Beta: Bioprinting engineering technology for academia

Higher STEM education is a field of growing potential, but too many middle school and high school students are not testing proficiently in STEM subjects. The BETA team worked to improve biology classroom engagement through the development of technologies for high school biology experiments. The BETA project team expanded functionality of an existing product line to allow for better student and teacher user experience and the execution of more interesting experiments. The BETA project’s first goal was to create a modular incubating Box for the high school classroom. This Box, called the BETA Box was designed with a variety of sensors to allow for custom temperature and lighting environments for each experiment. It was completed with a clear interface to control the settings and an automatic image capture system. The team also conducted a feasibility study on auto calibration and dual-extrusion for SE3D’s existing 3D bioprinter. The findings of this study led to the incorporation of a force sensor for auto calibration and the evidence to support the feasibility of dual extrusion, although further work is needed. These additions to the current SE3D educational product line will increase effectiveness in the classroom and allow the target audience, high school students, to better engage in STEM education activities

Micro-manufacturing : research, technology outcomes and development issues

Besides continuing effort in developing MEMS-based manufacturing techniques, latest effort in Micro-manufacturing is also in Non-MEMS-based manufacturing. Research and technological development (RTD) in this field is encouraged by the increased demand on micro-components as well as promised development in the scaling down of the traditional macro-manufacturing processes for micro-length-scale manufacturing. This paper highlights some EU funded research activities in micro/nano-manufacturing, and gives examples of the latest development in micro-manufacturing methods/techniques, process chains, hybrid-processes, manufacturing equipment and supporting technologies/device, etc., which is followed by a summary of the achievements of the EU MASMICRO project. Finally, concluding remarks are given, which raise several issues concerning further development in micro-manufacturing

Photo Wallet : interface design for simple mobile photo albums

Tese de mestrado. Multimédia (Perfil Tecnologias). Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

Facsimile reproductions of art with the use of a digital camera system

Reproductions of original works of art have played a major role in the existence and growth of the graphic arts over the centuries. The one concept that has not changed over time is the difficulty in reproducing art that is true to the original. Using a high-end scanning system is one known method that is able to achieve high quality reproductions. However, it has several limitations. The purpose of this research was to verify that a digital camera system combined with color separation software can be used as an alternative technique to create facsimile reproductions of art. Five pieces of original artwork representing a variety of media were reproduced with the high-end system and were photographed using the Dicomed digital camera system. The two sets of reproductions were compared to the original. The comparison was in how well they matched the original. Utilizing three standard testing procedures, there was no significant difference between the two reproduction methods. With the introduction of digital photography into the publishing environment; prepress professionals would require the skills of the photographer. Also, photographers are fur ther exposed to the traditional separation skill of the scanner operator; obscuring the distinction between photographer and prepress professional. A goal of the printing industry is to eliminate unnecessary steps in the process; ie, graphic arts films being replaced by computer-to-plate systems. With this goal in mind, it makes perfect sense to eliminate unnecessary steps in capturing the original image; ie, using a digital camera syste

Recent advances in 3D printing of biomaterials.

3D Printing promises to produce complex biomedical devices according to computer design using patient-specific anatomical data. Since its initial use as pre-surgical visualization models and tooling molds, 3D Printing has slowly evolved to create one-of-a-kind devices, implants, scaffolds for tissue engineering, diagnostic platforms, and drug delivery systems. Fueled by the recent explosion in public interest and access to affordable printers, there is renewed interest to combine stem cells with custom 3D scaffolds for personalized regenerative medicine. Before 3D Printing can be used routinely for the regeneration of complex tissues (e.g. bone, cartilage, muscles, vessels, nerves in the craniomaxillofacial complex), and complex organs with intricate 3D microarchitecture (e.g. liver, lymphoid organs), several technological limitations must be addressed. In this review, the major materials and technology advances within the last five years for each of the common 3D Printing technologies (Three Dimensional Printing, Fused Deposition Modeling, Selective Laser Sintering, Stereolithography, and 3D Plotting/Direct-Write/Bioprinting) are described. Examples are highlighted to illustrate progress of each technology in tissue engineering, and key limitations are identified to motivate future research and advance this fascinating field of advanced manufacturing

Print Foundation: Student Guide to Graphic Communication

This book covers the foundation of print technologies and information related to graphic communication and aims to resolve the absence of the graphic communication textbook for beginners. While there are plenty of professional and technical resources for students, it can be challenging to read professional books without prior knowledge on the subject. This book will also clarify the difference between the Graphic Communication major and the Graphic Design major at Cal Poly SLO. The project began with the student survey on what they would want to be included in the introductory textbook and some of their additional suggestions were followed. Lecture notes and handouts from GrC 101, 201, 203, 211, 316, 324, and 328 were referenced to write the book content covering: Print Technology and Industry Introduction Substrates, Inks, and Color Fundamentals Digital File Preparation and Workflow Binding and Finishing Process Career and Concentration This textbook will provide a solid foundation and reference to future students and aid in their education journey to Graphic Communication at Cal Poly

A Hybrid Framework for Matching Printing Design Files to Product Photos

We propose a real-time image matching framework, which is hybrid in the sense that it uses both hand-crafted features and deep features obtained from a well-tuned deep convolutional network. The matching problem, which we concentrate on, is specific to a certain application, that is, printing design to product photo matching. Printing designs are any kind of template image files, created using a design tool, thus are perfect image signals. However, photographs of a printed product suffer many unwanted effects, such as uncontrolled shooting angle, uncontrolled illumination, occlusions, printing deficiencies in color, camera noise, optic blur, et cetera. For this purpose, we create an image set that includes printing design and corresponding product photo pairs with collaboration of an actual printing facility. Using this image set, we benchmark various hand-crafted and deep features for matching performance and propose a framework in which deep learning is utilized with highest contribution, but without disabling real-time operation using an ordinary desktop computer

Three-Dimensional (3D) Printed Microneedles for Microencapsulated Cell Extrusion

Cell-hydrogel based therapies offer great promise for wound healing. The specific aim of this study was to assess the viability of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells immobilized in atomized alginate capsules (3.5% (w/v) alginate, d = 225 µm ± 24.5 µm) post-extrusion through a three-dimensional (3D) printed methacrylate-based custom hollow microneedle assembly (circular array of 13 conical frusta) fabricated using stereolithography. With a jetting reliability of 80%, the solvent-sterilized device with a root mean square roughness of 158 nm at the extrusion nozzle tip (d = 325 μm) was operated at a flowrate of 12 mL/min. There was no significant difference between the viability of the sheared and control samples for extrusion times of 2 h (p = 0.14, α = 0.05) and 24 h (p = 0.5, α = 0.05) post-atomization. Factoring the increase in extrusion yield from 21.2% to 56.4% attributed to hydrogel bioerosion quantifiable by a loss in resilience from 5470 (J/m3) to 3250 (J/m3), there was no significant difference in percentage relative payload (p = 0.2628, α = 0.05) when extrusion occurred 24 h (12.2 ± 4.9%) when compared to 2 h (9.9 ± 2.8%) post-atomization. Results from this paper highlight the feasibility of encapsulated cell extrusion, specifically protection from shear, through a hollow microneedle assembly reported for the first time in literature