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Tea: Earl Grey, Hot

When I was growing up I remember watching the old Star Trek reruns with Captain James Tiberius Kirk at the helm. I watched them open up a tricorder and evaluate the temperature, mineral make up and geographic features of a new climate. This was all with a hand held, compact device. To a child of the seventies playing programs written in Basic on a TRS-80 bought from RadioShack it seemed like light years away. Now my smart phone tells me what the temperature is and its GPS informs me of my position, and if I really wanted to know the mineral make-up of the soil, I am pretty sure there is an “App” for that. Moore’s law states that chip performance basically doubles every twelve to eighteen months. Experts think we are reaching a point where this is going to slow down, but it seems to be going faster.

Then a few years later, I found myself enjoying Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not only did they have updated and cooler tricorders, but they also had replicators. For those of you not fortunate enough to have experienced The Next Generation, the replicator was mainly used for food, but also could be used for other items as well. The crew member could walk up to the replicator and say, “Burrito: Bean and Cheese” and this incredible device would rearrange atomic matter and form it into a bean and cheese burrito for the hungry explorer. I had a personal fantasy about walking up to the replicator and repeatedly saying, “Bacon: Crispy”.

I had the same feeling the first time I saw a 3-D printer. A 3-D printer allows you to take an idea from conception and to place this into digital format into a variety of programs on your computer or smart phone and convert it into an actual object. It can be anything from a relatively complex model to a simple children’s toy. Cornell University is even printing out matrices on which human tissue can be grafted. They have been able to offer patients a heretofore unheard of trachea transplant and ear transplant from this new technology. The applications are virtually limitless. It is currently being used for biomedical applications, art, engineering, mathematical modeling, design and many other fields.

Right now this technology costs in the thousands, but the day is coming soon where you can enter your local electronics store and you might not be able to buy a TRS-80 anymore, but you will be able to walk up to the printer aisle and select 2-D or 3-D varieties. In the future when my daughter’s favorite toy breaks, I won’t be rushing out to the store to buy another one, but I will download the digital makeup of her toy for a small fee and print it out on our home 3-D printer. When the vacuum breaks again, I won’t be going to the hardware store to buy a part. Instead, I will be downloading specifications from the manufacturer and printing out my own replacement part.

I know it sounds crazy, but 25 years ago, the smallest cell phone consisted of a largish briefcase with a shoulder strap that 1980’s hipsters carried around with them to look cool. It will not be long till a 3-d printer is as common as a smart phone or digital camera. Until that day, you can see one in action at the Union University Engineering Department. Now if only we could get to work on that transporter.Beam me up, Scotty!

Looking forward to the future,

Ethan Wilding
Director of Special Projects
Department of Engineering