MakerLab

Aric Rindfleisch came to Illinois in 2012 as the new head of the department of Business Administration with the expressed intention of opening the world’s first business school 3D Printing Lab. Partnering with the more technically-minded Vishal Sachdev, Rindfleisch opened the Illinois Makerlab in January 2013.

Rindfleisch, Sachdev, and other early adopters of 3D printing technology are focusing on how this technology can give rise to completely new models of business. In contrast to traditional manufacturing, 3D printing is an additive process whereby no material is wasted, and finished products can be produced pre-assembled. All that is needed to produce an item is a design file and one of the increasingly affordable printers. Items are usually made with plastic filament. To learn how you can make your first 3D print, visit MakerLab.

The MakerLab is actively encouraging the spread of this technology, much like Mosaic did for the world wide web. They host workshops, courses on Coursera, summer camps, and hold open lab hours. The innovation here is the 3D technology, yes: the printers, the scanners, the software. But more importantly, this innovation is about collaboration: making, teaching, and learning in a sharing community.

The Illinois MakerLab is currently housed in the Business Instructional Facility and is part of the Gies College of Business. Since opening in 2013, over 3,000 visitors have been exposed to this innovative space, and over 25,000 people have enrolled in the MakerLab’s Coursera courses. The community served by the Gies College of Business is being exposed to a technology during a stage when it has the opportunity extend the digital revolution to the physical world.

3D Printing technology in itself is not new. It shared a space in the imaginations of many of the early pioneers of the first digital revolution, mostly called Rapid Prototyping early on.

1. The Infancy Stage: 1981 to 1999
2. The Adolescence Stage: 1999 to 2010
3. The Adult Stage: 2011 to the present day

In this rough timeline offered by Joseph Flynt at https://3dinsider.com/3d-printing-history/, “The Adult Stage” represents the rise of affordability and accessibility in 3D printing’s tools which is lifting the phenomena to the level of movement. In 2012, there were at least 300 independent firms marketing desktop printing models for $300 or less.

Rindfleisch sees the revolutionary process as occurring in phases not totally dissimilar to those sketched by Flynt here.

He gives an example of this process with the industrial revolution. Phase one can be thought of as when mechanized factories increased textile production in England in the mid 18th century. The second phase can be thought of as  the collection of developments in the early 20th century which encouraged the spread of mechanized production throughout the rest of the world. Rindfleisch agrees with Flynt’s tendency to view revolutions of this type in stages, though he prefers a two-stage model.

Rindfleisch sees the MakerLab as a participant in this most-important mature stage of technology spreading. Where the first stage of the digital revolution digitized information commodities, the 3D Printing Movement seeks to deliver on the promise of a completely, fundamentally changed world. By focusing on increasing access and usability of the technology, movement actors are inspiring new ways of thinking where all physical objects can have a digital surrogate. Further, they envision a world where anyone can turn their ideas into products.

In other words, 3D Printing now has a chance to “complete” the digital revolution, making all physical objects able to be represented and reproduced with a digital file.