For two months, almost 900 members of MakerBot Thingiverse, the world’s largest 3D printing design community, submitted designs to the Thingiversity Summer STEAM Challenges. As part of MakerBot‘s education initiative, the challenges’ first place winners have been selected and announced in the following categories: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM).
“We are blown away by the creative designs the Thingiverse community submitted for the Thingiversity Summer STEAM Challenges, ranging from solar-powered LED lamps to a gravity battery to a 3D printed version of the Vienna Giant Wheel,” said Eric Mortensen, Thingiverse community manager. “Thingiverse is a place where educators, designers, and engineers come together to exchange ideas, and the winning designs are a testament to the creative power and innovative potential of this community.”
Aiming to provide teachers and students with 3D printing tools, the challenge as part of MakerBot’s education initiative has equipped over 5,000 schools with MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers and 79% of U.S. teachers with Thingiverse.
The following winning designs will be implemented into classrooms as inspiring design examples:
Challenge 1 – Science: Make It Float
GO-GO AirBoat by David Choi | electronics designer in Brooklyn, NY | 3D printed boat rigged with a payload sensor and motor to help teach the fundamentals of mathematics, physics, and electronics.
Challenge 2 – Technology: Light It Up
Solar Hive by Christoph Queck | mechanical engineering student from Germany | LED lamp that consists of random, 3D printed boxes in the shape of a honeycomb. The design combines geometry and electronics to create a work of art that blends in with the environment.
Challenge 3 – Engineering: Catch the Wind
Wind Energy Stored in Gravity by Mike Blakemore | CEO of a software development company in Santa Barbara, CA | printable machine that transfers energy generated from a wind turbine into a “gravity battery”, demonstrating the transfer of energy from one form to another and a new model for renewable energy storage.
Challenge 4 – Art: See the World
Vienna Giant Wheel (Riesenrad) by Chris L. | Vienna, Austria | A fully functional model of one of Vienna’s most famous landmarks that is highly accurate and easily scalable – keeping 3D printing in mind.
Challenge 5 – Math: Build a Castle
Math at the Beach by Will Webber | A collection of math-based things that can be used to enhance sand castle designs using rollers to add texture, mathematical shape and bucket molds to create 3D shapes and polygon cookie cutters.
Each submission has been judged based on relevance to the challenge topic, educational value, printability and design creativity. From almost 90 schools, ten have been selected as finalists to receive MakerBot 3D printers and each winning designer will select a winning school.
For more information, visit https://www.thingiverse.com/challenges/.
