Merging the Arts and Engineering via Rapid Prototyping - Artist Interview

Chris Williams is an assistant professor in both Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He has brought the Fab@Home machine to Virginia Tech to research ways the machine can be used for educational purposes as well as reach people with skills and talents in other areas of interest. He is mainly interested in showing students with interest in the arts that, through a concept such as rapid prototyping, they have a place within the field of engineering.

How it works

In the "Talk" section, you made some predictions about how the machine works. Now that you have seen and heard how it works, how do your predictions compare? Were you surprised at anything Chris mentioned?

Skills and Knowledge

Chris describes the skills involved in building and operating the Rapid Prototyping machine. Can you identify anything you do well or are interested in that would help you participate in a project like this?

Advice for Students

As this project was inspired by both engineering and art, Chris makes mention of the goal for each field by saying, "Engineers do for products, artists do for art." As these two merge, a unique product is formed. Is there anything that you do that could be combined with either engineering or art, or both?

Uses of Rapid Prototyping

In talking about future uses of this machine, Chris mentions this being something people could use at home. What predictions can you make for how a machine like this could/will fit in to daily lives in the future?