3D Printed Pediatric Prosthetic Device

My goal with this was to design, build, and share how to build low cost, neurally interfacing, prosthetic devices. Work began on my own in high school where I designed my first signal amplifiers and built my first arm. Work continued when I came to University and started my own club within which I lead a team of ~50 students to design, build, and deploy these devices to people in need.

This arm was designed, manufactured, and delivered by my club at the University of Michigan for $100. It is controlled by the user's peripheral nervous system and is tough enough for everyday use.

• Featured Publication Page 9-10: Autodesk Worldwide Student Design Showcase 2018

Close

SmartBins

SmartBins was a hackathon project where we set out to solve the problem of not knowing the overhead bin capacity on a plane during boarding. Our solution was a hardware array that would be in the plane's overhead bins connecting via an arduino to a webpage built in d3 to show the real time bin capacity and total plane capacity.

We won Top 8 of over 1000 other students as well as Delta's first prize of Best Air Travel Solution

• Live Site: SmartBins
• Devpost: SmartBins HackGT Devpost
• HackGT 2016 - 36 Hour Hackathon
• September 2016
• Winner: Top 8, Best Air Travel Solutions

Close

Lead to Pixels

This project was an exploration into how we can use additive technologies to help conserve historic artifacts, in this case letterpress type. Whether letterpress type is damaged, fragile, or otherwise inaccessible, it inhibits the ability of conservationists and researchers to work with historic type. I worked together with Dr. Rebecca Chung, to build a workflow in which type could be digitally created, printed with metal filled materials, and post processed to a shiny printable finish.

The results of our work is a workflow and set of materials that enables low cost reproduction of historic type, and production of new type in a more widely accessible manner than ever before.

MicroGrant: Aaron Chow - Lead to Pixels from ArtsEngine on Vimeo.

• 2016-2017

Close

Print in Place Clock

This print in place clock was designed and built to start pushing the boundaries of what can be done with additive technologies. The idea is to have a part that people will immediately understand something interesting is happening when handling it. This demonstrates a simplification of the supply chain, consolidation of parts, different material properties based on geometry (spring vs frame vs gears) and reduction of assembly steps needed for an end use component.

• Notes:

  This project was created while working for Autodesk and the model also belongs to Autodesk

  This part was fully designed and built in Autodesk Fusion360

  This part was designed specifically for, and ultimately printed on the HP MJF 4200

• May 2018 - August 2018

Close

Aravind Eye Hospitals Additve Manufacturing

In January of 2017 I was asked by my research colleagues if I wanted to go to India to build additive capabilities for a medical manufacturing group with strong ties to the University of Michigan. I then spent the next 10 weeks planning until I found myself on a plane to Madurai, Tamil Nadu, in May. When I arrived, my responsibilities were to set up equipment, iron out workflows, train personnel, and solidify multiple supply chain sources to ensure the machines were kept running.

I returned to India in 2018 to evaluate the work that had been done for the past year and to add additional capabilities to the facilities. The personnel that I had trained were still learning new things and applying them to interesting problems that arose around the manufacturing center.

• Featured Publication:

  The University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center Advances in Opthalmology

Close

Video Game to 3D Print

This project was my first serious foray into desinging an in depth custom workflow for additive. I wanted to start with models of characters from one of my favorite video games, and end with a model that I could have on my desk. This project took me through extracting game files, learning about 3D animation programs, mesh subdivision, mesh sculpting, and file repair to prepare for printing. After printing, I developed a post processing procedure to knock down supports from the printing process, and clean up the model to look more uniform.

I began this by extracting the game files and importing them into Autodesk 3Ds Max. From there I was able to pose my characters, either manually or with animations that I also pulled from in game files. With this posed model, I exported as an obj and repaired the file within Autodesk Netfabb. The repaired files were then brought into Meshlab, where butterfly subdivisions were used to add detail to the models, as video game assets are quite often very low poly, relying on textures to enhance the model. After a rough pass with Meshlab, files were hand sculpted in Autodesk Meshmixer to achieve final part details. After another pass through Netfabb repairs, the part was sent to the Formlabs Form 2 for printing. After printing, parts were removed, cleaned, and cured. Then supports were removed, artifacts on the part were sanded, and the entire part sand blasted for a more even surface finish.

• Software Used
• Autodesk 3Ds Max
• Autodesk Netfabb
• Autodesk Fusion360
• Autodesk Meshmixer
• Meshlab

Close