3D Print­ing — Customized and at the Push of a Button

Sympo­sium 2022

Karlsruhe — The sympo­sium of the Hector Fellow Academy entitled "3D Print­ing — Customized and at the Push of a Button" took place on Thurs­day, 7 July 2022, at the Konzerthaus in Karlsruhe. The sympo­sium was also broad­cast via livestream. The Hector Fellow Academy and its cooper­a­tion partners, the Karlsruhe Insti­tute of Technol­ogy (KIT) and the Cluster of Excel­lence 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O), hosted the event. About 250 partic­i­pants on site and 400 online partic­i­pants took advan­tage of the offer and were able to ask questions to the speak­ers. The record­ing of the event is now avail­able in German and English on YouTube.

In previ­ous years, the event was held in Tübin­gen, Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Heidel­berg and Bremen. Since the found­ing of the HFA, the sympo­sium was held in Karlsruhe for the first time. Martin Wegener, profes­sor at the Insti­tute of Applied Physics at the Karlsruhe Insti­tute of Technol­ogy (KIT), speaker of the Cluster of Excel­lence 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O) and presi­dent of the Hector Fellow Academy (HFA), was the organizer of the symposium.

This year´s sympo­sium was dedicated to the topic of 3D print­ing with appli­ca­tions from the engineer­ing sciences and the life sciences under the title "3D Print­ing — Customized and at the Push of a Button". 3D print­ing offers innov­a­tive produc­tion possi­bil­i­ties that already have many appli­ca­tions in the automo­tive, aerospace and medical indus­tries. Start­ing from the digital design, products can be speci­fied quickly, and being manufac­tured in a resource-saving manner. 3D bioprint­ing is one of the most impor­tant segments in this context. Human organs from the 3D printer? Vision or reality? What does the future of 3D print­ing look like? Prof. Dr. Martin Wegener intro­duced the topic and discussed the latest achieve­ments of 3D print­ing in technol­ogy and life sciences with Prof. Dr. Tal Dvir. In his lecture "3D laser print­ing towards the nanome­ter scale", Martin Wegener presented how new laser processes enable an appli­ca­tion of 3D print­ing on the micro and nanome­ter scale. Tal Dvir reported in his talk "Engineer­ing person­al­ized tissue implants — From 3D print­ing to bionic organs" about how he succeeded for the first time in produc­ing a proto­type heart with tissue, blood vessels and chambers using a 3D printer.

The sympo­sium was officially opened by Prof. Dr. Alexan­der Wanner, Vice Presi­dent of the Karlsruhe Insti­tute of Technol­ogy. The event was moder­ated by Andrea Grieß­mann, author and televi­sion presen­ter. Dr.-Ing. Judith Elsner, Manag­ing Direc­tor of the Hector Fellow Academy, gave the closing speech.

The record­ing of the event is now avail­able on YouTube at: Dvir I Wegener I Griess­mann — 3D Print­ing — Customized and at the Push of a Button — YouTube

The Hector Fellow Academy claims to initi­ate forward-looking sociopo­lit­i­cal discourses and contribute to solving global challenges. The aim is to create a platform that provides an oppor­tu­nity for exchange between science, politics, indus­try and the public. Addition­ally, the Hector Fellow Academy would like to provide insights into the work of its outstand­ing members with the symposia. Further­more, the Hector Fellow Academy would like to increase the aware­ness of the HFA by offer­ing insights into the work of outstand­ing researchers.

The next HFA sympo­sium will take place on 6 July 2023 in Berlin on the topic of "Light in Biology — Photo­syn­the­sis, Visual Processes and Neuronal Appli­ca­tions". The scien­tific host will be Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann, head of the research group for exper­i­men­tal biophysics and Hertie Senior Profes­sor of Neuro­science at Humboldt-Univer­sität zu Berlin.