#TechTuesday Round Up - September 20th

Source: Vocativ

3D Printing for Surgery Planning and Metamaterials: these are the news that caught our attention this week!

On this #TechTuesday, we're sharing two news from the 3D Printing world that have been particularly striking in past few days. First this one via Vocativ. Not Art, but we fundamentally believe in creating more bridges between the digital and physical realms. So this news is particularly significant as it is a great example of the value of such bridges: having a tangible experience with #3DPrinted models is enabling people to better "sense" their way through challenging thinking, and can then help them be successful during complex tasks such as surgery planning. We'd already shown other examples of this for better understanding the Universe, as well as maths concepts, so we're excited to see more people using this approach to learn and think in new ways in coming years! And we're glad these two babies have now healthy happy hearts.

Doctors practiced on a model of their conjoined organs before performing surgery to separate them Subscribe! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=vocativvideo See more on our website: http://www.vocativ.com Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vocativ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vocativ

And ICMYI, check out this cool new design and 3Dprinting project from the Hasso Plattner Institute: metamaterial mechanisms! Structure meets function in one fully 3D printed mechanism, illustrating the opportunity for new materials, designs and potentially more efficient ways of making!

Metamaterial Mechanisms is a research project from the Hasso Plattner Institute, published at UIST 2016. Authors: Alexandra Ion, Johannes Frohnhofen, Ludwig Wall, Robert Kovacs, Mirela Alistar, Jack Lindsay, Pedro Lopes, Hsiang-Ting Chen, and Patrick Baudisch Learn more about the work: https://hpi.de//en/baudisch/projects/metamaterial-mechanisms.html // Abstract Recently, researchers started to engineer not only the outer shape of objects, but also their internal microstructure.

Happy Tech Tuesday!

Promising Work Supporting Ocean Protection And Sustainability

Today The White House made a major announcement on the paramount and vital importance to preserve our oceans for this generation and the generations to come.

Our oceans harbor vibrant ecosystems and are our planet's life source. They have been suffering much damage from plastic pollution, increased water temperatures and other factors. So we are excited to see many "cyantists" working at the intersection of art, design, engineering, science and biology to revert this harm and create a future where sustainability and ocean protection are brought back to the forefront. Through waste reduction via improved production, reuse and upcycling, recycling, the creation of objects that can directly protect ecosystems and marine animals, and art installations to raise awareness, we are already witnessing much creativity employed to use 3dprinting and other technologies to address these challenges.

We look forward to seeing more cyantists at work towards a #sustainable future in coming years!

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Lisa Federici And The Scansite Team

“Every chisel mark, crack, dent, texture, stitch and fingerprint gives a deeper understanding.”

A few weeks ago, we shared about how 3D Printing had been used to bring one of the Seven Wonders of The World back to life via our Facebook page, a great example of work at the intersection of art, history and tech. So we are thrilled to be featuring Lisa, founder and CEO of Scansite, and her team as Cyantists we love. Lisa is a pioneer in the 3D scanning industry. Over the years, she has assembled a multidisciplinary team of engineers, artists, historians, architects, archeologists and technologists who specialize in capturing meticulous details on real world objects. Using 3D scanners, they have created 3D models of historic artifacts, from dinosaur bones to statues from Michelangelo, real people including the singer Tony Bennet, industrial tools and entertainment models (think Star Wars!), to name a few. 3D Scanners can be thought of 3D cameras, and are themselves the result of multi-disciplinary engineering, including mathematics, computer vision, optics etc.

They work by projecting geometric light patterns onto object surfaces. The pattern is distorted by the surface, and these distortions are recorded by the scanner to compute information about the shape, or structure, of the object in 3D, using 3D reconstruction algorithms. The scans can then be processed with a modeling software to create 3D Printing files or be examined and edited in greater depth. So 3D scans can provide precise 3D information on small or larger objects, and this information can be used in many applications, one of them being in manufacturing where the scans help the quality assurance process by showing where defects might have crept up.

However, and quite importantly, it is not just technical work Lisa and her team do. Working with museums and other institutions such as the NY Metropolitan among many, she and her team are an intrinsic part of preserving art and enabling history to be better understood. For example, they produced the largest ever 3D printed triceratops, enabling biomechanical studies to be conducted at the Smithsonian's. And her scans of statues from Renaissance Italian sculptors is enabling the restoration of statues and provides information to art historians too. Works like hers also help make some of the value of history and art very tangible.

We hope this will inspire many young Cyantists to make links between tech, science, history, art now and in the future!

Introducing The Series #3DTalk And The First Event On Scanning & Modeling

We are excited to kick-off, 3D Talk, a new event series co-organized with Women In 3D Printing, with a first event on scanning and modeling.

This educational series will take place monthly and will feature a different industry specific topic and highlight new guests each month.

Our first event will be hosted by Parisoma, San Francisco, on Sept. 8th! We are thrilled to have 3 fabulous panelists to discuss these topics, as well as their experience in the field of 3Dprinting: Liza Sonia Wallach , co-founder of HoneyPoint3D - Education, 3D Printing, 3D CAD, 3D Scanning, Lisa Federici, founder of Scansite, and designer Christina Douk!

So come join us to 3D Talk!

REGISTRATION: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3dtalk-panel-modeling-scanning-tickets-27223748966

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Mathematician Dr. Henry Segerman

Stereographic projection from Dr. Henry Segerman's website: http://www.3dprintmath.com

“That is the big advantage of 3D printing. There is an awful lot of data in there, but the real world has excellent bandwidth. Give someone a thing, and they see it immediately, with all its complexity. There is no wait time.”

— Excerpt from interview with the Smithsonian Magazine Online (www.smithsonian.com, 03/15/2013)

Some mathematical ideas can be hard to intuitively grasp. However, adding a physical and tactile dimension, and linking abstract concepts to the physical world, two notions we feel strongly about, can make it easier to visualize and understand the nature of such concepts. At the same time, a physical dimension can show, in a very tangible way, the inherent beauty of such concepts and allows them to become part of new art forms.

This is what Dr Henry Segerman has elegantly demonstrated through some of his work on 3D Printed Mathematical Art. Dr Segerman, who focuses his research at Oklahoma State University on topology and 3-dimensional geometry, has assembled an impressive collection of 3D prints with accompanying videos that highlight properties of mathematical ideas and concepts, such as symmetry and polyhedra, and provide approachable explanations for them. 

"More fun than a 120-cell of monkeys" - collaboration with Will Segerman (via www.3dprintmath.com)

He has an upcoming book "Visualizing Mathematics With 3D Printing" coming out in the Fall, which should be a great inspiration for maths and arts inclined minds alike. We cannot wait to read it! And we look forward to more intersections between maths, art, tech and education. :)

A Great Time Preparing For Mother's Day At Our Pop Up Workshop At Viv&Ingrid

Last week-end, we held a Mother's Day Special Flower Themed Workshop at Berkeley-based Viv&Ingrid

Children used our platform to create and 3D print flower drawings and use them in art works they could offer to their Mom. As always we saw so much creativity and colors! And we had a lot of fun discussing 3D printing with the kids, who were wide eyed about the possibilities this technology is opening.

We even saw some Golden State Warriors art. :) Not flowers, but we were right along with the children in supporting and showing love to this incredible team.

Flowers, art, 3D printing and basketball in one workshop? Sounds like a great combination to us! :)

Cyant Founding CEO Featured In 3Ders List Of 20 Women Making A Difference With 3D Printing

We are thrilled for and honored by this feature, which took place on International Women's Day!

Picture from www.3ders.org.

And congratulations to the other Women featured on the list!

Cyant To Present At The "Women, Startup & Wine" Event At The Mechanics Institute, SF

We are thrilled to participate to this event which honors Women History Month!

On March 30, 2016, the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco is hosting an exhibition of women in tech and the products they’ve invented. The event was named after the Johann Strauss Jr. classical music song Wine Women and Song, because startup founders are renegades, who follow their own path and unique impulses, and most of all follow their passions!

We are looking forward to joining the other early-stage startups from a wide range of niches, future founders, inspiring speakers, potential partners, established startups and event sponsors who will be at the event.

If you are in the Bay Area, save the date and come and join us!

Registration: http://www.milibrary.org/events/wine-women-and-start-ups-mar-30-2016

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Artist Rogan Brown

Via NPR: "Is This A Snowy Wonderland Or The World Inside A Petri Dish?" & courtesy of Rogan Brown

“By mixing science and art, observation and imagination I hope to elucidate both, the breathtaking detail and complexity that exists at every level of scale in nature transformed by the eccentricity of the individual imagination.”

Artist Rogan Brown takes inspiration in Nature and the infinitesimally small to create one of a kind paper sculptures, and works in an interdisciplinary fashion, for example by meeting with microbiologists, to help planning his exhibits.

The execution process, while relying on planar material, becomes inherently 3D as the artist conceives the final sculptures, and assembles layers to create them. So this art-meets-science work already highlights a very interesting element of 2D to 3D thinking.

The layers are painstakingly cut by hand, and interestingly, via laser cutter for most recent works. As digital fabrication progresses, the use of technologies such as laser cutting and 3D printing opens the door for artworks that push us to see Nature under different lights and better grasp some of its dimensions, and perhaps its beauty. Could this intersection of science and art also help approach learning and teaching science in different ways? :)

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Wallace Chan, renouned artisan jeweler.

“... I am a person greedy of knowledge and wisdom, ceaselessly investigating and learning. I have been this curious since I was little. And I will still be thinking of creating until my last three breaths.”

— http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/fashion/the-jeweler-wallace-chan-the-stone-is-me.html

Today we are highlighting Wallace Chan as a ‪#‎cyantistwelove‬! In this video and feature from the New York Times, he describes the essence of his approach, how creativity is an integral part of himself, and how his work requires knowing about many disciplines, from gemology to metallurgy. And while viewing jewelry as a carrier of heritage, he experiments with different technologies, and makes his own tools.

From the New York Times, "The Stone Is Me", published: Dec. 6, 2015. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/fashion/the-jeweler-wallace-chan-the-stone-is-me.html

For example, he is famous for inventing the "Wallace Cut", a novel and unique carving technology. Despite his modest origins, he has always had an insatiable thirst for learning, and has combined art and technology to innovate and create unique jewelry pieces. An inspiration for all young creators and learners!

Connecting With 3D Printing: Scanning And 3D Printing People Captures Life Events

For our second Connecting With 3D Printing event, we had the pleasure to speak with Dylan Saloner, founder and CEO of PocketMe. PocketMe has created a fully operating booth that can rapidly scan people. The scans are then sent off to a 3D Printing service which uses a powder material to create 3D prints of the scans. The powder material has the advantage of offering high-resolution, multi-color 3D printing.

The technology for creating the scans requires simultaneously taking pictures of the subject from different angles, identifying corresponding features in the images, and recovering 3D information from these correspondences. We discussed with Dylan how he and his team were able to creatively overcome some of the technical difficulties associated with this process. This discussion also spoke to what it takes to develop a business around 3D printing.

One of the key themes of this event however was the magic of capturing life events offered by scanning and 3D printing people. Every print reflects a particular time in someone's life. For example, one print captured a man proposing to his fiancee. Another print was made during Halloween. Yet another print captured a family of four. And we're showing in this post other examples that represent not just body scans, but people's events too. PocketMe's prints have also been used for wedding toppers. At this time the toppers are printed with powder, but could one day be printed with sugar for guests to eat or take home.

As to where the future of 3D printing lies? For Dylan, a very interesting area is building and architecture. The promise of designing and constructing homes in such a way that many parts can be built in place, at once through 3D printing is one that Dylan is particularly interested in seeing happen. The medical area is another domain where Dylan is expecting great progress: his own father has, for example, been using 3D printing to create venous models that can be used for surgical training.

Thanks Dylan for being such a great guest and sharing all these experiences with us!

We will be on a break next month due to the Holiday Season!

A Spooky (And Fun!) Time At The East Bay Mini Maker Faire

We had so much fun attending this year's East Bay Mini Maker Faire!

To showcase our upcoming product and some of the things we do in our workshops, we worked with our visitors on a Halloween themed activity.

We 3D printed all the hand drawn items used for the activity during the event, and our budding cyantists helped us paint them as well as paint and create a beautiful backdrop for them.

We finished the day with a beautiful Halloween Shadow box!

So we'd like to extend our warm thanks to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire Organizing Committee for welcoming us at the Faire and helping us with set up. And if you were one of our visitors, share this post with your families and friends!

A Great First "Connecting with 3D printing" Event

This month, we started an educational event series at WeWork Berkeley to showcase connections between 3D printing and art, and engage our community with the human side of the technology.

We had the great pleasure of having Jessica Hedstrom as our first speaker. Jessica is a 3D printing enthusiast, the founder of the blog and podcast: "Printing Everyday", the community manager at Sculpteo, and a contributor to the blog: "Women in 3D printing". Jess walked us through some great projects she has encountered in the course of writing her blog: these projects showcase how art, technology, design, robotics, biomimicry, medical imaging can all intersect to produce beautiful jewelry, interactive displays and unique art pieces, while having an educational impact too.

This notion of adding value, a topic brought up by Nancy Liang on the Women In 3D Printing blog, was one of the important points we discussed as one of the closing remarks. One of the concerns one might have in that regard, is whether the opportunity for each and every one to make can lead to more waste, and not more value, at a time where sustainability is of prime importance. However, we reviewed and discussed several recycling and sustainable development initiatives, as well as reasons why 3D printing could in fact open up more possibilities than raise issues. As to where 3D printing is heading in the next 5 years? Eyeware and fashion are two areas where Jessica feels a strong growth will take place on the consumer side. Thanks Jessica for being such an amazing first speaker!

We'll have our next event in November, stay tuned for upcoming details!

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Jansen Chan, Director of Pastry At The International Culinary Center

“I think creativity is not learned, but rather cultivated from within. Everybody has some creative talent. It may come in different forms – some are less visual and more conceptual. Most adults don’t develop their creative side enough because they have less opportunities to exercise that part of them. People assume creativity is one thing, when in reality, it can be anything that you produce, construct, generate, foster, or imagine, and then share.”

— Jansen Chan, Director of Pastry Art at the ICC

With Cyant's CEO Barbara Hanna, an alum of The International Culinary Center and a hobbyist chef, we are glad to feature today's #cyantistwelove: Jansen Chan.

A UC Berkeley Architecture Alum, Jansen Chan draws inspiration from architecture and the arts, while bringing his design and critical thinking discipline to his work. His creations reflect this beautiful connection between food and art, as well as a desire to connect with and engage his audience.

3D printing technology has been expanding to print sugar, chocolate, pancake batter and many other food stuffs. So foodie cyantists may find new opportunities to bring food, technology, design and art together in new and exciting ways! We look forward to seeing many cyantists drawing from art artifacts and experiences around them to express their creativity, and following in Jansen Chan's "foodsteps" :) !

Looking Forward To Being Part Of WeWork Berkeley's Presentation For NewCo Oakland!

If you are in the Bay Area, mark your calendars for NewCo Oakland!

NewCo, a new type of conference where attendees find out about innovative companies and their teams directly in their native environment, is coming to the East Bay on October 8th.

A number of Oakland, Emeryville and Berkeley companies will be hosting tours throughout the day, and Cyant is thrilled to be part of this day as a presenter during WeWork Berkeley's tour, starting 9:30am.

We look forward to showcasing the company and our work along with two other great Berkeley startups and WeWork Berkeley residents: Butter Home Services and Truly [M.A.D.] !

A Great Time At The First San Jose Mini-Maker-Faire!

It was great attending the Faire, meeting makers, vendors and visitors from the San Jose community this past Sunday.

We were thrilled by the reception parents and kids gave to our stand and by their enthusiastic participation in our gift activity for this first Maker Faire. Some children even asked their parents to come back to our stand before going home!

They say life is a bowl of cherries! And so for this first San Jose Faire, we demonstrated how cherries hand drawn and 3D printed using our upcoming product can be creatively used to make a ... whimsical one!

New varieties of cherries were invented, some cherries donned new colors (yes, cherries can be blue, yellow and black!), laws of gravity were defied... or upheld, to fill and unfill a bowl painted with a Matisse-an blue.

By the end of the Faire, the contributions of young and big (:)) cyantists had made a beautiful, contemporary work of art. And our bowl of cherries was a great way to celebrate the First San Jose Mini Maker Faire!

We'd like to extend our warm thanks to the San Jose Mini Maker Faire Organizing Committee for welcoming us at the Faire and helping us with set up. And if you were one of our visitors and see your cherries, share this post with your families and friends!

A Back-To-School Special For Our Upcoming Art-Meets-Tech Workshop At MOCHA!

We are looking forward to our Halloween themed after-school workshop at MOCHA, and to celebrate Back-to-School, we are extending a special!

The Early Bird Registration of $285 is now extended until September 20th! And if you are a member of the MOCHA community, you will receive a $25 discount if you register one child, or $70 if you register two!

So come have some arts and 3D printing fun with us!

WORKSHOP DETAILS:

WEDNESDAYS OCTOBER 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th

3:45pm to 5:45pm

MOCHA

Throughout the four 2hr sessions, children will learn about 3D printing and digital creation, and integrate their 3D prints into their creations, while being engaged in traditional arts. We will also have fun looking at Halloween stories and arts to draw inspiration from, and work on a collaborative project. We will end with a little Halloween party at the Museum, where the children can showcase their projects and receive a few treats!

REGISTRATIONS:

LETICIA PADGETT
510.987.8556
REGISTRAR@MOCHA.ORG

Cyant Has A New Logo!

We are thrilled to introduce a new logo that will represent Cyant from now on.

Cyant is about connecting art and technology, "right brain" and "left brain", to grow connections, foster learning, creativity and engagement. Looking at Cyant's history, trees have been a silent symbol of this connectedness and growth from day 1. And looking to the future, Cyant will work as much as possible to do its part in supporting sustainability and a greener environment. So it is a thrill to present this new logo, which perfectly represents what Cyant is about.

Let us know what you think!

Throwback Thursday: How 3DPrinted Butterflies Brought Together Young Cyantists At Make San Leandro

As we prepare for our attendance at San Jose's Mini Maker Faire, we take a look back at our participation to Make San Leandro, the first Mini-Maker Faire of the city.

San Leandro has been a fast growing hub of makers and 3D printing businesses. Last year, it held its first Maker Faire, which coincided with the city's Annual Cherry Festival. And Cyant was there to showcase how 3D printed hand drawings and writings can be used to make a fun collaborative artwork!

Naturally, our theme was around cherries, and cherry blossoms more specifically. These ethereal blossoms are celebrated in the Japanese culture, and we could not help but draw inspiration from Japanese art and a poem from Arakida Moritake to engage the young Cyantists visiting our stand!

While discussing 3D printing and our theme, our visitors lent a hand to make a hand painted background for the artwork, and assemble our final mixed media project.

By the end of the day, we had a beautiful piece ready to be collected by the San Leandro Downtown Association!

So we look forward to seeing what we'll be creating with Cyantists at San Jose's Mini Maker Faire!

And if you would like to bring this experience to your event or engage your students in this STEAM activity at your school, contact us!

Cyant At The First San Jose Mini Maker Faire!

Come and meet us in San Jose on September 6th!

Having participated in the first San Leandro Maker Faire last year, Cyant is again part of a first Mini-Maker Faire with our participation to San Jose's upcoming Faire. So we look forward to showcasing how drawings and writings can be 3D printed and used for artworks and creations, and meet budding makers and Cyantists at the Faire!

FAIRE DETAILS:

1ST ANNUAL SAN JOSE MINI MAKER FAIRE AT HISTORY PARK!
Join History San Jose and 75+ Makers for the 1st Annual San Jose Mini
Maker Faire at History Park on Sunday, September 6 from 10am-6pm! For
more information, please click here. Tickets are limited! To buy
your tickets today, please click this link. Or, if you would like
to volunteer, please fill out this form.