April 23, 2015
Students take their 3D printing expertise all the way to Harvard
Two UOW students are on the trip of a lifetime, to showcase their research at the world-famous Harvard University.
PhD student Shannon Bakarich has been developing a solution to 3D print tough hydrogels.
While other 20-something travellers are living out of a backpack, Shannon Bakarich and Reece Gately don’t travel light.
They arrived in Massachusetts with a highly specialised 3D-printer packed in their luggage along with their winter woolies, their aim; to share their 3D printing expertise with their Harvard colleagues.
The printer is a custom-made (by Shannon and Reece themselves) extrusion printer that can print two different materials at the same time, either by mixing them together on the fly, or layering them on top of each other. It’s this kind of know-how that Harvard are interested in.
“The guys over here at Harvard have been making some really tough and strong hydrogels, but they have never printed them,” Reece said.
“So we’ve come over to show them how to print the materials, and to get some great samples with interesting structures out of it.”
The trip came about thanks to Shannon and Reece’s supervisor Professor Marc in het Panhuis, who met with Harvard Professors at a conference and told them about their work.
“As it turned out,” Shannon said, “they were keen to get into 3D printing and I guess they were impressed with some of our work and were kind enough to invite us to Harvard for three months.”
At home, Shannon and Reece work on 3D-printing tough hydrogels (soft materials made mostly from water), for use in medical bionics and soft robotics. Their research will contribute to creating a soft, highly dexterous 3D robotic hand.
“One of the aims of the trip is for us to get a better understanding of the materials that they are making at Harvard,” Shannon said.
“Combined with our understanding of 3D printers and hydrogels, we can plan future projects that our groups can work on together, using our array of printers at UOW.”
Recently, Shannon has published research about using tough hydrogels in 4D printing, where researchers print shape-shifting objects that transform into different shapes according to stimuli like heat or water.
Shannon and Reece’s trip is jointly funded by ACES, Professor Marc in het Panhuis, Professor Geoff Spinks and the UOW Science, Medicine and Health faculty.