by Garen Robie
Ignite Studio is a great place for young patrons, like this week’s Maker Spotlight on Abdullah and TJ, to explore and experiment with new technologies. These two came in to Ignite recently with their mom to complete their certification on our 3D printers. (BTW, did you know patrons 13 and older can get certified on our equipment?) Their mother was more than capable and achieved her certification card with ease. But it was Abdullah and TJ who really impressed with their impeccable manners, care with our equipment, knowledgeability and capable designs created in TinkerCad.
ThinkTECH Challenge
These two brothers came to Ignite after receiving and assignment from ThinkTECH, an exclusive, annual, business and technology student design competition. With ThinkTECH students work in teams to develop a functional prototype and business strategy to solve a client’s problem around emerging technology. To compete, students must pass a preliminary round to formally qualify and participate in the main competition. The competition typically seeks qualified business, computer science, and applied science students, but it also accepts beginners with an avid interest in business technology, engineering, and computer science. These “beginners” designed a handled bar with protruding hooks that would make carrying multiple bags of groceries a little easier. It even came with an attached enclosure for hand sanitizer.
3D Printing in Ignite
Our Fab Lab equipment does require an age of 13 in order to be certified with a learner’s permit, but as these bright young gentleman have shown, there’s no reason parents can’t involve their kids in the learning process and allow them to create their own objects.
Interested in getting started? Here are a few resources that offer a great introduction:
- Ignite’s 3D Printer Certification Course: Start your certification process today!
- Thingverse: This open source community is a great place to find ready-to-print objects that have already been designed by other makers.
- TinkerCad: This web-based design software is a great place to start designing your own 3D objects.
Check us out on Facebook at the Ignite Community Discussion Board, on Instagram @HamiltonEastPL, and on YouTube for tons of maker challenges and tutorials. Happy making!
