Category Archives: 3D Printing

Science at the Frontier and the Effect of the Linear Model

In Science the Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush proposed federal funding to universities to expand the frontiers of science. Folks these days focus on the science part of Bush’s proposal and his advocacy for funding research at universities. They skip over the idea … Continue reading

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Adam Smith’s Innovation by Division of Labor

Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow describes what he calls “What You See Is All There Is”: The combination of a coherence-seeking System 1 with a lazy System 2 implies that System 2 will endorse many intuitive beliefs, which … Continue reading

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Shop use as soulcraft

Here is the opening sentence to Archie Palmer’s 1962 examination of university patent policies: Research, whether conducted in the library, the laboratory or the shop, is an essential and integral element of an effective educational program. This sentence caught my … Continue reading

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Keeping open 3d printing innovation open

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced an effort to monitor 3d printing patent applications for possible Pre-issuance Submission actions.  PIS is a new procedure in the America Invents Act patent reform that allows the public to provide patent examiners with … Continue reading

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On the Central Control of Research Innovation

Global University Venturing has published an essay that explores yet another aspect of the present assignment situation, exploring the effect of institutional claims on the dynamics of innovation.  In the essay I try to put in the context the arguments … Continue reading

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The Effect of University Monopoly Licensing in 3d Printing

Inkjet powder 3d printers provide a useful case study for the effects of university exclusive patent licensing.  In the early 90s, MIT researchers developed inkjet 3d printers. They built off much of the technology platform used for selective laser sintering … Continue reading

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Shanzhai Rules

Over at the LinkedIn Post-Industrial Design group, there’s a little discussion started by Matt Sinclair on a report called The Future of Open Fabrication from the Institute For the Future. The report calls out the Shanzhai approach to manufacturing in … Continue reading

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Scorching the 3d printing research community

Over at Open 3dp I have posted a manifesto piece on the problems I see developing in university practice in the area of 3d printing.   Being part of an open research project makes it clear how much of a problem … Continue reading

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IP in 3DP

There are a couple of articles out now looking at IP in 3d printing.  For the UK, see this article by Simon Bradshaw, Adrian Bowyer, and Patrick Haufe, and for the US, this white paper by Michael Weinberg.   These articles … Continue reading

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The Room at the Bottom

Feynman made a famous talk on studying the small things of physics, arguing there was “plenty of the room at the bottom” for research. The same may be true for university research and technology transfer relative to markets, industry, and … Continue reading

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