3D Printing and Manufacturing (9:00-12:00) taught by 3D Systems' Principal Engineer Trevor Snyder. He is also teaching a class about 3D printing at PSU with about 20 students (very popular class - see photo for toys made by the students of past summer). Today, we had about 6 adults (+ 1 kid stayed for an hour), in the 3D lab. Excellent. Saw many models of 3D printers, and in operation. The complexity, post processing, technology, pros and cons of different models. Students are interested in this discontinued Cube3, which can be found on eBay for only $175! The instructor is enthusiastic.In the afternoon, at PCB Design Manufacturing workshop, an engineer from Mentor Graphics illustrated how powerful their design tools are. PartQuest - downloads part info (DigiKey database) to your Mentor tools, downloadable reference designs, Hyperlynx Virtual Labs - test and validate your design (using Mentor tools) on the web. Lecture and Q&A only. He didn't have time to prepare for this, so cut the class short by half. Again, 6 participants, including one PSU student.
I then went to Intermediate Arduino class. Very well prepared. Everyone had a SparkFun Tinker Kit, a laptop with loaded software and examples, and other supporting tools. Glad that I didn't go to Introduction to Arduino in the morning. This afternoon workshop is also very basic for people who are electronics and computer language illiterate. He actually asked me if I knew what a resistor was. Still fun to play with a motor and a servo. A group of ladies in the class kept on leading the class stray by talking about their own project. About 8 students, 2 instructors. Room for at least 10 more.
From 10:00-14:00, the Interconnected Devices lab was open for visitors. The lobby was full of robots, and some family. All these are in the same building. It's sad to see that not more participation showed up. I shall keep a lookout for this event next year. Hope they have some other workshops or more advanced ones.
