Answered By: MRU Library
Last Updated: Apr 25, 2022     Views: 7

Health Science student builds his own 3D printer


Stian French makes adjustments to the 3D printer he created in the Maker Studio

It’s the ultimate hack: Stian French used a 3D printer in the Maker Studio at Mount Royal University to make a 3D printer. The third-year Bachelor of Science ― Health Science student based his printer on an open-source concept he found during extensive online research.

"I could have bought the parts, but they were expensive and I knew they weren’t expensive to make. Plastic is pretty cheap, but it takes a lot of time to print all of them,” says French, 26, who was pleased to have found a publicly accessible design. “The Maker Studio saying they would print the parts was the catalyst I needed because I had already gotten all of the metal and electrical parts of the printer. The structural pieces printed here brought it all together.”

Maker Studio specialists support students, faculty, staff and the community in their endeavours in the University Library space. “On average, users spend two to four hours at a time in the studio. Students will come in and do a personal project on the 3D printer and then they’ll integrate that into their curriculum because they’ve built the confidence around the tool and the technology. The skills that students walk out of here with are immense,” Kerry Harmer says. “That’s why it’s really important to allow people like Stian to come in and use the space (without a requirement that it be tied to a course). As he’s learning 3D-modelling and understanding his 3D printer, it’s quite possible that for a capstone project in his fourth year, he will be printing 3D prosthetics.”

French, who plans on attending attending medical school to become an oral surgeon after graduating from Mount Royal, has just gotten started on his journey with the technology.

Excerpt from article written by Ruth Myles, published on mru.ca

 

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