In a collaboration with Neri Oxman’s Mediated Matter Design group at MIT, I am currently working on an interdisciplinary project that focusses on the drying behavior of biodegradable hydrogel composites that are used in a new water-based 3D printing process.
By creating a computational model we try to predict the bending of the printed structure during the drying process. As a result – by inverse design – we will be able to have effective control over the final designs allowing for more applications of the new water-based 3D printing technique.
Mogas-Soldevila et al. published the initial results of the water-based robotic fabrication in a 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing journal. More information about this new fabrication method can be found here.