Ultimaker has partnered with 3DPrinterOS and Dynamism to offer US-based schools and universities a remarkable opportunity. The first 100 educational institutions to sign up on 3DPrinterOS’s Educational License will get a free 3D printer! This is a phenomenal opportunity if you’re looking to expand your 3D printer count, and get a full management solution for your machines, students and files.
3D printing opens up a world of opportunities – especially when it comes to education. It’s our mission to inspire young people to explore the possibilities of 3D printing, by providing the best 3D printing solutions in their school, library or organization. Now, all educational institutions can streamline their workflow and manage their 3D printing more effectively, by signing up to 3DPrinterOS’s Educational License.
Even better – if you’re one of the first 100 US-based educational institutions to sign up, you’ll receive a free Ultimaker machine!
Why 3D printing matters in education
3D printing technology is becoming an integral part of the modern age. It provides powerful three-dimensional learning aids to explain difficult learning concepts to students. It also introduces them to digital manufacturing and processes – which are becoming increasingly important to businesses across the world. But it’s about more than that. 3D printing also fosters innovation. It sparks creativity. It inspires collaboration.
Duke University in North Carolina is a great example of this in action. “The purpose of our labs,” Chip Bobbert, Digital Media Engineer and Emerging Media Technologist at the university, informs us, “is to allow students an outlet to explore digital fabrication either independently or within the context of coursework – with little restrictions other than the limits of their own imaginations.”
Working with 3DPrinterOS
In order to enjoy growth in their 3D printing department, Duke University needed to be able to track and report 3D printing data. This is where 3DPrinterOS came in. Their cloud infrastructure means that businesses of all sizes and industries can access and manage their analytics, users, files and manufacturing machines from a single interface. 3DPrinterOS is built on a pure cloud/web/mobile architecture, making it infinitely scalable and completely secure.
As Oscar, VP of Business Development for 3DPrinterOS, states: “From a School District IT Director’s standpoint, you will have the possibility to make a printer useful to infinite students at once, without delving too deep into handling USB sticks, excel sheets etc.”
The system oversees all 3D printers in the school and enables institutions to define their own hierarchy, whilst optimizing the printers. “It’s all about having control and maximizing capacity,” Oscar continues.
Streamlining 3D printing in education
Once Duke University started working with the 3DPrinterOS team, they were able to create customized reports, detailing reasons for print job cancellations.
This proved invaluable – giving them insight into student printing patterns, and showing how to improve success rates across all machines in their network. “Students are leaving and forming their own businesses and products,” Bobbert continues. “They are working through rapid prototyping process and starting their own companies right out of school. Just recently, we’ve had students create biometric wearables, based on 3D printed prototypes. The sky is the limit when students have access to 3D printing – and we believe anybody should be able to send a job for 3D printing over our network.”
You can find out more about their work here, or click here for more education case studies by Dynamism.
3DPrinterOS’s Educational Licence is invaluable in schools and universities – and so are Ultimaker 3D printers! Using our machines, students can print durable prototypes and teachers can create models, explaining concepts that are difficult to explain in 2D (such as anatomy). The possibilities are limitless.
