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5 Best Practices: How Innovative Universities are Incorporating 3D Printing into the Classroom Implementing 3D printing technology at a college or university is just the

first step. This report offers advice for helping faculty integrate 3D printing

into their courses to improve student learning.

A Campus Technology White Paper

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In the 2014 NMC Horizon Report for Higher Education, 3D printing was chosen along

with a handful of other trends as a major driver of technology planning and decision

making over the next five years. As an expert panel reported, alongside new practices

such as flipped classrooms and learning analytics, the use of 3D printing is expected

to have “numerous implications for teaching and learning practice.”

Although early forms of 3D printing technology first

appeared in colleges and universities 30 years ago (the

Horizon report notes that the University of Texas at Austin

and MIT were a couple of the earliest pioneers in its use),

schools are just now recognizing how they can make

use of rapid prototyping to help students have authentic

learning experiences that involve invention, design, and

production.

At the University of Minnesota Medical School, for

example, the urology department has used 3D printing to

create anatomical models for students to practice surgical

procedures on and to make substitutes of specialized

tools too pricey for students to buy.

The UK’s Coventry University, which has won national awards for its Industrial Design

program, has made 3D printing a linchpin in its automotive and product design

courses.

New England Institute of Technology has introduced 3D printing into its mechanical

engineering program to help students learn the process of product development, from

design through production and assembly.

SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, recently added a second workshop

packed with 3D printing and other rapid prototyping equipment to accommodate the

growing need for this form of experiential learning.

An initiative at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland

is applying its 3D printers in research projects for the U.S. Army. Through rapid

prototyping, the department has been able to reduce the amount of time and expense

to reproduce experiments to tight military specifications.

In each of these cases a great amount of experimentation has taken place to help

faculty learn how best to apply 3D printing in the classroom. This report by Campus

Technology shares five best practices gleaned from experienced instructors and

workshop managers who have had years to effectively perfect the integration of 3D

printing into their courses.

Gear ListThe Savannah College of Art and Design

in Georgia runs two rapid prototyping and

printing labs. The Gulfstream Center for

Design lab operates 3D printers, laser cutters

and wide-format paper printers, including

these machines:

3D printers:

1 Fortus 360mc

2 Dimension 1200es

1 Objet30Pro

1 Objet350 Connex

2 Dimension 768sst

The Fahm Hall lab runs the same kind of

hardware, including these 3D printers:

2 Dimension 1200es

4 uPrint SE Plus

1 Objet Eden260v

2 Solidscape Pro

The workshop at Coventry University in the

United Kingdom runs milling machines, laser

cutters, a 3D scanner, and the Object Eden 3D

printer.

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Best Practice #1. Use the Workshop Like a Real Business

In the real world professional designers and engineers don’t operate the 3D printers

or other rapid prototyping equipment themselves. They hand their files over to

workshop or service center personnel for final production. That’s exactly how leading

schools manage the work too -- with some educational twists. For example, students

need a rundown on what services the workshop provides. Also, students need to learn

how to communicate effectively with the technicians running the gear.

When college is in session, SCAD’s lab runs two shifts of workers every day, seven

days a week, from 9 in the morning until 10 at night, to service the needs of students

and faculty. Just like a real business, students pay for the cost of the 3D materials

used in their builds.

Although anybody on campus can come in and request a 3D print job, students

typically start that process by taking a computer-aided design course in conjunction

with the lab that incorporates the technology they need to understand.

As SCAD’s Rapid Prototyping Operations Manager Justin Hopkins explains, students

are assigned projects that fit within a given set of parameters. For example, for 3D

printing, they may be told to design a flashlight no bigger than a 1x4-inch rectangle.

“The students will prepare the files and submit them and we’ll make sure they fit inside

the build envelope and that everything -- files, file extensions and paperwork -- is

correct. If everything fits, we print them. If not, we’ll tell them what’s

wrong with it and then they keep fixing the files until everything is

correct. It just goes on and on until they understand how it works.”

Once students have passed that class, he adds, “It’s free range. They can come in

whenever they want, no matter what they’re doing -- as long as the file is correct for

our setups and they’re ready to go.”

That practice also helps students learn how to communicate with an operator and

understand the lingo -- “STL file,” “inverted normal,” “bad stitching,” and similar

jargon. “If we can teach them now to know what that lingo is and understand what’s

wrong with their designs and what’s expected when they leave, hopefully we’ll be able

to get a perfect model next time and not have to have that conversation again,” notes

Hopkins.

Best Practice #2. Iterative Design Is the Lesson

Design is an iterative process, and that’s a lesson every student needs to learn. What

may look “perfect” on the screen won’t necessarily come out that way when it has

been printed. “It might be fatter; it might thinner; it might be too edgy; it might just

have the wrong proportion. And you can’t really see that until you see it finished,” says

Coventry U Senior Lecturer in Automotive and Transport Design John Owen.

Each year Coventry U hosts its Degree Show,

where students show off their work. To keep

up with the rush, the workshop runs by the

book. The student creates a file and prints it

out to show one of the faculty members. The

instructor signs off on the drawing, and then

the STL file goes to the workshop, where one

of the operators approves it or kicks it back for

corrections. If final files come in after that day’s

deadline, it has to wait until the next day’s run.

The operators batch projects together for 3D

printing to optimize overnight print runs.

Follow a Process

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The idea that a designer can “sit down, make a sketch and expect someone to print

a nice copy is just a fallacy,” he observes. “It’s part of a process really. You start

with one thing; you change it; look at it; you have another idea about it; you change it

again.”

On top of that, there may be flaws in the file as well. When the student submits an

STL file for 3D printing at SCAD, the operator will quickly check it over for errors.

A common mistake, says Hopkins, is bad stitching, where there are little gaps in

between the surfaces of parts and the machine doesn’t know what to do with them.

While the operator will show students where the problems are in the file and explain

how to fix them, he notes, “We don’t typically fix a file for them. The idea is that

they have to keep doing it and doing it until it’s correct because they won’t learn it

otherwise.”

That hands-off philosophy applies to post-production work too, such as clean-up

like sanding and painting. Students “have to get their hands dirty at some point to

understand the process in general,” Hopkins explains. They’ll also learn the value of

the various techniques they can use for prototyping -- whether it’s worthwhile to print

a cylinder in 3D “as opposed to going to the shop and using a lathe and turning it

because it’ll take less time and be more accurate if they possess those [machining]

skills.”

Faculty can help guide the iterative nature of the design by asking students leading

questions that can get them thinking about how their part should be built, advises

Hopkins: Do you want the part to look cleaner? Do you want it to be stronger?

“Typically the student wants it as fast as possible. Usually the fastest way is not the

best or cleanest way. It depends on how much of a hurry they’re in.”

Best Practice #3. Faculty and Workshop Staff Work as a Team

The best results for students come when faculty and workshop staff collaborate.

Hopkins advises the instructors he works with at SCAD to talk to him as they’re

designing new curriculum to make sure they understand the capabilities of the

workshop. The benefit of doing that, he points out, is that the workshop will commit

a specific 3D printer to a given class project based on the nature of that lesson.

“That way we can keep the flow going all 10 weeks as opposed to everything getting

crammed in at the very end of the quarter.”

While that practice holds true for the first seven weeks, the final three weeks of the

term are first-come, first-served. If a faculty member assigns a class project during

that period, he notes, “students have to get in line.”

When Hopkins meets with faculty, he emphasizes the need for them to teach their

students how to set up files properly in the design software. He also reminds them

that his operators have the right to reject incorrect or frivolous files. “If we’re really full

SCAD provides a small “tolerance board” for

faculty to use in their design courses. Designed

by Dean of Academic Services and Industrial

Design Professor Jesus Rojas Ache, the tool

helps students understand which build process

or 3D printer will best suit their projects. “From

process to process you’re going to have smaller

tolerances or bigger tolerances depending

on the type of equipment you’re using,” says

Hopkins. The board has different parts that

screw together and slide. Students can look at

it and say, “OK, this one feels just right,” and

then they can take that calculation and apply it

to their design.

Once students learn design basics, the best

experience they can gain in school is to apply

their new skills to real-world problems. SCAD

runs numerous corporate sponsorships with

companies such as Fossil, Kids II, JCB, Reebok,

HP, Mattel and Snap-On. Those organizations

might come up with specific design problems

or it might be more open ended than that,

says Hopkins: “Here’s where we’re heading in

the next five years. Can you come up with a

product for this?” Typically, they’re collaborative

classes with 10 or 12 students from different

backgrounds, “depending on what the class

needs to do.” Their final output will be physical

models or prototypes to share with the client at

the end of the course.

Classroom Tool

Corporate Connection

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and the student wants to print something that’s really silly, like a sphere, when they

could go buy a ping pong ball to make the same thing, we still reserve that right of

saying, ‘All right, this is a waste of time.’”

Best Practice #4. Choose the Right Tools for the Job

Just as design programs try to integrate the use of software that’s prevalent in the

jobs their students will pursue, the equipment they choose for doing rapid prototyping

and 3D printing should be professional-grade as well. The use of industrial-caliber

hardware and software gives students experience and confidence in the tools they’ll

eventually work with on the job.

So the selection of 3D printers used by the college or university must fit the purpose.

Hopkins continues championing the investment into commercial-grade equipment

as opposed to hobbyist-level 3D printers. “It’s fun for the person who wants to tinker

with it,” he explains, but “the hobbyist machines don’t produce the parts the industrial

machines will.” Plus, he notes, the high-end equipment “lasts a lot longer and they’re

more bullet proof.”

Fortunately, he adds, pricing for industrial-level equipment continues to come down.

The latest 3D printer SCAD purchased was close to half the price of the first version

of that model the school acquired.

There’s also the question of what type of 3D printer to acquire -- extrusion or resin.

The extrusion variety (or Fused Deposition Modeling – FDM) heats thermoplastic to a

semi-liquid form and deposits it in a tiny thread along the path defined by the design

software. Where support is required, the 3D printer lays down additional threads to

act as scaffolding. During the clean-up process, the user breaks away that support

material or dissolves it in detergent and water and does final work on the printed parts,

such as gluing or fitting them together.

PolyJet printing works like an inkjet printer. The 3D printer sprays a complete layer of

droplets of liquid photopolymer onto the build tray, and that digital material hardens

with exposure to UV light. In places where there’s an overhang or a

complex shape, the printer sprays a gel-like material that’s removed

during the clean-up process.

Choosing one type of 3D printer over another is a matter of “give and

take,” Hopkins points out. One model may be faster in producing the

printed piece while an alternate model may promise faster clean-up.

SCAD runs both types of printers for different purposes. Printed parts

may require a certain level of detail that’s better suited for production

by one printer than another, he explains.

SCAD’s workshop operators use Magics from

Materialise to check over student STL files

before it gets as far as being loaded into the

printer. Not only will that software identify

problems with the file, but it also provides a

basic explanation that can help the student

figure out how to fix the problem. Magics

imports files from every major CAD program

and has functionality that enables the operator

to bunch up multiple items for simultaneous 3D

printing.

Use a Little Magics

LingoBad stitching: Little gaps or holes in the

edges of parts that may not be obvious in the

design.

Inverted normal: A surface on a model has

an inside and outside. A surface normal always

points outward and helps the 3D printer check

to see that the surface is correctly defined. If

any of these are flipped, it will contradict the

other “normal” and the printer won’t know

what to do.

STL file: The STL file is a complete listing

of the position for the vertices and normals

of the triangles that describe the 3D object.

To prepare an STL file for printing, special

software cuts the design into numerous

horizontal “slices,” one slice for each layer to

be set down by the printer. The printer reads

each slice as a 2D image and prints that onto

a base inside the printer, building up the

object layer by layer.

When Hopkins is asked by other institutions how to go about equipping a new lab,

he recommends starting with an extrusion-type machine. He’s a long-time fan of

Stratasys’ FDM technology models, such as the uPrint, Dimension and Fortus lines of

3D printers. However, his two workshops also run Stratasys Objet printers, which use

resin-based PolyJet technology.

“They’re workhorses,” he declares. “Service on them is very inexpensive and they just

don’t break down.”

Another plus: the software that runs on the Stratasys 3D printers will pre-check

the basics of a design and let the operator know via the console whether there’s

something wrong about it that will prevent the print job.

Best Practice #5. Seek Continual Improvement

The most responsive schools are always looking for better ways of doing what they

do, whether that’s in academic or operational areas. Pursing a philosophy of continual

improvement requires participants to seek out colleagues within other institutions to

share lessons learned and to borrow good ideas from other industries.

For example, when SCAD’s Hopkins has the chance to interact with managers from

other schools, talk will turn to what equipment they have and what they like about it.

“That’s the only way to get a judge of what’s good and what’s bad and what fits into

your program,” he says. “Another technician will tell you the truth about those things.”

As a speaker at 3D printing and related industry forums, he has also met and talked

with a number of operators who run workshops for major manufacturers. What he’s

learned from them is that the challenges his team faces in working with students are

the same ones they face in working with professional engineers.

“We’re all fighting the same fight,” Hopkins says. That’s why he’s determined to help

students learn foundational skills -- how to provide a file that’s ready for printing, how

to tweak the work when something’s wrong with the design, how to choose the right

approach for building a part or doing rapid prototyping.

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Students are always seeking internships to

help build out their portfolios and resumes.

Coventry U is considering offering students

the opportunity to serve their internships in

the lab so that when they return for their final

year, says Owen, “they’ll know what they’re

doing.” He sees two obvious advantages. First,

those interns will learn how to choose the right

approach and equipment for performing rapid

prototyping and 3D printing. Second, young

people can bring new ideas to “old” operations.

As he explains, “Behind everything we do, we’re

rather hoping someone with a fresh mind will

put two and two together and make a five.”

Hands-on Education

Stratasys PolyJet PrintersStratasys offers a wide range of 3D printer

brands that use both PolyJet and FDM

technology. All of these models print in a

variety of materials to deliver professional

grade 3D printing that’s fast, accurate and

high-quality.

Stratasys PolyJet Printers

Objet

Objet Eden

Objet Connex

Stratasys FDM Printers

Mojo

uPrint

Dimension

Fortus

Stratasys7665 Commerce WayEden Prairie, MN 55344United States

(952) 937-3000

About Campus Technology

Campus Technology is one of higher education’s top information sources—delivering valuable information via a monthly magazine, website, newsletters, webinars, online tools and in-person events. It’s the go-to resource for campus professionals—providing in-depth coverage on the technologies and implementations influencing colleges and universities across the nation. You’ll discover valuable how-to content, best practices, industry trends, expert advice and insightful articles to help administrators, campus executives, technologists and educators plan, develop and successfully launch effective IT initiatives. Our annual conferences showcase expert speakers, thought leaders and technology solution experts exchanging ideas on the latest technological innovations in use on campuses worldwide—offering campus technology professionals opportunities to collaborate, network and gain valuable information that helps them succeed.

To learn more, visit www.campustechnology.com

About Stratasys

Stratasys® manufactures 3D printing equipment and materials that create physical objects directly from digital data. Its systems range from affordable desktop 3D printers to large, advanced 3D production systems. Its specially engineered 3D printing materials include hundreds of photopolymers and thermoplastics.

Manufacturers use Stratasys 3D printers to create models and prototypes for new product design and testing, and for low-volume finished goods. Educators use the technology to elevate research and learning in science, engineering, design and art. Hobbyists and entrepreneurs use Stratasys 3D printing to expand manufacturing into the home — creating novelties, customized devices and inventions.

To learn more, visit www.stratasys.com.

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