Beyond Plastics: 3D Printing for Global Impact
From face shields for Gorongosa National Park to PPE for local hospitals to a myoelectric transhumeral prosthetic arm to neonatal heart models, Boise State University Associate Professor and Head of Emerging Technologies and Experiential Learning, Amy Vecchione, shares how the Albertsons Library MakerLab is a place to create community and serve the community at the same time.
Watch below and then browse through this page to learn more about Amy, Albertsons Library, their research and projects, read the question and answers and much more.
This presentation was offered as an exclusive benefit for current members of the Boise State Alumni Association and our Donor Recognition Societies (President’s Club, Barnwell Society and Chaffee Guild).
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Post-Webinar Survey
More Q & A with Amy
We were unable to get to all of the questions during the live webinar. However, the questions were so good that we asked Amy if she could follow up with answers. Watch Amy answer those additional questions below.
Meet Amy Vecchione
Amy Vecchione is a professor in Albertsons Library’s MakerLab. She recently assisted in Project Face Shield, where makers at Boise State University worked together to create emergency protective equipment during the pandemic crisis. She works to create an inclusive makerspace at Boise State University where all students, staff, and faculty can convene and invent together. Amy believes that makerspaces should be interdisciplinary and inspire everyone to use their skills, experiences, and prior learning to make new connections and create new knowledge. In this way, she has helped a variety of teams to solve unique problems in their community including accessibility issues, finding joy, and assisting with independence. She publishes and writes about empowering students to use emerging technology.
Making for Social Good
MakerLab Projects
From initial idea to actualization the Albertsons Library MakerLab help makers create to their fullest potential. Browse many of their successful projects below.
Successful Projects
Printing Hearts to Enhance Student Learning
Samantha Davis, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Respiratory Care, worked in Boise State’s MakerLab to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) neonatal hearts. These hearts demonstrate defects to her neonatal/pediatric respiratory care class – a visionary, tactile way to improve student learning in an area usually studied in a textbook. Students had the opportunity to print a heart with an assigned defect and cut it into three or four slices to see the defect throughout the heart.
Making 3D printing more sustainable at the MakerLab
One of the most significant moves towards sustainability involves the MakerLab’s 3D printers. The lab has found a way to reduce cost and waste – and send what waste there is – on to a local company, PlasticWorks, for reuse. The MakerLab sent approximately 70 pounds of plastic waste to PlasticWorks just last semester.
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Your philanthropic support of students, faculty and academic programming is essential to Boise State’s advancement as a metropolitan research university of distinction. You make the difference. We celebrate you through recognition in the President’s Club, Barnwell Society and Chaffee Guild.