MRI: Acquisition of a Multi-Material 3D Printer to Enable Novel Multi-disciplinary Research and Research Training

这项主要研究仪器(MRI)赠款为联合学院购买高分辨率、多材质3D打印机提供资金。通过利用对原型技术的巨大需求，研究人员将开启创新研究的新纪元，应用范围从捕捉蜻蜓的神经力学到制造新型气凝胶涂层表面，再到设计完全柔软的机器人。这将弥合高等教育中日益增长的快速原型“知识鸿沟”。由现代快速原型技术推动的加速开发周期将使研究人员能够不断迭代和改进设计，在得出新颖的、有时甚至是意想不到的解决方案之前，“以低成本和快速的失败”。在接下来的几年里，多个学科的学生将会发现他们的服务越来越受到雇主的需求。这种3D打印机将成为联合学院一个内在的跨学科和高度协作的研究项目的中心。为社区成员提供一个共同的空间，让他们可以一起设计解决方案和解决问题，这将有助于促进和激发自发的跨学科合作。使用该空间的学生将被鼓励成为工匠，并被培养为企业家。学院的教育工作者将能够设计新颖的互动模型和演示。这笔收购不仅将有助于为将快速原型技术整合到本科研究和教学中设定标准，还将提供工具、方法和环境，未来的设计师将围绕这些工具、方法和环境团结起来并茁壮成长。该计划将延续联合学院在传统上代表性不足的学生中进行本科研究的强劲记录，通过科学和技术入学计划(STEP)和Posse计划等计划，这些计划旨在帮助历史上代表性不足的学生为理科做准备，旨在发现具有领导潜力和强大学术能力的学生，这些学生可能在传统的大学选择过程中被忽视。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant provides funding for the acquisition of a high resolution, multi-material 3D printer at Union College. By harnessing a huge demand for prototyping technologies, researchers will launch a new era of innovative research, with applications ranging from the neuromechanics of dragonfly capture to the manufacture of novel aerogel coated surfaces to the design of completely soft robots. This will bridge the growing rapid prototyping "knowledge gap" in higher education. The accelerated development cycles facilitated by modern rapid prototyping will enable researchers to continuously iterate and improve upon designs, "failing cheaply and quickly" before arriving at novel and sometimes unexpected solutions. Students across multiple disciplines experienced with the benefits of rapid prototyping will find their services increasingly in demand by employers in coming years.This 3D printer will be at the center of an inherently cross-disciplinary and highly collaborative research program at Union College. Providing a common space in which community members can design solutions and solve problems together will help foster and spark spontaneous interdisciplinary collaborations. Students using the space will be emboldened as craftspersons and enabled as entrepreneurs. Educators at the college will be able to design novel interactive models and demonstrations. Not only will this acquisition help set the standard for the integration of rapid prototyping techniques into undergraduate research and teaching, it will provide tools, methods, and environments around which tomorrow's designers will coalesce and thrive. This program will continue Union College's strong record of undergraduate research among students from traditionally underrepresented groups, through programs such as the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), designed to prepare historically underrepresented students for the sciences, and the POSSE program, designed to identify students with leadership potential and strong academics who might be overlooked in the traditional college selection process.