3-D PRINTER FROM UH PROVIDES HIGH SCHOOLERS
WITH SOLID RESULTS
College of Technology Assists Memorial Class with High Tech Tool
HOUSTON, Feb. 2, 2005 – Imagine a printer that’s so
technically advanced that the results are
three-dimensional. Instead of a picture of a chess piece, it prints
the piece itself.
Thanks to the University of Houston, students at Memorial High
School don’t have to imagine it – they have one.
To better prepare future engineers and engineering technologists,
the University of Houston’s Center for Technology Literacy
(CTL) – part of UH’s College of Technology – is
providing Houston’s Memorial High School with a Dimension
Breakaway Support Technology 3-D printer for its Computer Integrated
Manufacturing (CIM) class.
The state-of-the-art printer creates plastic models of objects drawn
with Autodesk Inventor 3-D, three-dimensional modeling software.
Memorial’s CIM students are currently creating customized
chess pieces with the printer.
CTL provides training, resources and support for other Texas technology
educators in conjunction with Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a national
non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the numbers of prospective
engineers and engineering technologists graduating from high schools.
High schools and middle schools that receive PLTW certifications
can offer a sequence of college preparatory pre-engineering courses.
Working with PLTW’s Texas affiliate, CTL also hosts a two-week
pre-engineering teacher training program in late spring at the UH
campus.
John Hansen, executive director for CTL and chair of UH’s
information and logistics technology department, said the addition
of a three-dimensional printer at Memorial has been particularly
beneficial to the class.
“We wanted to introduce technology into the classroom that
both teachers and students could immediately grasp,” Hansen
said. “This device is helpful because it allows students to
remain focused on their designs and learn throughout the process.”
Hansen said that previous manufacturing and design projects involved
rigorous, multi-step physical and mechanical methods, and classes
often worked for days before a single project’s prototype
was completed. Now, the wait time is 15 - 20 hours and students
can spend more time perfecting their designs and making instant
adjustments after observing the prototypes. Another time-saving
factor is that the printer can create more than one prototype at
a time.
Shelly Montgomery teaches CIM at Memorial. She received her pre-engineering
teacher certification at UH through CTL. This spring, she will assist
Hansen in training pre-engineering teachers.
She said that word of mouth has attracted students outside of her
class wanting to see the printer’s results. She and Hansen
hope the enthusiasm behind the chess project will influence more
students to enroll in Memorial’s pre-engineering classes –
and eventually in engineering and technology courses at UH.
“Our job is to unveil the mystery of engineering, and encourage
students to give it a thought for their career,” Montgomery
said.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit
the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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