plans to offer a makerspace class that will use the center as a resource for projects centered on remote sensing, environmental monitoring and building control systems.
In addition, during the spring 2015 semester, students from the Commonwealth Honors College and the building and construction technology program had a chance to be among the first to turn their 3D printing ideas into reality using the MakerBot Innovation Center. Students printed truss bridge models, tools, a foldable comb, a cup holder, jewelry, and a phone case, according to Alexander C. Schreyer, program director for the building and construction technology program.
The industry partnerships already set in place through UMass and the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program and Small Business Innovation Research Program will also benefit from access to the MakerBot Innovation center. The 3D printing technology advances efforts to help small and medium-sized manufacturers with growth systems and solutions, including technology acceleration through connections to UMass Amherst researchers, and aids small businesses partnering with UMass Amherst to commercialize new technologies.
Schafer says, “We anticipate industry partnerships will organically grow out of the academic areas and programs that utilize the center and already enjoy strong and productive industry partnerships.”
As previously noted, the Massachusetts workforce is full of UMass Amherst grads equipped with the technological savvy to contribute to the state’s technology-rich economy. And with the installation of the MakerBot Innovation Center, that talent pool will not dry up anytime soon.
“There is no doubt that 3D printing is a hot technology right now, so when prospective students find out we have the first such center in a library and the only one in New England, and that it is accessible to them, it will attract their interest in matriculating,” Schafer says. “We opened in March and were immediately flooded with emails from interested undergraduate and graduate students, so we know this is a magnet for many.”
As innovation spreads into design, healthcare and other industries, access to the MakerBot Innovation Center allows UMass students the ability to make an impact anywhere.
“Equipping students to succeed and lead in the workplace is one of our main missions. UMass Amherst graduates go forth in the world with the skill sets needed to be innovators,” Schafer says. “3D printing is just one of the tools UMass Amherst is currently using to educate students to innovate in all areas of the economy.”
