Keynote Talk: Hod Lipson

3D Printing: The next 25 years

The promise and peril of a machine that can make (almost) anything.

3D Printers – machines that can automatically fabricate arbitrarily-shaped objects from almost any material – have evolved over the last three decades from limited and expensive prototyping equipment in the hands of few, to small-scale commodity production tools available to almost anyone. It’s been broadly recognized that this burgeoning industrial revolution will transform almost every industry, and every aspect of our lives. But where will this technology go next? This talk will describe why 3D printing is disruptive, and look at the evolution of additive manufacturing from its past to its future. The technology is advancing from printing parts in plastic and metal, to bio-printing and food printing, and from 3D printing passive parts to printing active, integrated systems, including electronics, actuators and sensors. Will we one day be able to print a robot that will walk out of the printer, batteries included?

Brief Bio

Hod Lipson is a professor of engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a co-author of the award-winning bestseller “Fabricated: The New World of 3D printing”, now translated to seven languages. His work on self-aware and self-replicating robots, food printing, and bio-printing has received widespread media coverage including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, CNN, and the National Public Radio. Lipson has co-authored over 200 technical papers and speaks frequently at high-profile venues such as TED and the US National Academies. Hod directs the Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that are creative. For more information visit http://lipson.mae.cornell.edu