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Winners Announced for 3D Health Hackathon to 3D Print PPE to Fight COVID-19

The Jersey City Rapid Maker Response Group (JCRMRG), an all-volunteer collective, was founded as the result of a Reddit post calling on 3D printing hobbyists to organize, make, and deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) in the form of 3D printed face shields for medical workers and first responders in New Jersey and New York during the continuing COVID-19 crisis. While the team ended up switching to injection molding to create over 75,000 face shields, which were subsequently donated to healthcare workers all around the US, the JCRMRG recognized the great potential of using 3D printing to help during the pandemic, and launched a virtual nationwide 3D Health Hackathon, with the goal of taking on PPE-related wearability, sustainability, and supply chain issues.

Now, the winners of the hackathon have been announced.

“Hackers came up with solutions to keep people COVID free, and help citizens and businesses adapt to the challenges of the world we all live in,” JCRMRG’s Laura Sankowich told me.

100 hackers from countries all over the world, like India, Mexico, and Nepal, participated in the hackathon, which was supported by a 21-person multidisciplinary mentor team that helped by scrutinizing the functionality of designs and offering support and advice. The hackers ranged from teenage makers and university students to doctors, executives, scientists, and other professionals, with Carnegie Mellon University, Fairfield University, NJIT, NYU, Penn State, Rutgers, and Stevens Institute of Technology represented by teams. The event was sponsored by:

3DPrint.com
Asimov Ventures
Dassault Systèmes
DesignPoint
Devpost
Indiegrove
Jersey City Tech Meetup
PicoSolutions
PSE&G
PrusaPrinters
Stevens Venture Center
TechUnited
Women in 3D Printing

There were three hack categories: create methodology for reducing waste in the production process in order to facilitate sustainable PPE; develop modular/mobile manufacturing labs that can be deployed easily in healthcare, emergent, and even educational settings; and design day-to-day PPE, like face shields, that can be used by commuters and at businesses and schools to help resume day-to-day life.

“Our goal is to be responsible partners in the ecosystem that we are currently a part of, while acting as a catalyst for innovation, and we are the only all volunteer PPE group in the country doing an event like this. We want to pay it forward, enable our hackers to walk away with enough feedback and support to launch their own successful ventures that can continue to support the battle against COVID, and combat supply chain disruption through maker-led initiatives,” said JCRMRG founder Justin Handsman.

The Armdle

The team of judges deliberated for three days, and the hackathon winners have been announced. Blizzard Robotics, a high school team out of California made up of Riya Bhatia, Abeer Bajpai, and Peter Xu, came in third place for their versatile door handle attachment, which they dubbed the Armdle. They noticed when visiting hospitals and orthodontists, people had to touch the same door handles when entering and exiting bathrooms inside the facility. If the handles are not properly sanitized, bacteria on one person’s hand can easily be transferred to others when they touch the handle. So they developed the Armdle, a universal door handle attachment that can be placed on the side or top of most door handles to help stop the spread of infection through shared surfaces.

The Armdle concept is simple—a person simply uses their arm to push down, or to the side of, the handle, and when they pull back, the attachment’s raised lip hooks onto their arm, so they can open the door without having to use their hands. The attachment actually forms a kind of platform over the handle, so it works with push-doors as well, since people can push down on the Armdle to open the door. Facilities can use zip ties to attach the Armdle to the door handles, resulting in a quick, inexpensive, safer solution.

Howard Chong, Michael Noes, and Ethan White, or Team Bunny PAPR, came in second place for their user-friendly, scalable, and open source Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR).

Bunny PAPR

Their goal was to help the world get back on its feet, back to work, and back to socializing without distance by addressing the global shortage of N95 equipment, while also keeping essential workers on the front lines of the pandemic safe. Commercial PAPRs cost about $1,000, but the hospital-grade Bunny PAPR is only $30. This PPE solution is not only affordable and easy to sterilize, but it’s also disposable, reusable, and can be made with readily available parts—an FDA-approved viral filter, a disposable bag and USB battery pack, and a laptop/XBox fan. Additional benefits include higher comfort levels, support for those with breathing conditions who can’t wear N95 masks, and compatibility with wearables.

Speaking of wearables, STEM advocates Natasha Dzurny, Casey Walker, and Elizabeth Spencer, who make up the Jersey City team Slice Girls, won first place in the hackathon for their Ready Set Wearables hack, which makes it possible for users to carry essential items, such as a door pull, hand sanitizer, and emergency medication, on their watch, dog leash, shoelaces, a carabiner or wrist band, etc.

The team members worked with CAD software and 3D printed prototypes to figure out their functional yet fashionable designs, which enable users to leave the house with all the COVID-19 essentials without having to carry a purse or bag, or worrying that you left something important at home. For instance, one component is a collapsible door pull, and another watch-friendly accessory is a small clip-on dispenser for hand sanitizer. Finally, the last Ready Set Wearables accessory is a container that allows the wearer to carry a small amount of medication.

“We will reduce anxiety, increase compliance with CDC health regulations, and save lives by slowing the spread of COVID-19,” the Slice Girls state in their video.

Congratulations to all of the hackathon winners!

(Images courtesy of the Jersey City Rapid Maker Response Group)

The post Winners Announced for 3D Health Hackathon to 3D Print PPE to Fight COVID-19 appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

X-Carve Demo with Inventables

Thanks to the guys at Inventables, we were able to test out the X-Carve in their office in Chicago. The X-Carve is a cool piece of machinery in different ways. I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with the CEO of Inventables, Zach Kaplan, a while ago. It was a fun conversation overall and it got me thinking more in terms of the entrepreneurial economy. Kaplan then extended an offer for me to test out the X-Carve machine in their office at a later date. I then gladly set up a time to do so, and I learned a lot about the machine itself.

I have various experience with technology and machines. I work out of a Makerspace in Chicago called Pumping Station One, so new technology and machinery does not necessarily intimidate me. It does take a little bit of time to learn the nuances of any machine though. Before I was able to come in and test the X-Carve, I had to learn how to use the software associated with it to upload images that were to be carved out later. I chose a project that would require a little more complexity than a simple, quick carve on the machine. I try to do difficult projects early on when I am working with technology or new mediums. It allows for a rapid learning curve, and one starts to see the benefits and limitations of a device.

Image result for x-carve

X-Carve

In order to carve an image into specific material on the X-Carve, it is necessary to operate the accompanying software it uses, which is called Easel. For anyone new to manufacturing, it is simpler to navigate than some of the software packages I have used for similar CNC operations with different devices. The biggest benefit of this software is that is web-enabled. This allowed me to work from anywhere on a design that could be carved on a machine. This design can be carved when it is linked through Easel to any X-Carve device via WiFi. The interface is nice and maneuverable. The biggest issue with it would be the learning curve still involved with bit sizes used for various carving. For a new person using the platform, it would be intimidating to learn the specific drill bits required to do carves at a precise level. Fortunately, I had the assistance of people at X-Carve to learn, as well as previous experience with CNC machines. For someone completely new to this type of work, it would take a bit of time to learn all of these things. I’d estimate a full week would be enough to get someone up to speed on the various materials and bits associated with them based on the thickness of material. From there it would just be an ongoing learning process.

Branding Material

The project that I wanted to carve was a marketing piece. I wanted to carve a two-colored acrylic circle that had a logo for an online clothing store I created. It also would have a QR code attached on one side of it. Ideally, the QR code would then take someone to our Instagram page. The concept was a bit difficult to pull off. It required a strategy called flip milling. We had to specifically create a jig that would allow the piece to be flipped and rotated in place for carving done in the same position of the material. This is a little bit more complex than some materials, such as a laser cutter that may cut the material first and then one may be able to manually flip the object. The flip milling allowed us to have a very accurate carving done on the front side and back side of our object. I was able to learn how to do this project specifically through the help of the Inventables team themselves. This means that a good amount of the learning curve was reduced, but I am not sure how that may work for a person who is not able to have the same type of advantage.

The project did not take long to create as it was a small circular disk that had about a 2 cm radius. The overall carving took around 30 minutes. This includes the various setup that we needed to do for flip milling and general maintenance of the X-Carve. Like any other machine, there are certain intricacies that we must understand about our device. This is where having the X-Carve team to help with the project was great, but I would suggest for anyone using the X-Carve should consult various YouTube videos for different projects and future self-driven learning. There are a lot of possibilities that can be made with this device that I am not even aware of. Overall it was a great experience to get all of these tips and a completed project with the Inventables team. Unfortunately, the QR Code didn’t work. But I will work on this project more and see how we can get a QR Code scanning circular image.

The post X-Carve Demo with Inventables appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Wikifactory’s Docubot Challenge Creates a Hardware Solution for Documentation

International startup Wikifactory, established in Hong Kong last June, is a social platform for collaborative product development. Co-founded by four makers and counting 3DPrint.com Editor-in-Chief Joris Peels until recently as a member of its advisory board, Wikifactory also has locations in Madrid and Shenzhen, and is dedicated to makers and DIY projects. It’s an all-in-one workspace designed for open source communities to help connect product developers to useful tools, such as 3D printing.

Recently, the platform launched the Docubot Challenge to help inaugurate the first Distributed Hardware Hackathon in the world. The global open source community was charged with finding a hardware solution for an issue that every maker faces – documentation.

This is a very prevalent issue in the maker community in terms of open knowledge for the purposes of digital fabrication. Documentation makes it possible for community members to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to further contribute to an ever-growing base of information. But just because it’s useful doesn’t mean it’s easy – while documenting fabrication methods may be a necessary evil, it can be a painstaking and tedious process that can slip through the cracks if you’re not meticulous about updating your work.

“Every product developer faces the task of having to document their work, but it’s a painful process. When your hands are full with what you are doing, it’s hard to take a step back and jot down the steps. That’s why documentation is often written after the process has already been completed, so there will always be missing photos or information,” the challenge states.

“We should strive to make the process of documentation easier, because Documentation in itself is an amazing thing. As a resource, it helps a broader community learn the skills and acquire the knowledge to contribute to a growing open source knowledge base.”

The Wikifactory team really wanted to turn the first edition of its Docubot Challenge into a distributed event; it is, after all, tagged as being “designed for makers, by makers.” Due to support from makerspaces around the world – specifically Pumping Station One in Chicago, Makerspace Madrid, and TroubleMaker in Shenzhen, China – this hope became a reality. Wikifactory is a great tool when organizing maker community events like workshops and hackathons, as it makes it simple to bring teams together online so they can contribute before, and even after, the event.

The goal of the challenge was to, according to WikiFactory, “accelerate a solution to a common problem faced by product developers” by collaboratively building a real-time documentation assistant that will take photos and videos on command, and could even convert speech to text. As someone who spends plenty of time transcribing recorded interviews, I want to know when this documentation assistant will be commercially available!

“With a hardware solution, doing documentation can be made into a more interactive, assisted process which can help accelerate engagement and collaboration in open source design and hardware,” the challenge stated.

The Docubot Challenge was originally instigated by Wikifactory members Gianluca Pugliese and Kevin Cheng. The participants were connected through Wikifactory to host project events in their own cities, engage with other teams around the world, and accept feedback and advice from other problem solvers. While it was definitely a learning experience, Docubot is now officially an open source hardware initiative, and great progress has already been made.

“The Shenzhen Team developed an app that converts speech to text, the Madrid Team created a fun game that helps makers beat laziness and get documenting, and the Chicago Team created a button that signals a phone to start recording voice messages as well as pictures,” Wikifactory wrote.

The worldwide maker community is invited to get involved and contribute to the Docubot initiative. Whether you’re working on design ideas, developing the app and OS, or the hardware integration, the collaborative project needs your help in further extending the ideas by the team members who originally started it.

“With interactive and intercity sessions, participants will get to build relationships with creative problem solvers from around the world. It is an opportunity to apply skills in digital fabrication machines like 3D printing, hardware, electronics, programming and robotics for a relevant cause.”

Learn more about the Docubot Challenge here.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Images: Wikifactory]

The post Wikifactory’s Docubot Challenge Creates a Hardware Solution for Documentation appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Interview with Zach Kaplan of Corazon Capital, mHUB and Inventables

Zach Kaplan

Zach Kaplan is the founder and CEO of the company Inventables, a 3D carving company offering a powerful machine, intuitive software, and unique materials that make carving easy and inspiring. Kaplan is also a member of the board of directors for mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center focused on physical product development and manufacturing, and a founding partner at Corazon Capital. He has a vested interest in the entrepreneurial economy that can be afforded through 3D printing and product manufacturing as his company helps to enable entrepreneurs within this field.

Give us a bit of info on your background?

I got started in digital manufacturing at Glenbrook North High School. That experience inspired me to get a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

What was your first experience as a maker?

My first experience as a maker was probably playing with construction toys as a child. We had LEGOs, Construx, and cardboard brick blocks. The first electrical project I remember was a soldering an autonomous robot together in 6th grade.

Chicago has deep roots in manufacturing, what effect has that had?

Manufacturers in Illinois account for 12.6 percent of the total output in the state, employing 9.5 percent of the workforce. Total output from manufacturing was $103.75 billion in 2017. In addition, there were 572,700 manufacturing employees in Illinois. I think that has helped us build an ecosystem to advance digital manufacturing.

Chicago has been the center of gravity for digital manufacturing. We’ve shown a lot of leadership when it comes to the growth in the movement. The Museum of Science and Industry was one of the first to have a fab lab. Chicago was the first big city to build a large scale makerspace in a library. Pumping Station One started in 2009 before it was fashionable to build a makerspace or hackerspace. Today mHub and DMDII are buzzing with activity and have brought together the traditional manufacturing industries, the startup community, with digital manufacturing technology. It’s a great place for Inventables to be.

X-Carve by Inventables

As a member of the board of Directors at mHUB, what excites you about developments within Chicago and the additive manufacturing sector as a whole?

mHUB was a glimmer of an idea 5 years ago when we first started talking about it at the GE Garage during Chicago Ideas Week. Today it’s a 63,000 square-foot facility that contains 10 fabrication labs, including electronics, plastic fabrication, metals, textiles and rapid prototyping, as well as a microfactory for small production runs. What excites me is it’s buzzing with activity.

You have a manufacturing background but also have involvement within the VC world as a founding partner at Corazon Capital. Could you give some insight on what it means to go from an entrepreneur to an investor?

Going from an entrepreneur to an investor happens pretty organically. As you go on your entrepreneurial journey other entrepreneurs start asking you questions or for feedback on fundraising. I gradually started getting more and more deals sent to me and eventually started investing. Corazon has a team of people and I’ve become a venture partner. My role is to help identify investments, evaluate them, and help other founders in our portfolio by making introductions or sharing my experiences. In terms of my own investment thesis I like to invest in people working on problems in big markets where the product is just starting to be defined. At Corazon we invest in seed and early stage deals so the product is still evolving.

What advice do you have to people who are working with startups in the additive manufacturing space?

Fail often to succeed sooner.

What advantages does Chicago have in terms of the global maker scene?

Chicago is well connected in the global maker scene because of O’Hare airport. Almost every city is a direct flight away. We sometimes take that for granted living here. We have McCormick Place which brings the IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show).

International Manufacturing Trading Show

What are some trends to watch out for within the maker world?

Low cost distributed digital manufacturing with CNC machines is going to dramatically increase over the next 5 years.

Mechanical Engineer Makes 95% 3D Printed Autonomous Robotic Lawn Mower

While I do know how to mow my lawn, that’s a job my husband normally takes care of. We like to divide and conquer when it comes to household chores – I do the laundry, he mows the lawn, I vacuum and he mops, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe I would enjoy mowing the lawn if ours was bigger and I could use a mower of the ride-on variety…I don’t know for sure, but I always imagined this would be something like a way slower go-kart (if this is untrue, don’t tell me). But German mechanical engineer and maker Philip Read recently completed a project, using Arduino and 3D printing, that makes me want to get out there and get mowing, no matter the size of my yard.

“It’s a fully autonomous Robot Lawn Mower which can be 95% 3D printed,” Read told 3DPrint.com, noting that a few small connectors will have to be made for the wheels and mower disc.

“I see you have covered this type of project in the past, but I believe this is a real upgrade in terms of design and “makeability” due to the ability to 3D print almost everything.”

Read, a self-professed RC fanatic and scratch builder who goes by ReP_AL online, is not wrong – over the years, we have definitely written stories about 3D printed parts for lawn mowers, fully 3D printed lawn mowers, and even another 3D printed robotic lawn mower.

“Its been a long project and took a lot of my time to complete,” Read wrote on Thingiverse.

“I have had many requests for parts and code etc.. and decided to relocated the build instructions and code management to my new website.”

You can find all of the build instructions and details for the little robotic lawn mower, including code, videos, and a webshop, on his website, where he explains why he is passionate about building his own robots and other machines, such as his own 3D printer.

“I like to understand the mechanics, the programming and what the electrical components do. I would like to share this passion with you, so you can build the projects too and learn about robotics,” Read wrote.

“This site will guide you through the build process of these projects so you can enjoy making them yourself.. With detailed instructions and links to the components I used, my goal is to make it possible for anyone to complete a complex robotics project and enjoy the results.”

On his website, Read rates the difficulty of his 3D printed autonomous lawn mower robot as a 7 out of 10, noting that the required skills to make the machine include soldering and 3D printing.

“The mower navigates within the boundary wire which is positioned (pinned) around the perimeter of the garden,” Read explained. “Once the mower senses the perimeter wire, it stops reverses and moves off in a new direction. The mower also has 3 sonar sensors to detect objects in the mowers path. Once the mowers battery is exhausted, the mower uses the boundary wire to navigate itself back to the charging station. All this can be customised in the Arduino software or completely re-written to your personal preferences.”

Rear control panel

According to Read, a commercial lawn mower with these kinds of specifications would cost at least €600, if not more.

The equipment required to make Read’s robotic lawn mower includes PLA material, a 3D printer with a 330 x 330 x 400 mm bed, wire strippers, and various screwdrivers and Allen wrenches. He 3D printed the lawn mower parts at 50% infill, with a 0.4 mm resolution, and notes on Thingiverse that most parts can be printed without any supports.

He also added the STL files for his lawn mower, and its optional charging station, to Thingiverse.

Will you try and make your own 3D printed robotic lawnmower? Discuss this project and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

Imperial College London Launches Summer Hackathon, Full of 3D Printing Activities and Grants

Over the last few years, hackathons have been rapidly growing in popularity, giving the maker community around the world ample opportunities to tinker with multiple technologies, such as computers, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printing and design. Most hackathons typically have a challenge or two included, so participants can race to the finish line with their own hacking inventions.

Imperial College London, which has plenty of experience with 3D printing in the medical field, knows that hacking communities are important for inventions to bloom. For example, the College’s campus in South Kensington is home to several hackspaces, and Imperial even opened a bespoke workshop last year at The Invention Rooms in White City. This workshop – one of the largest of its kind in the world – offers state-of-the-art 3D printing, electronics, metalwork, and woodwork equipment, in addition to a fully equipped bio-lab.

Imperial has a unique community called the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace (ICAH), which is made up of over 2,500 entrepreneurs, inventors, and makers from across the College. Growing by 100 users each month, ICAH gives its community members free access to a network of other members, as well as specialist manufacturing equipment and training, so they can succeed in turning their ideas into viable prototypes and solutions.

Last week, ICAH announced that it is holding its own type of hackathon this summer.

Starting on July 3rd, and running through September 29th, the summer-long My Summer of Hack program will consist of multiple activities for hackers, innovators, and makers from the College.

“Imperial College Advanced Hackspace is a hotbed of creativity and innovation, where hackers, inventors, and entrepreneurs from across all corners of the College come together to turn their ideas into a reality,” said Professor Oscar Ces, the Co-Director of ICAH. “This summer is the perfect opportunity to get involved.”

My Summer of Hack includes all sorts of excellent options for the community, like a new competition, grants, and some hacker-in-residence opportunities, that will help them make their great ideas a reality.

First up in My Summer of Hack, the Level Up! hackathon competition challenges participants to develop innovative new exhibits, furniture, and installations, the winners of which will be installed in a new breakout office space above the Advanced Hackspace at the Invention Rooms that will open soon. The theme of the competition is “Moving up Levels,” from classic video games to dream inventions, and entries for the exhibit are encouraged to be interactive, though it’s not required.

Teams that make the cut will receive a consumable budget of up to £1,000 to use the Hackspace’s facilities in order to create their ideas, and in addition to having their work installed, the winners will also receive a cash prize: £300 for third place, £750 for second, and £1,500 for first.

The My Summer of Hack program will also include Summer Boost Grants from ICAH of up to £500. The grants will be awarded to staff and students who want to develop an idea for the program over the summer. In the past, these boost grants have funded multiple innovative projects, like a 3D ceramics printer, an inexpensive neonatal incubator made from cardboard, and a vaccine cooling and delivery system.

In addition, ICAH is also accepting summer applications for its Hacker-in-Residence program, which is only open to Imperial alumni. This program gives users opportunities to use the facilities and workshops of the ICAH, along with taking advantage of the expertise of other members.

The kick-off for the hackathon competition, and My Summer of Hack, will take place at 6:30 PM on July 3rd at the Invention Rooms, and begin with a networking event.

Discuss this hackathon program and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Source/Images: Imperial College London]