3D PRINTING

    Alex first began his 3D design career as a freshman in high school. He learned Autodesk Inventor Pro for various personal projects. In 2016, he bought his first entry level 3D printer to develop custom drone frames. Since then, he has learned every step of the 3D printing process to make stronger and lighter parts.   

    He also brought this skill into the real world during the Covid-19 pandemic. Face shields were in short supply and he was able to design and print them for his hometown for front line workers. In total, he printed 1000 face shields over the course of two months with his fleet of five printers. 

    Alex also uses this in his research assistant position since a lot of the R&D requires custom parts. 3D printing allows for quick prototyping and easy modification to create mounts for various sensors, cameras, and lights. The bottom right image is a small 3D printed drone and on the left is a custom LIDAR sensor for 2D SLAM applications.