Registration Now Open for Second Construct3D Academic 3D Printing and Digital Fabrication Conference

Like many other 3D printing companies around the world, Ultimaker is doing its part to educate the future workforce, and their teachers, about the many benefits of adopting 3D printing in the classroom. Together with Autodesk, Ultimaker is also a co-founding sponsor of Construct3D, the first national academic 3D printing conference in the US, which was hosted by Duke University last May.

“The conference hosted panels featuring notable educators and industry experts. We also had over one hundred talks and workshops, a vendor area offering demonstrations of leading design, materials, digital fabrication technologies and other resources, and social gatherings that encouraged discussion,” the website reads.

“We expect the 2018 conference to be even bigger and better than last year!”

The academic 3D printing and digital fabrication conference and expo was so popular, it’s coming back for the second year in a row. Registration for the Construct3D 2018 event, which will be held at Georgia Tech from October 5th to 8th, is now open through September 28th.

The vendor-agnostic conference encourages collaboration between digital fabrication experts, teachers, and students, and will be a gathering place for educators from K-12, higher education, and informal education to network, exchange ideas, learn new skills, and, as Ultimaker puts it, “influence the direction of 3D printing in education.”

“Construct3D is an amazing platform for educators, students, and academic institutions to share their latest research and in-field experiences, while strongly encouraging action and collaboration for all attendees. We can’t wait to bring the audience an even bigger and better conference this year, leaving them feeling inspired to spread the continued adoption of 3D printing in education around the world,” said Lizabeth Arum, the Construct3D conference Co-Chair and Educational Strategist at Ultimaker.

Conference co-founders Arum, Matt Griffin (also from Ultimaker), and Chip Bobbert from Duke University will be teaming up again with the co-founding sponsors to put on a fun and informational conference, which will feature panels, workshops, and presentations over multiple important tracks, such as makerspaces, libraries, architecture, design, digital scanning, health and medicine, social justice, innovation, drones, and more.

The keynote presenters were also announced this week. George Hart, an interdisciplinary computer scientist, educator, sculptor, and mathematician and former research professor at Stony Brook University, will kick things off on Friday night with a presentation on Informal Education. Hart has long used 3D printing and computer technology while designing and fabricating sculptures, and you can find examples of his artwork at such places as Duke University, MIT, and Princeton University.

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenkrantz, the co-founders of generative design studio Nervous System, will present on Higher Education at Construct3D’s Saturday morning keynote. The Massachusetts studio uses digital fabrication to bring products to life and computer simulation to generate designs, and its work is part of permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Smithsonian Design Museum.

Finally, Larry Rosenstock is the CEO and founding principal of High Tech High – a network of 13 California K-12 public charter schools focused on project-based learning – as well as the president of the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, and served as a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Rosenstock, who is also a former president of the Price Charitable Fund, a previous director of the US Department of Education’s New Urban High School Project, and a former visiting associate professor at the UC Berkeley School of Education, will be presenting the Sunday morning keynote on K-12 Education.

Additional featured speakers include:

• Deanne Bell, Future Engineers
• Tom Gray, Make48
• Dr. Bon Ku, Assistant Dean for Health and Design at Thomas Jefferson University
• Christopher B. Williams, PhD, Virginia Tech
• Grace Jun, Open Style Lab

Construct3D is open to all students, academics, teachers, practitioners, technologists, and designers from K-12, higher education, and informal education contexts. The early bird rate of $300 for educators is still available until July 6th; then, the price goes up to $350. Registration includes WiFi, three evening receptions, and continental breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

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