Pinshape Launches First Ever Student 3D Design and Printing Contest in India

An April 15th article on MarketWatch reported on the key role 3D printing will be playing India in the next five years. According to the extensive report, 3D printing in India is still somewhat in its infancy–however, it “offers huge growth opportunities in the coming years.” The Indian government is introducing initiatives that it hopes to jump start the domestic manufacturing sector. The report projects that market for 3D printers alone may record as much as $79 million in sales by 2021.

3D printing web service and community Pinshape is doing its part to raise awareness and enthusiasm with India’s First 3D Printing Contest for Students. Contest entrants are being challenged to create a low-poly design in one of five categories:

1. Characters, celebrities, and great people in history
2. Animals
3. Cars and space ships
4. Art and sculptures
5. Functional items

Contestants can increase their chances by combining any of the above categories.

Pinshape is giving students plenty of time to learn 3D design and get their entries 3D printed before the contest deadline, which is 11:59 p.m. PST on July 31, 2015. On August 2, finalists will be notified by email and asked to verify that they are students residing in India and are between the ages of 14 and 30, which is a pretty broad range.

The contest, which is sponsored by Pinshape, Novabeans, Ultimaker, Shining 3D, and ShaperJet, features some impressive prizes: The First Place winner gets an Ultimaker 2 3D printer. The student who comes in Second Place wins an Einstart Desktop 3D printer from Shining 3D. First, Second, Third, and Fourth Place winners get high-resolution 3D prints of their designs.

All designs must be submitted in STL, OBJ, or ZIP format. Participants may submit up to 20 files and the maximum file size is 100MB. On the contest site, Pinshape provides students with help downloading free 3D design programs–Meshlab and Netfabb–and instructs them on how to submit files correctly.

You do not need to be a contestant to go to the contest site and vote for the best submissions. Additionally, each judge chooses one design to submit to the finals. The judges are two designers from India, fashion designer Rina Dhaka and graphic designer Neha Tulsian, and a Parisian painter, Marlène Fayolle.

Designs will be judged on a number of criteria:

1. Uniqueness of the design
2. Design detailing
3. Presentation
4. Printability of the design
5. The design follows contest guidelines
6. Marketability of the design

We’ve taken a peek at the designs students have already submitted and they are impressive and quite diverse, ranging from a rustic looking water tower, a variety of jewelry pieces, and a classic car, to an origami elephant, a tugboat child’s toy, and a well-crafted model of Ursula the Sea Witch from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

The contest site provides a counter that provides the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining in the contest before the July 31st deadline. We hope to see the number of submissions grow along with awareness of the capacity of 3D printing to change the design and manufacturing landscape of India in the coming years.

Do you know any students in India who might enter this contest, or will you be voting for your favorite entries? Join the discussion on this first-of-its-kind competition in the Pinshape 3D Printing Contest for Students in India forum thread over at 3DPB.com.