THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS

3D Printing Ecosystem transforms education at Kennesaw State University

By Kennesaw State University

August 25^th, 2022

The high-pitched beeps and whirring sounds coming from Room 465 in the Burruss Building at Kennesaw State University are unusual enough to draw attention. Students walking by peer through the glass and see a network of wires and dozens of contraptions – each about two feet tall with what looks like a wheel spinning on top. Upon taking a closer look, the machines are creating small figurines, seemingly from thin air.

The room is part of an award-winning 3D Printing Ecosystem (3DPE) designed and installed by faculty, staff and students on both Kennesaw State University campuses. The 3DPE is a coordinated system of hardware, software and people designed to scale computer-aided design and 3D printing. Because of this collaboration, 3D printing has expanded into six colleges, and more students than ever before use 3D printing technology, a skill prospective employers increasingly value.

Business

The 3D printing lab in the Burruss Building, home to the Coles College of Business, is one of the newest printing spaces at Kennesaw State. Associate Professor of Information Systems Dominic Thomas, who is leading the charge for the implementation of 3D printing for business students, completed his first 3D print in the spring of 2021, and by the fall, he added the first 3D printing project to a core class in the business school.

“There is an opportunity here that is meaningful,” Thomas said. “Now, every business school student will learn how to design from scratch and print those designs in 3D.”

Students learn the basics, starting with designing objects on the computer, and printing small trinkets that could be used for marketing or entrepreneurship. The golden owl trophies, which have impeccable detail and stand about seven inches tall, are current crowd favorites.

“There was a time when 2D printing was remarkable,” said Thomas. “Next is 3D printing, and it’s something I believe students should know because it’s one part of a 3D digital age that’s dawning.”

Thomas explained how 3D imaging is used in MRIs and ultrasounds, but also emphasized how recent supply chain issues overseas have shown a need for more 3D printing in a variety of materials in the United States.

While other universities may have 3D printing technology, Thomas said Kennesaw State is unique because faculty members in the 3DPE are making it accessible to all students through a curriculum.

“We’re making it possible not just for engineering and architecture students, but for students in any program to access the technology,” Thomas said.

GIS Mapping

Have you considered how students, faculty, staff or visitors who are blind or have limited vision navigate campus? In the Normal J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences, senior lecturer and GIS Lab manager Uli Ingram and her students are using 3D printers to create maps of campus.

“Accessibility for visually-impaired students has been a main motivator for the project,” said Ingram, who is also a diversity fellow through the Division of Diverse and Inclusive Excellence. “These 3D printed maps of both the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses will allow students to feel the map, which will have buildings and elevation scaled to actual height.”

Students in the Department of Geography and Anthropology have been using 3D data on computers for years, but printing the data in a 3D form gives them a whole new perspective.

“3D printing is everywhere,” Ingram said. “They’re using it in engineering, business and art. We want our anthropology colleagues to use it to print fossils, skulls, bones and maps. The possibilities are endless.”

Ingram and her students are perfecting the maps by adding braille to the buildings and working with Student Disability Services to find a permanent display location.

Art

Jeff Campana, a nationally exhibiting ceramic artist and associate professor of art in Kennesaw State’s School of Art and Design, became interested in 3D printing as he sought perfection.

“I was trying to get a level of precision in my ceramics that’s simply not possible with the human hand,” he said. “I tried for months to make a mold system by hand and got close, but the human hand was the problem.”

When he realized he could print the molds, it was a game-changer.

“Ceramics is an art form that is thousands of years old,” Campana said. “You may think there’s nothing new in clay, but there are new ideas, and 3D printing is a big one.”

More than two dozen 3D printers are housed in the School of Art and Design, a number that has grown since Campana partnered with engineering faculty to launch a 3D Printing Farm six years ago. Art and engineering students have collaborated on several projects, including one where they used handheld 3D scanning technology to scan pieces in the Zuckerman Museum of Art. Another project used elements of the 3DPE to make a life-sized sculpture which was eventually installed as a permanent, public artwork at a local museum.

Engineering

It probably will not come as a surprise that 3D printing started in the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SPCEET) on Kennesaw State’s Marietta Campus. In 2014, the College received funding to start the 3D Center and from there, launched a 3D printing class.

Funding from University Information Technology Services in 2021 allowed faculty members at KSU to purchase more printers and expand into more colleges. What started as a handful of 3D printers has turned into a network of more than 100 and the 3DPE.

“SPCEET’s 3D Print Farm includes state-of-the-art technology which prepares students to use it in the outside world,” Dean Ian Ferguson said. “While these are important skills for our engineering students to learn, it’s also exciting to see faculty members and students in other colleges around the University using this technology in unique ways.”

Several SPCEET faculty members, including Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ayse Tekes, work with students on 3D printing projects. In 2020, Tekes received a National Science Foundation grant to work with undergraduate students on designing and developing 3D printed laboratory equipment and related learning activities, which are both portable and cost-effective.

The College also hosts events throughout the year to inform students about the capabilities of 3D printers and encourage them to get involved in 3D printing work.

Education

Jason Harron, assistant professor of instructional technology in the School of Instructional Technology and Innovation within Kennesaw State’s Bagwell College of Education, is another faculty member using 3D printing in new ways. Harron’s classes and research focus on the intersection of creativity, technology and the arts, which all lend themselves to 3D printing technology.

“Teaching graduate-level students about 3D printing technology allows them to explore ways to be creative and keep curiosity alive in a public school system that’s very standardized,” Harron said.

While Harron and his students have printed math tools to be used in elementary school classrooms, he said teaching about the 3D world has more implications right now than the physical products.

“These skills are becoming a common literacy,” he said. “3D modeling allows you to see the world differently. For the longest time in education, we’ve taught about the x-axis and y-axis. What about the z-axis? 3D printing allows us to get into a new axis we typically don’t teach in school.”

Harron currently hosts workshops with students to teach them about digital fabrication, which also involves laser-cutting, as well as the benefits 3D printing offers people in the education realm.

Architecture and Construction Management

More than two dozen 3D printers are housed in the College of Architecture and Construction Management’s (CACM) Digital Fabrication Lab on the Marietta Campus. Architecture students use the 3D printers for small-to-medium sized model and prototype creation, which helps them see a physical representation of their design before creating a larger version.

“Our program is very hands-on, and students are constantly creating models,” Rachel Johnson, digital operations manager for CACM, said.

In addition to standard 3D printing models, CACM students, faculty and staff have used the printers to benefit society. In 2020, they 3D printed face shields which were then donated and distributed throughout the state as the coronavirus pandemic caused a severe shortage of personal protective equipment in hospitals.

Johnson said the College plans to add more 3D printing technology and techniques into curriculum and hopes to start experimenting with new materials.

“We’re looking into clay printers and concrete printers,” she said. “It’s important we continue progressing with 3D printing because there is a lot of potential we can unlock in the design space.”

3DPE as a Model

In February, the Technology Association of Georgia honored Kennesaw State’s 3D Printing Ecosystem with the award for best “Digital Transformation” by a nonprofit, government or education institution. The award recognizes an entity whose digital transformation, implemented in the past 12 months, impacted the organization’s efficiencies and the advancement of its mission.

A month before receiving the TAG award, several faculty members wrote an article for the Digital Learning Innovations section of Frontiers in Education, titled “Laying the Groundwork for STEAM: Scaling and Supporting 3D Design and Printing in Higher Education.” They hope it will not only encourage faculty members in other Kennesaw State colleges to incorporate 3D printing into their curriculum, but also inspire other institutions to use the 3DPE as a model.