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）拨款为联合学院购买高分辨率，多材料3D打印机提供资金。通过利用对原型技术的巨大需求，研究人员将开启一个创新研究的新时代，其应用范围从神经力学的神经捕获到新型气凝胶涂层表面的制造，再到完全软机器人的设计。这将弥合高等教育中日益扩大的快速原型“知识差距”。现代快速原型设计所加速的开发周期将使研究人员能够不断改进和改进设计，在获得新颖的，有时是意想不到的解决方案之前，“廉价而快速地失败”。在未来几年，拥有快速成型优势的多个学科的学生将发现雇主对他们的服务需求越来越大。这台3D打印机将成为联合学院固有的跨学科和高度合作的研究项目的中心。提供一个共同的空间，让社区成员可以一起设计解决方案和解决问题，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成为创业者，并成为企业家。该学院的教育工作者将能够设计新颖的互动模型和演示。 此次收购不仅将有助于为快速原型技术融入本科研究和教学制定标准，还将提供工具，方法和环境，使未来的设计师能够结合并蓬勃发展。 该计划将继续联合学院的本科研究的学生从传统上代表性不足的群体之间的良好记录，通过计划，如科学和技术入门计划（STEP），旨在为科学准备历史上代表性不足的学生，和波塞计划，旨在确定学生的领导潜力和强大的学者谁可能被忽视在传统的大学选择过程。

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.