Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

A little over a year ago, 3D printing was a funky new technology that you might find at modestly sized booths in the basement level of the Las Vegas Convention Center at CES. Recently, President Obama mentioned it in the same breath as Apple and Intel during his State of the Union address, while talking about ways to create new jobs and manufacturing in the United States.

Read more on CNET:

Lawrence Bonassar and others have developed methods to 3d print human ears using actual live cartelidge mixture that congealed into an ear in 15 minutes. They tested it on rats and the ears were found to retain their shape and usability after a year and integrate into the rats. There is a  potential for medical breathroughs but also the danger of abuse and misuse (looking at you Hollywood, and maybe Russia) but it leaves us feeling a bit earie

Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis has been doing research into using 3D printing technology to solve world problems, particularly housing in emergency situations and low-income environments. Watch the video and learn where home-construction might be going in the not-too-distant future.

More information:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2187623/Contour-Crafting-builds-house-24-hours.html

An infographic about 3D printing in education and related areas. Click to see the full version.