Brandeis MakerLab held its fifth annual Printathon, a 24-hour innovative event in which students come together and compete to design a 3D- printed project, last weekend.

 This year, MakerLab partnered with the International Business School to co-sponsor the event, aiming to help a part of the Waltham community that faces inequity. Instead of having a single hackathon challenge as in previous years, MakerLab presented multiple challenges proposed by Waltham non-profits such as providing housing for the homeless community in Waltham. The event aimed “to fuse digital fabrication and social impact to work on real world solutions,” according to Printhaton website.

 “We were experimental this year,” Hazal Uzunkaya, MakerLab staff and Printathon daily operator, said. According to Uzunkaya, Ian Roy, director for Research Technology and Innovation and head of MakerLab at Brandeis University, worked with Prof. Gene Aller Miller (IBS) to give students a chance to put social justice into action with this Printathon. 

This year had fewer participants compared to previous years, Uzunkaya said in an interview with the Justice. She also stated that the participation was lighter than expected, most likely because of St. Patrick’s Day and midterms.

This year’s Printathon event started with the students from the class “Field Projects: Consulting in Social Innovation Impact” pitching challenges to participants. These students developed the challenges from working with Waltham non-profit companies over the summer. Companies varied from the Teen Police Academy to the Waltham Chamber of Commerce.

Participants came from the University of Connecticut and the University of Rhode Island, as well as from Brandeis and from the Greater Boston area. Among the students were those who were participating for the first time and even some who had never used a 3-D printer before.

On Sunday, a panel of judges, including community activists, technology specialists and educators watched students give presentations of their project pitches. The panel evaluated the projects on “how well they satisfy the needs of the non-profit, as well as on Complexity, Creativity, Originality, the 3D Printed Component, Adherence to the Challenge, and a Popular Vote,” according to  the Printhaton website.

The winner of the $1,000 prize was the project titled “Modern Factory Demo of a 3D Printer.”  Danielle Browning, Dave Spafford Corsi, Paul Roach, Justin Schroeder, Tim Henning and Brian DuBois created the project,  aiming to add a new exhibition to the Charles River Museum. This museum, housed in Waltham’s old watch factory, tells the story of the factory’s operations. The factory was the first of its kind in the nation, according to Uzunkaya.

The team proposed the creation of exhibits for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the fourth major industrial era since the initial Industrial Revolution, according to Uzunkaya. In their presentation, they explained that they felt this exhibit was necessary because the museum currently lacks exhibits about the Age of Automation and is thus missing part of the modern history of manufacturing. They created a cross-sectional, larger-scale printer so people can understand the current implications of 3D-printing in industry. They presented their project to the museum for exhibition.