Hot on the heels of announcing  Juho Viitasalo's invitation to talk at TEDx Osaka, Gavin Kenneally was kind enough to share a link to the video of a presentation he gave at TEDx Concordia on Redefining Consumers: The Unexpected Power of 3D Printing. Gavin, a mechanical engineering student at Concordia University spoke of how he came to use 3D printing through an engineering project investigating a telescoping mechanism to increase the spread of a vehicle wheelbase that led him to build a Fab@Home desktop 3D printer which in true student romanticism sits just a few feet from the head of his bed.

 

After refining and massively simplifying his designs thanks to the properties of 3D printing, Gavin started to think what it then means to the design, engineering and manufacture cycle once this entire process becomes increasingly iterative, non-linear and available to more people. The role of the passive consumer can move to that of an active participant in the product development cycle, or the consumer is the producer and the entire design, engineering and manufacture ecosystem becomes very localized.

Check out the Video of his presentation and keep an eye on Gavin's blog to see how his project(s) unfolds.