A 4-student team will explore actionable, low-investment opportunities to apply 3D printing for social innovation. Over 11 weeks, they’ll use design thinking to identify societal challenges aligned with the engineering grand challenges, prioritize feasible solutions, and create prototypes for 1-2 products. The team will conduct customer discovery to gather feedback on the prototypes’ usefulness, ensuring practical and impactful designs. Each member will contribute about 75 hours, taking on roles such as research, prototyping, outreach, and analysis.
The project culminates in functional 3D-printed prototypes, a presentation, and a report outlining findings, feasibility, and recommendations for future scalability.