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the Rapid Prototyping Short Program
Lead Instructor(s):
Date:
Course Length:
Course Fee:
CEUs:
Status:
- Closed
It is highly recommended that you apply for a course at least 6-8 weeks before the start date to guarantee there will be space available. After that date you may be placed on a waitlist. Courses with low enrollment may be cancelled up to 4 weeks before start date if sufficient enrollments are not met. If you are able to access the online application form, then registration for that particular course is still open.
Participant Takeaways:
- Understand what limits/dominates the capability of each technology
- Understand how the preceding drives design for manufacturing
- Understand the metrics (cost, rate, quality, flexibility) that quantify the suitability of a technology
- Understand practical issues that are important to effective use of the technologies
- Observe the preceding via experience-based learning
Who Should Attend:
This course is directed at individuals who need to understand what dominates and limits the capabilities of the rapid prototype fabrication processes that will be covered in the class, and is designed for professionals that are looking to gain knowledge and insight that enables them to select appropriate processes/technologies and then make good design/fabrication/assembly decisions when utilizing the processes. The course would be useful for individuals seeking to better understand how to prototype items, for example: designers, design engineers, directors of engineering, technicians, researchers, makers, model builders, and hobbyists. The lessons learned are highly useful in fields related to design, manufacturing, the arts, architecture, and R&D.
Prerequisite Skills/Knowledge:
A technical background including trigonometry and freshman-level physics will enable participants to more fully understand the principles, i.e. the "why," of that which governs the capabilities and limitations of the processes.
Computer Requirements:
Laptops or tablets with Excel are encouraged.
Program Outline:
Given the limited number of machines and the need to schedule them, typically two technologies will be covered per day. Participants will be divided into small groups. Each group will rotate through all of the technologies by the end of the course. The breakdown of classroom/fabrication/experimentation/discussion will depend upon the technologies being covered in a particular day.
In each unit, participants learn the following for each process they are assigned to cover during that time period:
- Discussion of each technology: Characteristics, general capabilities, pros/cons, examples of fabricated parts/uses and the physics that limit/dominate what the process can do (one hour).
- Overview of the process at the equipment and demonstration of a part being fabricated (one hour).
- The balance of the time will be spent on participant-driven Q&A on each process and discussion of design for manufacturing principles.
9:00 am – 10:00 am: Classroom work
10:00 am – 10:15 am: Break & refreshments
10:15 am – noon: Classroom/design work
Noon – 1:00 pm: Lunch on your own
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Fabrication and experimentation
3:00 pm – 3:15 pm: Break & refreshments
3:15 pm – 4:30 pm: Experimentation and discussion
Course Schedule:
View 2016 Schedule (pdf)
Class runs 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Monday through Thursday and 9:00 am - 2:30 pm on Friday.
Instructors:
Martin Culpepper
Professor Culpepper is director of the MIT Precision Compliant Systems Laboratory. His areas of expertise include mechanical design, precision machine design, instrumentation/equipment design, nanomanufacturing, micromanufacturing, and manufacturing at the meso-scale. He serves as MIT's Maker Czar and leads MIT's 'Project Manus' program—the upgrade and enhancement of MIT's maker capabilities. This includes improving access for students, conversion of old spaces/equipment, introduction of new technologies, creation of new campus spaces and outreach to other schools in the form of collaboration and consulting.
Links & Resources:
- Mobius App released to empower MIT maker community—Novel app will remove barriers to student making at MIT, impact universities around the world (MIT News, March 18, 2016)
Location:
This course takes place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Content:
| Fundamentals: Core concepts, understandings, and tools (60%) | 60 |
| Latest Developments: Recent advances and future trends (10%) | 10 |
| Industry Applications: Linking theory and real-world (30%) | 30 |
Delivery Methods:
| Lecture: Delivery of material in a lecture format (35%) | 35 |
| Discussion or Groupwork: Participatory learning (45%) | 45 |
| Labs: Demonstrations, experiments, simulations (20%) | 20 |
Levels:
| Introductory: Appropriate for a general audience (90%) | 90 |
| Specialized: Assumes experience in practice area or field (10%) | 10 |
Participants’ Comments:
Jon Hunt, IT Service Provider and Consumer Support Engineer
"The course was awesome. I learned a ton about what is possible with the current rapid prototyping technologies and actually got to see them in action and work through an exercise using them."