Dartmouth Launches Major Conference on 3D Printing's Future

The gathering explores soft robotics, high-performance materials, and more.

The two-day conference, to be held at the Hanover Inn Aug. 12 and 13, brings together researchers and scholars from the fields of chemistry, materials science, computer science, and engineering as well as industry players and entrepreneurs from across the United States, Europe, and Asia for “3D Printing 2019: An Interdisciplinary Additive Manufacturing Symposium.” Participants will look at a range of ideas in the field, including materials development, polymer chemistry, computational tools and models, green 3D printing, and 3D entrepreneurship. The talks and events on Monday afternoon, including a poster session and industry demonstration, are open to the public.

Until now, researchers in mechanical engineering, polymer and materials chemistry, computer science, and related fields have conferred separately to discuss 3D printing research, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Chenfeng Ke, an organizer of the conference, says.

“There are separate meetings, but they don’t have cross talk, so we wanted to create this meeting to bring people with different expertise together, trying to connect from the very beginning—from the earliest computation and simulation, to the end-part of materials making and engineering,” Ke says.

Prof Jeremy Faludi

The biomedical, printing materials, 3D printing technology, and 3D manufacturing industries as well as major publishing houses in the field are co-sponsors of the conference along with Dartmouth. Top scholars and researchers will make presentations at the conference, which will also include panel discussions and opening and closing sessions. In addition to Ke, the conference is co-chaired by Assistant Professor of Computer Science Bo Zhu, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Engineering Jeremy Faludi, and from the University of Texas at Dallas, Associate Professor of Chemistry Ronald Smaldone.