CES 2020: The Return of Gigabot X!

In October 2019, re:3D was honored to win the Startup of The Year competition at the SOTY Summit in Memphis, TN. The Startup of the Year team has been incredibly supportive since our win, and one of the great opportunities they provided us was to showcase Gigabot X, our 3D printer which prints with pellets, regrind and shredded plastic waste, last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in Las Vegas, NV.

You may remember the epic road trip that we took to get our team to CES last year (there were aliens involved!), and though this year we traveled in a slightly more conventional way, there were still plenty of laughs, mind-blowing tech and of course chats with new friends about #3DPrintingWithPurpose.

The re:3D Team at our CES booth. Samantha Snabes is sitting in a 3D printed chair designed by Mike Battaglia.

We exhibited in the 3D Printing row in Eureka Park at the Sands Expo, sandwiched between fellow 3D printing innovators, Plasmics and coffee gurus, Spinn. No, Spinn doesn’t 3D print their coffee, but it was, as the kids would say, dank!!

All week our booth was packed with visitors from around the world, initially drawn in by Gigabot X’s huge build volume and staying to learn more when we told them we were printing rockets with 100% Recycled PET pellets. Recycling and reusing plastics in 3D printers drew companies interested in sustainability, and we were thrilled to share that because of our partnership with Habitat for Humanity, our 3D printed chair was using 100% reclaimed materials: the rPET sides were supported by wooden slats made from unused scrap wood donated to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

The Startup of the Year trophy was our constant companion as we traipsed around Las Vegas, providing treats from its gilded cup to curious onlookers like some sort of bountiful cornucopia. Above, it graces our booth, an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, AFWERX Vegas and the Hackster.io party.

Samantha pitches at NASA iTech.

We joined an innovative group of technology startups to pitch at the NASA iTech Ignite the Night competition. co-Founder and Catalyst, Samantha Snabes shared our goals to put a Gigabot X in space as a means to recycle plastics into new tools for astronauts. We are thrilled for winner Otolith Labs who has created a wearable to reduce vertigo in astronauts. Many thanks to NASA iTech for the amazing opportunity which led to great conversations and potential collaborations to come!

3D Printing nerds that we are, we had a chance to check out what the rest of our industry friends were up to. Here’s a sample of gems from around CES:

Finally, some of us had the honor to volunteer as judges for the IEEE Entrepreneurship N3XT Stars Competition, which we won in 2018. From all the startups in Eureka Park, five finalists who most embody IEEE’s mission to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity were chosen and then narrowed down to three winners. Check out the new N3XT Stars: Longan Vision, Safeware, and Waverly Labs!

Thanks to all of our customers who stopped by for a high five and to all the new friends who helped spread our #3DPrintingWithPurpose mission throughout CES and beyond. Until next time, Vegas!

Charlotte craff

Blog Post Author

FFF1: Our FFF1rst Polymer Derby

On April 9, 2019 re:3D hosted the first annual FFF1: Polymer Derby!  You may be wracking your brain trying to figure out what we are talking about here, so let me explain:

We challenged each other to a gravity car racing competition.  Quite similar to a Pinewood Derby (in fact we borrowed a pinewood derby track from local Cub Scout Pack 595) – each competitor designed a car, printed it on Gigabot, attached some wheels – and we were off to the races on derby day!

As a distributed team, with competitors in Houston, Austin, Puerto Rico, and New York – we established a rule from the start that you must design your own car  and if you require help with your design (since not everyone is a 3D design wizz) you had to reach out to someone in a different location from your home office.

We thought this was a great opportunity to not only get everyone designing and printing in 3D – but to also make sure that our distributed team members interacted with someone from a different office on something fun that wasn’t just work related.

Almost immediately after announcing the competition, (in mid-January) we had questions, everyone wanted to know the rules, which admittedly didn’t yet exist, and our engineers were particularly interested in finding loopholes in said rules so that they could cheat the system.  I promised the team that I would write-up an entire tome of rules and got to work, we started with the basic size parameters (borrowed from the pinewood derby to fit their track), and then added layer upon layer of bureaucracy and ridiculousness on top of what should be a relatively straightforward idea (I will post rules examples at the very end of this post).

The cars had to:

  • Weigh no more than 5.00 oz
  • Length shall not exceed 7 in
  • Width shall not exceed 2.75 in
  • Car must have 5/16″ clearance underneath
  • Wheels must be unmodified (we gave everyone a standard set of wheels)

Ultimately the designs were up to each individual’s creativity.

Come derby day, there was an amazing diversity in designs.  The track was setup in the front showroom of our Houston HQ.  We had an official weigh-in and measurement period to check that all cars conformed to the rules.  We made up t-shirts to memorialize the day.  And then we started the competition.

Each competitor chose a number from a hat – to get randomly assigned a place on our competition bracket.  We then competed best out of 3 heats, with racers switching sides (there were only 2 racers at a time) after each heat. As the day went on, the biggest determining factor in the fastest cars was the weight.  Any racer that was below 5.00 oz was at a distinct disadvantage, and all of the cars in the quarter-finals and beyond were at the target weight exactly.

When all was said and done we had a winner! Technically we had two winners – the Fastest Car – won the racing piece of the competition.  The Flyest Ride – was voted as the best looking car by all of the competitors.   Congratulations to Samantha (fastest car) and Mitch (flyest ride).

Stay tuned for more Polymer Derby fun, as this will definitely become an annual event at re:3D, and perhaps across the world?!  Sign-up for our newsletter to always be up-to-date on what’s happening at re:3D.

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Looking forward to next year's competition!

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International Polymer Derby Congress Rules & Regulations (These are just a small sampling of the rules for this competition):

  1. Cars shall be 3D printed – in any material that is currently able to be 3D printed.
  2. The majority of the car shall be printed on an FFF/FDM style 3D printer, but does not have to be printed in one piece.
  3. The car must be free-wheeling, with no starting or propulsion devices

Inspections:

The day of the race, while style voting and race seeding is taking place, race officials will open the Inspection Zone:

  1. Cars will be Inspected individually for conformity to all rules of the IPDC and the Polymer Derby Championship Racing Series (PDCRS).
  2. Each car will be weighed (see weight requirements Sec. 1.2 A-I. above)
  3. Each car will be measured for length, width, ground clearance, and wheel clearance (Sec. 1.2B – I-IV).
  4. Each car will be thoroughly inspected for any potential safety or hazard violations
  5. Each car’s wheels will be gone over with a fine tooth comb, as modification of stock wheels is strictly prohibited (In accordance with Sec. 1.2 C – I & II)
    1. Any car found to have illegal modifications to the wheels is subject to being gleefully smashed with a hammer by a race official (viewer discretion is advised)

Failed Inspections:

  1. Any competitor’s car that is found to not pass inspection will have an opportunity to adjust/fix their vehicle and have it re-inspected. An explanation of why the car failed inspection will be given to each competitor and the racer will have 10 minutes to make the proper adjustments to bring their vehicle into conformity with the race rules.
  2. If the racer fails to bring their car into conformity within 10 minutes, fails to present their car for re-inspection before the 10 minute time period is up, OR fails the inspection for a second time – the car is no longer eligible for the Fastest or Flyest awards (Sec. 8 Subsec I-III.), but is eligible for the Junker award (Sec. 8 Subsec. IV.).
    1. Cars that fail the secondary inspection may still participate in the tournament for fun, but will not be eligible to win.
    2. If you make illegal modifications that go undetected by the judges, but manage to make your first run before judges take notice, you may continue using your illegal car without reprimand. Gamble at your own risk.

Style Voting:

While the fastest car down the track is the ultimate winner – there will be style points given out for the car that looks the best.

  1. Subjective voting will take place by each competitor at the beginning of the competition.
  2. The voters/competitors may use any method of determining the best “looking” car that they see fit.
  3. Each competitor will fill out a secret ballot to determine their favorite car.
  4. Each competitor will vote only once and can not vote for themselves
  5. Bribes for style votes, while not illegal, are harshly discouraged.

Grievances:

Official grievances may be filed.

  1. For a grievance about a particular heat/race the grievance will only be valid if:
    1. Filed within 180 seconds of the race ending, in written form, adhering to the following parameters:
      1. Printed, in landscape orientation, on standard sized paper (8.5”x11”)
      2. Comic sans font
        1. font size = 17.5pt.
      3. The grievance must follow the standard limerick format
        1. Five lines – 2 long, 2 short, 1 long,
        2. Rhyme scheme AABBA
      4. Sent via USPS standard mail, postage paid to:

International Polymer Derby Congress
Department of Rules, Grievances, and Dispute Resolution
re:3D, Inc
1100 Hercules Ave, Suite 220
Houston, TX 77058

Or hand delivered, with a bow/curtsey, directly to the Rules Czarina or Czarina designate for an immediate ruling

Awards:

  1. Fastest: Fastest car to win the final race, wins the Polymer Derby Champion Award
  2. Flyest: Top vote getting car for style wins the “Best-in-Show” – Flyest Car award
  3. Little Miss Fly-Ride Should the top style car and top speed car be one in the same – the title of “Champion of Champions” or “Little Miss Fly-Ride” will be bestowed upon the winner along with lavish praise and an award of at least one but not to exceed 100 cheap beers.
  4. Junker: The “Junker” award goes to any car that fails to make it down the track, or breaks at any point during the competition.  It is quite embarrassing.
  5. Flunker: The “Flunker” award goes to any car that fails the pre-race inspection, and is not eligible to win awards I-III of this section.

Mike Strong

Blog Post Author

re:vealing re:3D’s Houston Headquarters

In early April, re:3D held two events celebrating the re:vealing of our community space and customer showroom at our Houston headquarters. Nicknamed Mission Control by the re:3D team, the Houston location has always been our home for manufacturing, operations and research. As we near our second anniversary in this 7000 square foot factory in Clear Lake, near the NASA Johnson Space Center campus, we’re excited to share that this space now houses a dedicated showroom recognizing the creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship of those who harness the power of Gigabot, as well as a public gathering space which we and our greater community can use to host events, workshops, classes and meetups to explore all things 3D printing.

A silver mannequin of a boxing lady wearing a black hat and yellow tank top stands in front of a rustic wooden slat wall holding re:3D merchandise.

To get the ball rolling, The Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce hosted an official ribbon cutting & reception. We invited good friends from near and far (including a crew from Bunker Labs in Austin!), government officials, and Houston customers to celebrate with us and experience a party, re:3D style! Amidst the congenial hums of our Gigabots printing new creations, we toasted champagne and enjoyed tasty hors d’oeuvres provided by the team at  Hedrick’s Catering. Guests perused 3D prints designed by our global family of Gigabot users and got their first look at our new architectural wall panels conceived and produced by the innovative geniuses at Houston-based māk studio, also a re:3D customer. Clear Lake Area Board Chairman Brian Freedman presented re:3D Co-Founder and Catalyst Samantha Snabes a certificate and plaque, officially naming April 9, 2019 re:3D Day in Clear Lake!

photo credit: Morgan Hamel
Photo Credit: Morgan Hamel

At the end of the same week, re:3D kicked off our expanded outreach initiatives by hosting a community open house, and we’re grateful to the Houston Chronicle for sharing our news and helping draw people to our events. 3D printing enthusiasts of all ages joined us for tours of the factory spaces, hands-on activities, contests and a preview of our upcoming meetups and classes. We held a guess-the-number-of-layers contest where the prize for the closest guess was our friendly Eddy the Astronaut lamp.

A 3D printed lamp shaped like the body of an astronaut with an Edison light bulb instead of a helmet
Photo Credit: Morgan Hamel

Engineers of the future (and engineers at heart!) joined our Gigacrew and learned how to build a section of our Gigabots. These handy makers put together at least forty of our new unibody extruder block assemblies, which we’ll soon be rolling out as an available upgrade on the Gigabot.

Intrepid explorers took on the challenge of our scavenger hunt wherein they discovered some of the unique 3D printed features we’ve added to the factory since moving in, including a stapler-shaped door handle, whimsical light switch plates and custom computer parts. Food, fun and curiosity abounded while we opened minds to the limitless possibilities of 3D printing, and we couldn’t be more excited to now have a dedicated space to dive deep and collaborate with our customers, innovators and the next generation of problem solvers endeavoring to Dream Big, Print HUGE!

To schedule a Houston HQ tour or workshop, email us at discover@re3d.org.

For more information about re:3D community events, check out our calendar.

Three kids sit at a table with tools and build part of a 3D printer. A crowd of people is in the background.
Photo Credit: Kate Somers
Photos Credit: Ruth Lin
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Photos Credit: Ruth Lin

Charlotte craff

Blog Post Author

Convening Global Community: Thank You CES 2019

CES 2019 was jam-packed with activities and innovations that sprawled throughout Las Vegas with over 180,000 attendees, exhibitors, and speakers. The conference and exhibition activates across giant venues in Las Vegas including The Venetian, Sands Expo Center including startup innovation arena Eureka Park, and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Companies and innovators on the spectrum of industries and size exhibited their latest work, from life-size drone helicopters, robots beating humans in ping pong, pretty much anything “smart” you can imagine or yours truly, showing our large scale 3D printer printing from plastic waste. We posted some insights on our schedule and first day at CES and here is the remainder of our insights, adventures, and recap of our first CES experience. All in all, CES was about convening community from around the world to showcase and connect over their latest innovations and we wanted to write a recap and thank you note to our community who have supported ours.

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Gigabot X @ CES

Our debut at CES 2019 wouldn’t have been possible without instrumental partners who gave us platforms to exhibit our new technology, Gigabot X. Gigabot X is a large scale (or large format if you prefer), affordable 3D printer printing from pellet or flake plastic. Pellet printing in and of itself drastically lowers the cost to 3D printing 10 times and prints up to 13 times faster than other printers. Even more so, after various peer-reviewed research with Michigan Technological University – Gigabot X has been validated printing from multiple types of plastic waste in pellet and flake form. To showcase these developments almost exactly a year after we won the WeWork Creator Award and received funding from the NSF SBIR Phase I grant as well as launched Gigabot X on Kickstarter, it was a huge privilege to have our hard work on display to the global community who convenes at CES – meeting industry leaders, makers, fellow creators, and enthusiasts from all over.

3D printing Caribbean coral on Gigabot X at CES

We also exhibited some Gigabot X and Gigabot  prints such as 3D printed coral (straight from 3D scans of the Caribbean), a skateboard 3D printed from recycled plastic, vases, trashcans, architectural pieces, our infill educational tool, 3D printed medical devices, coffee picking baskets, prosthetics, replacement parts and more real-world examples of the innovations around the world, across industry, all with the commonality of solving problems utilizing Gigabot and 3D printing technology . While we’re putting the final touches on Gigabot X before it’s commercially available, the positive feedback, inquiries, and pre-orders of Gigabot X were a major accomplishment of our time during CES. However, as a community-driven organization, this latest accomplishment wouldn’t have been made possible without a world of supporters (yourself included) and some of the major supporters who have gotten us to where we are today. This gratitude was proudly broadcasted across Gigabot X’s headboard (see below photo). Beyond that, we wanted to write a recap and thank you note to CES and those who made it possible for us to be at CES, get to CES and showcase our vision.

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Gigabot prints at the U.S. Government Startup Connection booth

Thanks to National Science Foundation, Small Business Innovation Research, and Small Business Association not only for making the NSF SBIR grants available like the Phase 1 grant that helped make Gigabot X a reality but also for the support and partnership to showcase Gigabot X at the U.S. Government Startup connection booth in Eureka Park and ongoing support. We also got to meet other amazing organizations co-exhibiting in the U.S. Government Startup Connection booth like Ampaire on a mission to provide the world with all-electric powered commercial flights that are affordable, quiet and environmentally conscious, and Hivemapper, Learn With Socrates, and Gen X Comm. Despite the government shutdown which created some curveballs, our partners at NSF and SBIR were integral to our CES presence and getting to debut Gigabot X to the community. Thanks to USPTO for being there!

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Gigabot X's headboard thanking WeWork, Bunker Labs, MassChallenge, Alice, Chase, SBA, SBIR, Unreasonable, USAA, Startup Chile, PRSTR Trust, Parallel18, NSF, America Makes, Kickstarter & others who made it possible!

Connecting with WeWork and their Senior Construction Partner, Brian Ringley, at CES was another major milestone. The one year anniversary from when we won the $1M WeWork Global Creator Award occurred during CES and on the same day at CES, Brian met his new Gigabot X heading his way, one of the first to be delivered to Kickstarter backers from the successful launch last year. It was an amazing time to connect with Brian and celebrate this full circle collaboration: from winning the WeWork Creator Award to launching the Gigabot X prototype on Kickstarter to working together on Gigabot X’s the evolution from a beta bot to delivering it in person on perhaps one of the biggest platforms and convenings for electronics. We also got some great snapshots with Brian’s first print and his kickflips on our 3D printed skateboard from recycled plastic!

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Samantha Snabes pitches at the Extreme Tech Challenge Finals

Taking the stage as a top 10 finalist in Richard Branson’s Extreme Tech Challenge was another major highlight of our CES experience. We have so much gratitude and admiration for Richard Branson, the other companies in this competition, the judges who gave us feedback, and the team from Extreme Tech and Actai who have supported us along the way. Making the top 10 of this global competition was a huge honor for us and we extend a huge congratulations to the top 3 winners from Lynq, Elevian, and Active Protective who won a trip to Necker Island as well as other semi finalists who received a surprise invite to Necker along with us! We look forward to future collaborations with this community and grateful for the stage and the setting to share our vision and demo Gigabot X.

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Judges: Dave Hagan, CTA; Lisa Andrews, Ignite Alliance; Veronica Serra, Pacific Investimentos & Innova Capital; Shankar Chandra, Samsung Catalyst Fund; Larry O'Connor, OWC. #XTC2019 Companies: re:3D, Last of Ours, We Walk, Liven, Nyx Technologies, Active Protective, Elevian, Lynq, Einride, Bitlumens, Civic Eagle

Techstars likewise gave us a great platform on their #StartupStage to share our innovations in the robotics pitch competition in Eureka Park. After being selected as a top 10 from a number of applicants, we competed with a 60 second pitch and were humbled to take home 1st place and meet creators of cutting edge robotics and judges from Misty Robotics and Lynq.

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re:3D wins 1st prize at Techstars Robotics Pitch Competition!

If you know our story, you know it begins with Kickstarter – and Kickstarter continues to be a key community partner and powerful platform that supports us as we launch new evolutions of the Gigabot family such as Gigabot X last year to its first beta users. We were grateful to meet with the Kickstarter team, like Clarissa, and community at some amazing meetups after hours with a global network of creators and partners like Hackster and Dragon Innovation.

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We are forever grateful for our friends and supporters who have gotten to where we are today! Arguably one of the proudest highlights of CES was reuniting with one of the first Gigabot owners, Doug Mockett of Mockett, who came to say hi to us at CES from California. Still to this day, their two Gigabots run around the clock and they lovingly call them their “workhorses”. We met up with some other customers (like one using Gigabot to 3D print entire life size inventory robots) and even suppliers like LDO Motors.

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Startup Chile fellow entrepreneurs Waverly Labs exhibits at CES

We got to catch up with friends from former accelerators like Waverly Labs from Startup Chile, our first accelerator we joined when we launched in 2013. We met up with one of our mentors from Parallel 18, Alicia Syrett. We also said hi to fellow Unreasonable Impact alumni on a mission to create solutions and jobs in the green economy such as the teams from Heatworks and Breezometer exhibiting in Sands Halls.

We spent one morning getting to tour the local Afwerx office in Las Vegas, an organization creating innovative and crowdsourced solutions for the most critical problems affecting those in our Air Force and an organization especially close to our heart with two teammates Samantha and Kara actively involved in the military and Air Force. We also got to see our partners at IEEE and Finn Partners at an evening event, some great partners who share aligned values with their mission to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

A huge thank you as well to partners and press who acknowledged us in their pieces, we can’t say enough how grateful we are for your recognition. Alice’s Elizabeth Gore included us in an Inc article with a major announcement on the bright future of diversity in tech, Jean Baptiste Su noted us in Forbes top 22 innovative technology startups to watch at CES and Beau Jackson’s 3D printing round-up at CES in 3D Printing Industry gave us a nod. Thanks for these platforms and writers for sharing our story! We hope to continue to share more on our developments, diversity, and problem solvers around the world breaking limitations with 3D printing.

Read Elizabeth Gore's Inc article
Read Elizabeth Gore's Inc article
Read Jean Baptiste Su's Forbes article

We are so grateful to CES for giving us a big platform to jump off of in 2019 as we dive into a year filled with new innovations, stories and leaps forward toward a world empowered by sustainable and locally driven manufacturing. Thank you and stay tuned for some more updates and footage coming your way. Don’t forget: #ReduceReuseRe3D

p.s. If you were following our road trip to CES and are curious about the adventures of re:3D after official CES festivities, we packed up Gigabot X in our beloved Uhaul and headed back to Texas the way we came: 1,500 mile road trip. We traversed from Las Vegas to Tucson, then on to El Paso where w dropped off a Gigabot at the University of Texas El Paso's W.M. Keck Center for (extremely rad) 3D Innovation in partnership with America Makes. We then took a break to rock climb at McKelligan Canyon in El Paso before heading back to Houston, Austin & San Antonio.

Cat George

Blog Post Author

Insights & Adventures From CES: Day 1

The first 24 hours in Vegas have been a thrill and day 1 at #CES2019 has been full of adventures.

3 years ago… re:3D co-founders kick it with founder of Zappos Tony Hsieh at his Downtown Container Park.

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The Eve of CES, our heroic quartet of re:3Ders who road tripped from Houston to Vegas rolled in and brought Gigabot X straight to the founder of Zappos Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Container Park, Bin 702 for Gigabot X’s  Las Vegas debut over a small dinner and drinks (and occasional background ambience of Downtown Park’s epic fire breathing praying mantis). Amazingly, this location Matthew & Samantha met Tony 3  years ago when the vision of Gigabot X is still in its beginnings.

CES Kicks Off… Gigabot X at Sands Expo Eureka Park Booth #51510

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Gigabot X 3D printing from trash!

Day 1 kicked off with an early load in to Sands Expo and getting Gigabot X to our booth at Eureka Park (meet us at #51510!) – where we are co-exhibiting at the U.S. Government Startup Connection booth in thanks to our partnership with National Science Foundation and Small Business Administration after receiving the NSF SBIR Phase 1 grant last year. This grant was instrumental in making Gigabot X a reality. There are also so many partners and supporters we owe huge gratitude to for making Gigabot X come to life and we’re proud Gigabot X’s top panel displays all their logos (more high res photos coming soon =).

Gigabot X – our large scale, affordable 3D printer that is printing from multiple types of plastic waste – is exhibiting in Eureka Park, Sands Hall G Floor 1 Tech West Booth #51510. After receiving the NSF SBIR Phase 1 grant this year, we were privileged to be invited as one of a handful of startups to co-exhibit at the U.S. Government startup connection booth. That said, the recent government shutdown has shaken a few things up and though our friends from NSF and SBA can’t be here, we’re still here and printing – so tell your friends to drop by!

U.S. Government Startup Connection Booth #51510

re:3D Wins Techstars #StartupStage Robotics Pitch Competition!

Samantha Snabes hit the #StartupStage powered by Techstars for their robotics pitch competition where 8 companies did a 60 second pitch followed by 3 minutes of Q&A from Karina Costa of Lynq, Ian Bernstein of Misty Robotics, Silas Adekunle of Reach Robotics and Tyler Mantel of Watch Tower Robotics.

re:3D Wins Techstars #StartupStage Robotics Pitch Competition!  (note: not all re:3D teammates included in photo)

The line up was fueled by entrepreneurs with amazing entrepreneurs and innovations in robotics, but Samantha and Gigabot X took gold with 1st place! Thanks Techstars for inviting us to this pitch competition and we were excited to snap a pic with Karina who is a fellow finalist for Richard Branson’s Extreme Tech Challenge where the finals will commence on Thursday at the Venetian Bellini Ballroom 2003-2006 from 12-3pm (come see Gigabot X product demo from 12-1pm)

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Extreme Tech Challenge Finalists Samantha & Karina after re:3D Wins Techstars Robotics Pitch Competition

A Giga Reunion with Doug Mockett of Mockett & Friends

Long Time Gigabot Owner Doug Mockett of Mockett

We were overjoyed to catch up with one of our first customers and long-time Gigabot owner, Doug Mockett of Mockett, who stopped by from California to say hi and meet Gigabot X. We love nothing more than to connect with our customers in over 55 countries, if you’re at CES – come find us!

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Gigabot Team Around Vegas after CES

After official CES activities closed at 6 pm, we headed to Tao Restaurant to meet with our friends at Finn Partners who partner with IEEE to share amazing stories of technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. Samantha and Matthew bring their diverse expertise, talents, knowledge, and know-how as technical experts!

After official CES activities closed at 6 pm, we headed to Tao Restaurant to meet with our friends at Finn Partners who partner with IEEE to share amazing stories of technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. Samantha and Matthew bring their diverse expertise, talents, knowledge, and know-how as technical experts!

Making A World Record & Having Some Fun Escap-ades at Escapology

Our troop of 13 re:3D teammates headed to Escapology after CES festivities to divide and conquer two different escape rooms. Team Knotnauts set a world record escaping the Under Pressure room in 40 minutes and 56 seconds. Team Awesome followed close behind, finishing (the arguably harder 😉 Budapest Express in 45 minutes. Let’s be real though, in this fun scenario, everyone won =).

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Team Knotnauts Pose For Paparazzi After Setting Escapology World Record

And with that, Day 1 is a wrap! Tune in tomorrow for a recap of CES Day 2 adventures and don’t forget to follow along with our schedule for the week and our real-time activities on social media @re3Dprinting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget, #ReduceReuseRe3D !

Cat George

Blog Post Author

Catch Us at SXSW 2017!

SXSW prep is in full swing and we can’t wait to see you!

You can connect with re:3D and Gigabot at the events below:

Do you have a request for another event Gigabot should visit?

~Email info@re3d.org with your tips!

THE GIGAPRIZE: 2016

I’m going to be forthcoming in this introduction and tell you that I have no background in 3D printing. In fact, working with the community during this year’s Gigabot Giveaway was my initiation into this world and network, and it has been nothing short of inspiring. My name is Beth Eanelli. You may know me as the community manager of the New Year’s Gigaprize: 2016 and I possibly sent you an email or asked to use one of your photos in a social media post.

As I mentioned, this was my introduction into 3D Printing, and I have been simultaneously humbled and overwhelmed by the innovation in the field. I had heard of 3D printing, read about it in magazines and articles, but as I was graduating University, I remember the first 3D printer coming to the Engineering Department, but I never had a chance to see the machine, or to watch it come to life.

My background is in public health and international development and I have dabbled in social impact, though never in the tech realm. I returned just in time for the holidays in 2015 after spending two years living and working as a health volunteer with the Peace Corps in a little country called The Gambia. The village I lived had no electricity and no running water, and health issues like Malaria and diarrhea still run rampant. In short, there were minimal resources and with the capital being across the country and transit towns having sporadic electricity and no consistency with products sold, managing projects and creating programs required constant rescheduling and a lesson in being a true MacGyver.

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The first time I met Samantha was at Unreasonable Impact, a program created with Barclays, which brings together entrepreneurs working towards social impact and change to build community, create jobs and help the entrepreneurs maximize their influence (blog to follow). In her introduction to re:3D, Samantha described the printers as having the ability to be mini factories in countries with little to no resources. Having seen the possibilities of what 3D printers could bring to communities such as the one I lived in, I was hooked, and Samantha and I spoke at length about what re:3D had and continues to accomplish. I imagined my community with a 3D printer, the nearest town with continuous access to a makerspace, and couldn’t believe this was a reality in some places because of re:3D. I learned of re:3D’s 1 Gigabot 3D printer donation for 100 sales during one of many conversations with Samantha and we connected right after the program. Shortly afterwards, I was asked to be the 2016 Community Manager for what was formally called The Great Big Gigabot Giveaway, renamed the Gigaprize due to Unreasonable mentor feedback that the opportunity should not be framed as a handout, rather recognition for global citizens doing extraordinary things to improve society.

I’m going to be honest and tell you that I watched each Giveaway entry video with an open jaw. And while many of you know that 3D printers can be used to print prostheses and create Makerspaces, I was learning along the way, consumed by the novelty. Some of our Gigaprize: 2016 applicants are impacting their communities by printing prostheses for low income families, using plastic waste to create clean energy, using makerspaces as a learning tool in schools and libraries and to keep students in school. There are entrepreneurs among us using plastic bottle tops as filament and creating jobs for those who are unemployed in the industry. Each applicant is a catalyst, an innovator and an inspiration and I am looking forward to the chance to see what everyone continues to do.

The most difficult part of the Giveaway was choosing just one winner to receive a Gigabot 3+ kit. Each person and group is contributing to their community in a profound way, so choosing just one entry isn’t easy. Emergency Floor, the winner this year, has an amazing story. They’re using the Gigabot to prototype flooring to be placed in refugee camps, providing refugees living in these camps warmer, safer and more hygienic. Amazing, right?

I also want to express my gratitude to the judges who helped us make this difficult decision, and brought their vast knowledge and range of expertise to the table. We could not have made this Gigabot giveaway possible without each of these individuals.

Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to the applicants and the 3D printing community for your ideas and innovation, your drive and passion, and for allowing me insight into this world. I also want to that the thousands that voted to share their support for such phenomenal idea. If you didn’t have a chance to watch the entries as they were live, you can still do so here. Want be introduced to one the amazing applicants? Feel free to send me a request!

Happy Printing!

~Beth

  • beth@re3d.org

PS- you can be the first to hear about Gigaprize : 2017 by signing up for the re:3D newsletter. Simply enter your email at the bottom of re3d.org 🙂

Beth Eanelli

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