How to Build a Working Replica Jet Engine With a 3D Printer

University of Virginia students built a quarter scale replica of a Rolls-Royce jet engine using 3D printing. The engine works — it spins, it whirs! It’s plastic.

The article about this originally appeared in Popular Mechanics, and can be read online here.

I’ve seen many posts online about 3D printing — some consider it a hoax and question the veracity of videos and articles that document it; some think these videos and stories are a conspiracy. While I believe 3D printing exists and works, I do find it unbelievable, as well as incredible and wonderfully magic. What a future awaits us!

3-D Printer Prints a Crescent Wrench!

Watch this video to see an alternate printing future:

Good Luck, Virginians, at SkillsUSA National Competition!

The Virginia Printing Foundation sends best wishes for success to all Virginia’s competitors at next week’s SkillsUSA National Championships!

Special notice to the following competitors (and to their wonderful teachers) who won first place in Virginia’s contests, and who will represent their schools and state at Nationals:

• Nicholas Wilfong, Advertising Design Contest Winner, Advanced Technology Center, Instructor Lee Troxell
• Meghan Kube, Graphic Communications Contest Winner, North Stafford High School, Instructor Susan Caldwell
• Darrell Cox, Screen Printing Technology Contest Winner, Richmond Technical Center, Instructor Karen Reitz

The Virginia Printing Foundation is especially proud to support the Graphic Communications contest winner and instructor with travel expenses of $1250 to help with that long trip to Kansas City.

Good luck, all! You’ve already shown you have talent, skills, and smarts!

Virginia Printing Foundation awards 2011 scholarships

The Virginia Printing Foundation is pleased to announce the following scholarship awards for 2011:

Student Scholarship Winners: Three students have been awarded scholarships. Jeremy Hall has been awarded $1000 toward his college education. A student at CS Monroe Technology Center and Loudoun Valley High School, Jeremy plans to study Communication Design at NVCC in the fall. Eugene Overton has also been awarded $1000. Eugene is a student at CS Monroe Technology Center and Heritage High School. Eugene will attend NVCC in the fall and plans to pursue a degree in Communication Design. Both Jeremy and Eugene are students of Pam Smith. The third scholarship winner is Meghan Kube. Meghan is a student at North Stafford High School, where she studies with Susan Caldwell. Meghan will use her scholarship, also $1000, to attend NVCC this fall. Meghan will also be representing Virginia at the SkillsUSA National Graphic Communications competition in Kansas City later this month.

The student scholarships are funded by the Virginia Printing Foundation.

Educator Scholarship Winner: These scholarships are funded by Progress Printing, Lynchburg, Virginia, and Worth Higgins Associates, Richmond, Virginia. For 2011, the Virginia Printing Foundation has awarded both of these scholarships to one recipient, Pam Smith, in the total amount of $1500:

The Progress Printing Education Scholarship

and

The E. Worth Higgins, Jr., Print Educators’ Scholarship

Pam Smith, Graphics Communications Instructor, Monroe Technology Center, will use her scholarship for further education classes toward her Associate in Printing Management, and to buy software and computer equipment for her classroom.

Virginia Printing Foundation Awards CS Monroe Technology Center’s Winning Entry

The 2011 Best in Print (BIP) School Competition winners were announced at the Printing Industries of Virginia’s annual banquet on March 26, 2011, in Virginia Beach. CS Monroe Technology Center in Leesburg won the award for the best single entry, a calendar.

The BIP School Competition is sponsored by the Virginia Printing Foundation (VPF), which awards $200 to the winner. Pam Smith (pictured right, receiving award from Ron Hottle, Chairman, VPF) is the instructor at CS Monroe, and was VPF’s guest at the banquet. Pam Smith plans to treat her students to a “stress-free” dinner to celebrate their achievements with the prize money.

Congratulations to all our winning high school programs:

• CS Monroe Technology Center, Leesburg, VA, Pam Smith, Instructor
• Spotsylvania Career & Technical Center, Spotsylvania, VA, Mike Fox, Instructor
• Wise County Career-Technical Center, Wise, VA, David Kindle, Instructor

The judges awarded the following First Place and Best Program categories to CS Monroe, in addition to the Best in Show:

• First Place: CS Monroe Technology Center for Booklet
• Best Program (most overall points): CS Monroe Technology Center

Awards of Excellence were given for the following entries:

• Wise County Career-Technical Center for Letterhead
• Spotsylvania Career & Technical Center for Banner/wide format
• Spotsylvania Career & Technical Center for Booklet
• CS Monroe Technology Center for Mug
• CS Monroe Technology Center for Tee Shirt
• CS Monroe Technology Center for Flier

3-D Printers Make Living Body Parts

“Living body parts, hot off the printer” is the headline of an article by Bonnie Berkowitz in the Washington Post, May 10, 2011. The article details how scientists are making living tissue with three-dimensional printers. These machines work in similar ways to ordinary desktop printers — the first bioprinters were jury-rigged desktop inkjet printers — but they stack up layers of living material rather than ink. Dentists, jewelers, machinists, and even chocolatiers have been using this technology for almost 20 years.

While this technology is years, and perhaps decades, away from producing complex organs, scientists have already printed skin and vertebral disks, and actually placed them into living (not human) bodies.

Anticipated future uses for bioprinting include drug and clinical trial testing that would eliminate the drawn-out, trial-and-error process involving humans.

To read the full article, click here.

Chowan University Graphics Summer Camp June 19-24, 2011

Chowan University’s 16th Graphics Summer Camp will take place June 19 – 24, 2011. The total cost for the week is only $100. This is a wonderful experience for high school seniors and juniors who have shown interest or potential for the graphics industry.

For more information or to register, visit Chowan’s site.

Virginia Student to represent the United States in International WorldSkills Competition

Benjamin Phillips (pictured left) of Great Falls, Virginia and a former student at C.S. Monroe Technology Center, Leesburg, Virginia, will represent the United States in London, England in the Offset Printing competition in the WorldSkills Competition. Phillips will compete as a member of the United States “WorldTeam.” The 41st international event will be held October 5-8, 2011. Phillips earned the right to be a member of WorldTeam by winning state and national contests in Graphic Communications in the 2010 SkillsUSA Championships.

“I am very excited to compete in the WorldSkills Competition,” said Phillips, pictured at left. “Because of some extenuating circumstances after high school, I was unable to join the Armed Forces as I had planned, and this is another way I can represent the United States in a positive manner.”

Phillips is a 2010 graduate of Dominion High School, Sterling, VA, and completed his Graphic Communications education at C.S. Monroe Technology Center, Leesburg, VA. He has passed three of the industry’s most demanding certifications, PrintED’s Introduction to Graphic Communications, Digital File Prep, and Press Operations, receiving a score of “Distinction of Excellence” in each area.

In his spare time, Phillips works on his motorcycle and volunteers at local fire departments.

Pam Smith (pictured right with Benjamin Phillips at SkillsUSA National Contest in June, 2010) was Phillips’s instructor at C.S. Monroe Technology Center. Phillips says, “I want to thank my instructor and advisor, Pam Smith, for the great success I’ve had in SkillsUSA. Without her support and encouragement, I would never have even thought of joining SkillUSA. She was one of my best teachers throughout school and I owe a lot to her. In my first year of competition, I did all this and am now invited to go to the WorldSkills Competition. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her.”

The prestigious WorldSkills Competition takes place every two years, and more than 1,000 young people from 53 member countries or regions will compete this year in London. Considered “the best of the best,” contestants will compete for four days in 45 occupational skill areas from economic sectors including manufacturing, information technology, transportation, construction and services. Accompanied by their teachers, trainers and industry technical committee experts, these young people compete before the public in contests that are run and judged by industry using demanding international standards.

For more information about the competition go to: http://www.worldskills.org.

Eighteen US members of WorldTeam will compete in these areas, in addition to Offset Printing: Autobody Repair, Automotive Service, Beauty Therapy, Bricklaying, Cabinetmaking, Car Painting, CNC Milling, CNC Turning, Cooking, Graphic Design, Hairdressing, IT/PC Networking, Plumbing, Refrigeration, Restaurant Service, Web Design and Welding.

Job Interview No-Nos: Hiring Managers’ Outrageous (and Real) Stories

Michelle Singletary wrote about CareerBuilder’s survey of hiring managers in her column, “The Color of Money,” in January 23, 2011′s The Washington Post.

Some fun examples:

One applicant wore a hat to his interview. The hat said, “Take this job and shove it.”

Another applicant threw out his beer can on the way in to the interview.

One person blew her nose repeatedly during the interview, and lined up the used tissues on the table in front of her.

71% of hiring managers said that applicants have answered their cellphones or texted during interviews!

For the full article, please see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012107564.html

Fun Installation Piece: Four Color Printing’s Production History

Artist Xavier Antin created this installation piece of four laser printers to show the history of printing production:

“A book printed through a printing chain made of four desktop printers using four different colors and technologies dated from 1880 to 1976. A production process that brings together small scale and large scale production, two sides of the same history.

• MAGENTA (Stencil duplicator, 1880)
• CYAN (Spirit duplicator, 1923)
• BLACK (Laser printer, 1969)
• YELLOW (Inkjet printer, 1976)”

Check out his website!

(Thanks to Bill Burton for making me aware of this!)