Building a 3D Printer, Burying Your Father-in-law, and Other Ways to Spend the Summer

This summer has been pretty nuts.
Work In June, our department encouraged participants to pitch an idea in 5 minutes that could be funded with $3,000. I suggested that we buy a 3D printer and won. This meant that I got to buy a 3D printer for our department and establish guidelines for its use. It also kicked off my boss' long-held interest in 3D bioprinting. Regular 3D printing binds plastic into complex shapes in order to make 3D objects out of plastic. Bioprinting is a very experimental process in which cells are arranged in 3D instead of bits of plastic in order to create 3D objects made of of cells. So we bought a kit and now I'm building a 3D bioprinter in addition to the regular 3D printer that I'm having a lot of fun with.
Recreation I've been working (so... so... slooowwly) on my underwater robot. It's been one 'learning experience' after another, but that's how these things go. I also got a new computer and a couple of games. I'm …
Work In June, our department encouraged participants to pitch an idea in 5 minutes that could be funded with $3,000. I suggested that we buy a 3D printer and won. This meant that I got to buy a 3D printer for our department and establish guidelines for its use. It also kicked off my boss' long-held interest in 3D bioprinting. Regular 3D printing binds plastic into complex shapes in order to make 3D objects out of plastic. Bioprinting is a very experimental process in which cells are arranged in 3D instead of bits of plastic in order to create 3D objects made of of cells. So we bought a kit and now I'm building a 3D bioprinter in addition to the regular 3D printer that I'm having a lot of fun with.
Recreation I've been working (so... so... slooowwly) on my underwater robot. It's been one 'learning experience' after another, but that's how these things go. I also got a new computer and a couple of games. I'm …