Materialise Educational Contest Winners Announced

After tallying up the votes from 10,000 people and a panel of expert judges — and reviewing 308 submissions from a total of 74 schools — Belgian 3D printing giant Materialise have chosen the winners of their “Wedstrijd Materialise” contest.

The contest began in November of last year when the company asked educators and students to submit ideas for how they’d use 3D printing in the classroom. The ideas, collected on Ideas Worth Making, a platform Materialise set up to bring the concepts to reality through 3D printing, attracted more than 44,000 total votes.

From the 308 entries, the company, voters, and the panel of judges selected 11 winners which included the five most popular ideas, the five favorites selected by the professional jury, and one award to the school that collected the most votes for all their submissions overall.

Githo Nijlen’s 3D printed Windmills

And a win was lucrative indeed as each winner will receive a 3D print package for their school which includes a 3D printer, 3D printing software, a professional 3D print of their idea, and the opportunity to visit Materialise for instruction on how they can more effectively design and print their ideas.

The top five crowd favorite winners included GBS De Vlinderdreef for their plan to print a missing part for a skeleton, VIA ASO Tienen for their plan to build a high-tech sensor and 3D print the case, Heilig Hartinstituut Heverlee for their idea to create a hinged piece with a “ball and socket” joint which forms a heart sculpture, Berkenboom Humaniora for their plan to teach students about land formations with a 3D geology model, and Sint-Victor Turnhout for their project to print their version of Escher’s Waterfall meant to teach the importance of perspective in translating ideas from 2D to 3D.

Heilig Hartinstituut Heverlee 3D Printed Heart Sculpture

The top five Jury Favorites included: Githo Nijlen’s 3D printed windmill designs to test their efficiency, BuBaO St-Gerardus for their project to build adjustable pens for people with motor disabilities, Freinetschool De Pit for their idea to “pimp” an electrical circuit in a 3D printed model, Heilige-Drievuldigheidscollege for their 3D animal book for the blind and visually-impaired students, and KA Tienen for their project to 3D print components like pins and miniature monuments for use in marking maps.

Sint-Victor Turnhout MC Escher Waterfall

The School with the Biggest Impact Award went to Heilig Graf Turnhout, which submitted a total of 115 ideas and had a total of a whopping 13,605 votes.

Now that the contest has concluded, the eleven winners have been invited to visit the Materialise HQ to take part in an awards ceremony and a workshop. The workshop will be dedicated to teaching the winners how to use their new 3D printer packages.

The contest also benefited from sponsorship by Ricoh, Leapfrog, FELIXprinters, SketchUp, and MiiCraft.

Educators are taking up 3D printing as an essential tool for STEM education around the world, and Belgian 3D printing and AM pioneers Materialise sponsored a contest to collect ideas. What do you think of the winning entries? Let us know in the Educational Contest Winners forum thread on 3DPB.com.