WATCH: We Visit Northwestern to See Our 3D Printing Partners In Action

As you may recall from earlier posts, a six-student team at Northwestern University’s Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in Evanston IL, is hard at work on an ambitious project to construct an operable concrete 3D printer. In partnership with BuiltWorlds, they are seeking to overcome two primary challenges confronting the role of 3D printing in the built environment: methodology and structural integrity.

It’s no small task, but our team, BuiltWorldsNU, has friends in far places, including Moscow-based rapid structure builder Apis Cor, one of several collaborators on the project. Closer to home, our intrepid team of six is consulting with several U.S. enterprises, including Enfield, CT-based educational training provider ExTec, Madison, WI,-based 3D tech solutions supplier MasterGraphics and Hoffman Estates, IL-based tool builder DMG Mori USA.

Concrete Examples of Ingenuity

In celebration of National Engineers week, we paid a visit to campus for some face time with our young teammates. With care packages in hand, we momentarily recalled what college life was like (very few to no responsibilities). Capturing every step of our visit, we wanted to share our time with generation next. Let’s check in with our sextet in the above video…

Seven weeks into this project, our team has only a little more than a month before our collaborative event on March 30, when they present their “show and tell” live on our BuiltWorlds stage. So, as the pressure mounts to present an operable device, have our student partners yet discovered The Realities of 3D Printing?

To contact the author, write to todd.stolarski@builtworlds.com or find him on Twitter @toddstolarski.