UNE’s interdisciplinary use of 3D printing featured in ‘Mainebiz’
UNE’s use of 3D printers in the interdisciplinary education of its students was the focus of a January 30, 2015 article in Mainebiz, a major Maine business news publication.
Mainebiz interviewed Michael Vickery, operations manager and simulation specialist in the Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center on the Portland Campus, who is teaching a 3D printing course in the Art Department, about how the University is integrating 3D printing into its programs, particularly those in the health professions, in order to give UNE students more real world experience.
The article reported on the use of the 3D printer for a seal skeleton project undertaken by Marine Sciences major Katie Gilbert (’15) last summer. After realizing that the grey seal skeleton was missing its right patella bone, she turned to Vickery, who was able to create a digitized mirror image of the existing left patella and print it using a lightweight material known as laybrick sandstone.
UNE’s students of dentistry and medicine, some of whom are enrolled in Vickery’s class, believe that the ability to utilize this technology will open up their job prospects as well as improve their patient care in the future.
Vickery, who programs robotic patient simulators, views the 3D printers as particularly useful when used in conjunction with them, explaining that the printer can create a bad burn or wound for the robotic patient, who will then be "treated" by the students.