The new 3D Printing club looks forward to establishing itself as a club while finding a set meeting time and place.
The newly started club is looking to continue its expansion to reach as many students as possible. The purpose of the club is to provide a community of like-minded students who are interested in 3D printing, whether experienced or not, and give them other people to people to talk about it.
Secretary Marcus Marcondes, a sophomore pre-engineering major from Reno, Nevada, helped with the creation of the club because he wanted to introduce 3D printing to more people.
“I’ve really enjoyed [3D printing] in the past couple of years and I think that anyone who has an interest in it would benefit from having an easier onboarding process to it,“ Marcondes said.
“The general plan is to have community meetings where people go to talk about their projects, ask for help on projects and share their progress,” said James Saley, president of the club and a sophomore pre-engineering major from Salt Lake City.
The club will help members get stronger prints and explain different filament types, as well as discover the 3D design software they can use and what they can learn to program.
Saley initially proposed the idea of the club at the beginning of the school year, but didn’t get approved until Oct. 14.
Although the leadership has planned what the future of the club will look like, the time it took for the club to be approved impacted membership engagement.
Saley said they had a hard time not being officially approved as long as they did. This reflected on the members’ attendance on the first meeting they had, where only seven people showed up.
“Not having a lot of official information at Club Rush, or even briefly after, really slowed us down,” Marcondes said.
When they have enough people to get the direction of the club back on track, they expect to have a better gauge of their official meeting times and location.
The club also has plans to collaborate in the future with both the university itself and other spaces, such as Utah Tech’s Atwood Innovation Plaza Makerspace.
They will also be having a booth at the STEM Club Rush Nov. 13.
“We could definitely collaborate with the Tabletop Game Club, like printing miniatures or game pieces,” Saley said. “We could really collaborate with any other club because there’s a 3D print for pretty much every topic.”
A project they have thought of is making a website or app that tracks who is using printers that are registered under the club. Then, other users can ask for availability or have somebody print them something.
“The club is special because it can cover a very wide range of areas,” Saley said.
Saley said the club can cover theater, props, art, painting, sanding, sculpting or designing.
“3D printing is for everyone,” Marcondes said. “You don’t have to be an engineer or know what you’re doing to be able to learn, have fun and make cool projects.”
Aelenna Dahman, a freshman art major from Lakewood, Colorado, shared her reason for joining the club and why she is excited to participate in it.
“I want to join the 3D printing club to turn my creative ideas into something real,” she said. “It would also be a great way to meet people who have similar interests as me.”
The club is planning a meeting Nov. 6, where they hope to meet more members and engage with everyone who is interested. The time and location for future meetings can be found on their Instagram account @ut_3d_printing_club.
“We’ll teach you from the ground up all the steps you need to do,” Saley said. “All you really need is the passion to build something, and we’ll help you do everything else.”
