A crowd watched as six University students in a Digital Making class built a 3-D printer for the first time in the Business Instructional Facility’s atrium.

Vishal Sachdev, director of MakerLab and professor of the Digital Making class, said the students are already working with 3-D printers every day so he thought they might as well build one.

“It was quite a process. It was really, really difficult,” said Joshua Mathew, junior in Business, who helped build the printer.

The team who built the printer was made up of six students from all different majors. Sachdev did not give the students any instruction but did give them a manual, which they soon realized was outdated.

Regardless of the little direction, the students accepted the challenge. The printer took about three hours to make and all the hard work was worth it, Mathew said.

“I’m definitely proud, very proud of my teammates,” he said. “Through good teamwork you can finish anything … even if your manual is no good.”

Sachdev said he was proud of his students’ success. Because this was a unique and beneficial learning experience for his students, he wants to host this event every spring.

“When you build something like this it seems so much more accessible. Not just a black box that makes something and you have no idea how it happened,” Sachdev said. “When you make it yourself, you can better understand exactly how it works.”

The MakerLab plans to add the new 3-D printer to its collection. They will now have 18 3-D printers for students, staff and even the public to use. The team plans to write their names on the new printer to commemorate their achievement.

“The good part is they sort of own the machine now,” Sachdev said. “It’s like ‘hey, this is my baby’.”

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