The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz) is celebrating its one-year anniversary as the first university in the U.S. to open a MakerBot Innovation Centre.
Since opening the centre in February 2014, the university has used its large-scale installation of MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers to help establish the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Centre (HVAMC) as a premiere hub for advanced manufacturing technology in the Hudson Valley.
Introducing the promise of 3D printing to the entire community, the centre has been responsible for a range of innovative 3D printing projects from prosthetics such as the famous “robohand” to a motorcycle safety product “Life Grip” to an industrial venting system.
The Centre has enabled quickly forged public-private partnerships with industry leaders to create a vibrant innovation hub for both students and the local business community. The university was awarded a $10 million NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant by Governor Andrew Cuomo to establish an Engineering Innovation Hub and secured $850,000 in capital funding for a new 3D printing laboratory.
“MakerBot put us on the map as an innovation leader,” said Dan Freedman, dean of the School of Science and Engineering. “We’ve seen huge interest from companies looking for talent with additive manufacturing experience, and the number of inquiries we get from local business and industry grows daily. Students who learn about 3D printing at SUNY New Paltz will have a significant competitive advantage when they start looking for jobs after they graduate.”
SUNY New Paltz has developed a 3D printing curriculum as part of its Digital Design and Fabrication class at its School of Science and Engineering. Bringing together art and engineering majors, it enables local entrepreneurs and businesses to collaborate on Real-Time Prototyping, model making and small-scale creative and manufacturing projects.
Jenny Lawton, CEO of MakerBot, commented: “We’re really proud of the success that SUNY New Paltz has had with its MakerBot Innovation Centre in just one year and how they were able to use 3D printing to foster science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. SUNY New Paltz has found a unique way of satisfying that demand by bringing together art and engineering students with local businesses through 3D printing. The results are inspiring, and we can’t wait to see what they will be able to achieve in the future.”
In honour of the one-year anniversary, MakerBot CEO Jenny Lawton will give a talk on the current state and the future of the 3D printing industry in a presentation entitled “12 Years from Now,” on Wednesday, February 25, at 4:30 p.m., in Lecture Centre 100, at SUNY New Paltz.
