3D printing has officially made its way to the Chapman community in the form of a new makerspace class and equipment lab, making fabrication and creation accessible to all students, faculty and staff on campus, no matter their majors or interests. 

Chapman students and faculty now have the opportunity to learn more about the world of 3D printing through recently opened labs in the Swenson Family Hall of Engineering — the Design/Create/Innovate (DCI) Lab and the Tech Shop — as well as a hands-on 3D printing class taught by engineering professor Jonathan Humphreys.

“Having this equipment available, even though many users may not work in fields that require it for day-to-day use, helps them gain an appreciation for making,” makerspace and DCI Lab manager Miyuki Weldon said. “The variety of equipment requires that members think critically about which fabrication process may best serve their purpose while weighing different factors like speed, cost and material type.”

The DCI Lab, also known as the makerspace, opened at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. Located on the first floor of Swenson Hall, the lab houses a lot of equipment including higher-end 3D printers, laser cutters and computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines, the latter of which uses a rotating cylindrical cutter to turn material into mechanical parts. 

The DCI Lab is made up of two rooms: the Prototyping Lab and the Manufacturing Lab. The former  contains mostly 3D printers, a sticker printer and printed circuit board (PCB) prototyping equipment; the Prototyping Lab is where most students start off using the 3D printing equipment, and it only requires a makerspace agreement form to enter. 

The Manufacturing Lab houses much louder and messier machines like laser cutters, CNC mills and saws. This lab in particular requires a safety training to enter in addition to an agreement form. 

Both rooms are accessible to anyone on campus to use, as long as all safety protocols are followed.

“People have been absolutely enjoying the DCI Lab; I just wish more people knew about it,” sophomore animation major and lab student employee Annika Krein said.

As the manager of the DCI Lab, Weldon purchases, maintains, operates and documents a large variety of equipment in the lab. She also manages several student workers — like Krein — and helps students and faculty with any projects they may have that require the lab’s equipment. 

While managing the makerspace, Weldon has witnessed students and faculty create many different projects using the 3D printing lab equipment, including cosplay wings and surgical tool prototypes, as well as a miniature full-color replica of an RV.

“So far, people have come in to print anything from phone holders to costume props to robot parts,” Krein added. “Several clubs have come into the DCI Lab to make promotional stickers and shirts as well.”

The DCI Lab is currently working on putting together workshops to promote further outreach to students and faculty. To advance their exposure, the DCI Lab staff has fliers posted around campus in addition to collaborating with Humphrey’s Topics in Computer Science: 3D Printing and Design class. 

Humphreys created the class two years ago and has been teaching it ever since. 

“The goal of the class is to bring students from all different backgrounds not just engineering — we’ve had dance majors, sculpture majors, business majors — and provide them with the skills to be able to go from a concept to a finished product that they can hold in their hand,” Humphreys said. 

The class debuted this past interterm and is currently being offered again for students to take this spring semester. An application is required and must be submitted to the instructor for approval into the class. 

This spring, 21 students were accepted into the weekly Thursday class, which runs from 7 p.m. to 9:50 p.m., according to Humphreys. 

“All of the faculty in the Fowler School of Engineering want to make 3D printing democratized, so that anyone is able to use it for many purpose, from hardcore engineering machines to super artistic objects and models,” Humphreys said.

Students can also get their hands on the lab’s plethora of machinery by utilizing Swenson Hall’s new Tech Shop. Located across the hall from the DCI Lab, the Tech Shop allows students the opportunity to use and take home 3D printers for their  projects and assignments.

When the room was designed, the Tech Shop was envisioned to serve as an open project space containing a large garage door that props open to welcome students and faculty. The garage door will close when classes and workshops are being hosted in the Tech Shop space. 

The Tech Shop, run by manager Carlos Vergara, gives students and faculty access to 3D printers, a vacuum former — which heats and forms thermoplastic materials into a 3D shape — an airbrush booth used to paint 3D models, a 2D plotter for hand-drawings and ample table space for various projects. According to Vergara, Humphreys’ class regularly uses this space to work on and store their class projects throughout the semester.

“Even though we just opened our doors this academic year, the Tech Shop has impacted students and faculty in a positive way already,” Vergara said. “Having this equipment available to students and faculty has brought a wave of innovation empowerment that is sure to keep growing as more students get to use this space.”

For the first half of the semester, Humphreys’ class focuses on teaching students how to 3D print and making them aware of the tools available to them. Students are assigned various objects to print outside of class, with class time being allocated to discussing the trials and issues they encountered during the 3D printing process. 

The remainder of the semester is dedicated to two major 3D printing projects, where students are given free reign to choose and print any model or object that they’re interested in. According to Vergara, a variety of project ideas have been created, ranging from a 3D-printed guitar to an Iron Man helmet. 

“What this class really teaches you is how to take something out of your brain, figure out what doesn’t work about it and then keep going,” said Jackson Goldberg, a junior computer science major and the student instructor for Humphreys’ class. “The biggest thing (Humphreys) taught me in the intro 3D printing class is that he loves people who fail, because it means that they are trying to shoot for something big. By doing that, you’re learning the engineering process of creating something, having it fail, figuring out how to make it better and then continuing to iterate.”

According to makerspace manager Weldon, faculty and graduate students have also expressed interest in having access to the DCI Lab and Tech Shop 3D printing equipment to help aid them in their research. Weldon, Vergara and the rest of their respective teams hope to see further use of this technology all across the Chapman community in the near future.

“The labs are a great resource for undergraduate class projects, film productions, graduate research ventures, prototyping and simple pleasure.” said sophomore creative producing major Chiana Chuc, who is another student of Humphreys’ and a current DCI Lab employee. “The access we have to these machines is not something that should be taken lightly and I highly recommend that everyone utilize these resources. It is easy to get started, yet the possibilities are endless.”