Maria Elena's Summer Research

[kitkatz]

My daughter took MRI files to the Rapid Protyping machine files. She streamlined the method over the six week summer program. Here is the heart she came up with! Lordy my kid is brilliant!

[Jean]

I wish I understood that first sentence, but congratulations on a brilliant kid.

[Rerun]

Heart? or Art?

[pelagia]

I had to look that one up!  Its' very cool that she did this from an MRI.

Here's some words of explanation that I found on wiki:

Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology.

The use of additive manufacturing technology for rapid prototyping takes virtual designs from computer aided design (CAD) or animation modeling software, transforms them into thin, virtual, horizontal cross-sections and then creates successive layers until the model is complete. It is a WYSIWYG process where the virtual model and the physical model are almost identical.
With additive manufacturing, the machine reads in data from a CAD drawing and lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, or sheet material, and in this way builds up the model from a series of cross sections. These layers, which correspond to the virtual cross section from the CAD model, are joined together or fused automatically to create the final shape. The primary advantage to additive fabrication is its ability to create almost any shape or geometric feature.

[kitkatz]

That is what she said. But I had no idea!

[jbeany]

Very cool.  Did you see the science news about the scientist who is using similar technology to build kidneys and other transplant organs?  Instead of artificial material, they are using the machine to lay down thin layers of organic building blocks, which bind together into working organs.

[kitkatz]

Yeah, I emailed that article to her. She already read it.  Awesome!