3D Printing at ICTP

ICTP is exploring how to harness the endless possibilities of 3D printing for science, education and sustainable development. Its Science Dissemination Unit (SDU), which has a long history of introducing low-cost technologies to scientists in the developing world, recently organized ICTP's first International Workshop on Low-Cost 3D Printing for Science, Education and Sustainable Development (6 to 8 May 2013).

The workshop gave a glimpse of the many possibilities the technology provides to science, education and sustainable development. Lecturers included William Hoyle, chief executive of techfortrade, a non-profit organization established in 2011 to support innovation in emerging technologies that facilitate trade and alleviate poverty in the world's poorest communities. Inspired by the glowing media reports on 3D printing, Hoyle thought the technology could be promoted by his organization. "I was wondering, what could 3D printing do for the developing world?" he said.

To answer that question, techfortrade launched the 3D4D competition in 2012, inviting ideas from around the world for 3D printing projects that would benefit society and have a sustainable business plan. They received 78 entries vying for the $100,000 prize. The Washington Open Object Fabricators (WOOF), whose project recycles waste plastic into filament for 3D printers to create new products, submitted the winning entry. WOOF's proposal included a plan to work with the non-governmental organization Water for Humans to address water and sanitation issues in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Gregor Luetolf of the University of Teacher Education in Bern, Switzerland, trains teachers in new technologies. His presentation at the ICTP workshop highlighted the many 3D printing applications in education, including the designing and printing of musical instruments, the production of reliefs for geography lessons, and the creation of molecular models for science studies. The use of 3D printing can be invaluable in geometry classes, he said, where students often have difficulties visualizing objects presented to them in a textbook. "If the students can design the geometric object and then 3D print it and take it in their hands and really hold it, they will have a better understanding of the dimensions of the object," he explained.

Three-dimensional printing is also making its mark in the world of palaeontology, where not only the printing itself but also the scanning necessary to create digital models to be printed is being used in creative ways to reach out to the general public.  Louise Leakey, a palaeontologist who concentrates her work in the Turkana Basin area of Kenya, curates a virtual museum of African fossils. At the ICTP workshop, she described how she uses a technique called photogrammetry to photograph fossil specimens from all angles; the photographs are then transformed into 3D images. At the museum's website, www.africanfossils.org, users can explore a number of hominid fossils and other specimen collected from the Turkana Basin; a user-friendly interface allows users to rotate fossils and view them from any angle. "This interaction is getting people to think about our past again, and that is exciting," Leakey said. She plans to make available low-resolution files of some of these digital models on her website so that users can print them on home 3D printers. For those who do not have such printers, Leakey has designed a series of templates, based on the digital models, that can be traced onto and cut out of corrugated cardboard and then assembled, layer by layer, forming a cardboard reconstruction of a fossil.

ICTP's workshop presented a range of 3D printing possibilities that most of the participants and lecturers could never have imagined before, and reinforced the notion of an open community whose members are supporting each other with a fledgling technology that is ready to take the world by storm. As with all of ICTP's activities, the workshop brought international scientists together and allowed them to create networks. Workshop participant Rodrigo Marques, a chemistry professor at the State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Brazil, connected with a fellow Brazilian attendee over their shared interest in using 3D printers to construct bones; the two hope to organize a 3D printing workshop in Brazil.

Those at the workshop expressed pleasant surprise at the wide range of fields represented at the event, as well as the strong camaraderie that developed during the 3 days between participants and lecturers. "The atmosphere of the workshop was wonderfully open," reflected participant Franco Policardi of the University of Ljubljana, adding, "3D printing is like a multifunctional algorithm, where there are a lot of different structures that have to be implemented. The technology allows us to put all these small parts of knowledge and technology together to create new things." He predicted that 3D printing is poised to be around for a while: "I do not think it passes one or two seconds after its Big Bang--we are exactly at the beginning."