Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Carnegie Mellon U Launches 3D Printing Initiative

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/02/16

A new consortium at Carnegie Mellon University will bring together researchers and representatives from industry, government and professional associations to collaborate on initiatives in the field of 3D printing, otherwise known as "additive manufacturing."

The initiative will influence the work being done at the university's NextManufacturing Center, a research division within the institution's college of engineering. Among the corporate participants are GE, Alcoa and United States Steel. Government is represented by the Federal Aviation Administration and the United States Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory. Also participating is SAE International, an association of engineers and related technical experts.

The center draws faculty and students not only from the college of engineering but also the school of computer science and college of science. The multidisciplinary approach is applied to projects in order to develop new ways of thinking about 3D printing for mainstream manufacturing and creating new tools and processes.

The emphasis on collaborative efforts is to pull together all the key players "to share knowledge, ideas and challenges," said Jack Beuth, director of the center and professor of mechanical engineering, in an article about the consortium. "It's an integral part of creating a thriving additive manufacturing ecosystem, and today, we get do that here at Carnegie Mellon."

"Collaborating across disciplines and with outside companies has been a huge reason that we have been able to deliver such impactful results here," added Anthony Rollett, professor of materials science and engineering and associate director of the center. "These collaborations will not only ensure that our research directly targets real-world problems, but that real-world problems directly influence our research."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Profile silhouette of a person thoughtfully touching their chin, overlaid with transparent data visualizations and digital interface elements suggesting artificial intelligence and analytics.

    The Institutional Knowledge Shift Is Reshaping Higher Ed IT

    Higher education IT leaders are navigating a quiet but consequential transition: Experienced team members are retiring or leaving for private-sector roles, and the teams replacing them are smaller, newer, and often stretched thin. The result is a structural shift in how technology decisions are made, executed, and sustained.

  • Student classroom scene with diverse learners attentively engaging in lecture, using laptops

    The AI Literacy Gap No One Expected

    While Gen Z may be advanced at generating quick outputs or using free LLMs for surface-level tasks, they need to develop critical thinking, communication, and analysis skills.

  • Human Hand Assembling Digital Data Blocks

    Report: AI Impact Starts with Strong Data Foundation

    High-impact AI implementations are more likely to treat data architecture, governance, and operationalization as strategic requirements, according to TDWI's 2026 Blueprint report.

  • Abstract background with a dynamic wave

    New Initiative Aims to Help Move AI Projects from Experimentation to Production

    Microsoft has unveiled Frontier Company, making a $2.5 billion bet that the next competitive battleground in artificial intelligence will not be foundation models, but helping enterprises put those models to work.