Wait, We Need a PhD in 3D Printing? Part 1

Having been asked this question several times when I was trying to introduce myself and what I do with my PhD to someone I just met, I feel it’s time to update the general public on how cutting-edge research about this technology is looking like now. The fact is that the public no longer views 3D printing as ‘cutting-edge’ because 3D printing technology came out decades ago and has become so easy to access (you can easily buy one desktop 3D printer and set it up at home).

However, 3D printing is not just about the desktop 3D printer you can have at home that extrudes plastics. Just have a glance at this map, and you will understand that 3D printing is such a broad concept and there is much more it’s capable of.

Picture by Dr Usman Waheed

There’re so many aspects we can improve under each category to make the technology better, meanwhile, engineers and scientists never stopped exploring the potential and broadening the horizon of 3D printing. The map or we can say the world of 3D printing is still getting bigger and better, so we DO need PhDs in 3D printing!

I’m not saying this because I’m trying to defend myself as personally being a PhD in 3D printing. The 3 amazing examples I’m going to show you over the next two weeks are to convince you that we DO need PhDs in 3D printing.

This post was written by Esperanza Shi as part of an ongoing series of scientific communications written and curated by BioTrib’s Early Stage Researchers.

Esperanza is researching the Optimisation of Scanning Strategies for 3D Printed Artificial Joints at Imperial College London, UK.