Educators should certainly keep in mind the positive attributes of millennial learners as we consider new curricular approaches. In this spirit, a 3D printing in chemistry initiative has been undertaken at Stetson University that draws upon the technological prowess of millennial undergraduate students. 3D printing activities have been incorporated in the curriculum whereby students are challenged to create a variety of chemical models.Together, these activities represent a highly motivational means of getting students to further engage in chemistry, while at the same time practicing and demonstrating the skills of creativity/innovation, collaboration, and technological literacy deemed vital for 21 st century professionals. The costs, compactness, low maintenance, and overall reliability of 3D printers have trended favorably in recent years to an extent that it is now possible to implement this technology within most academic settings. To the chemist, 3D printing represents a powerful new tool for creating more realistic, tangible models of molecular structures. 3D printing exercises can be incorporated in the curriculum as student lab assignments, out-of-class independent study or group projects for credit, or senior research projects. Several student projects are presented, ranging from the printing of simple ball-and-stick models of common chemical structures to the fabrication of more realistic, space-filling models of proteins and molecular
This paper presents a software aimed at making easier the design of customized products in accordance with consumers' expectations. It is based on a user-centered design methodology which combines techniques provided by Kansei Engineering, Sensory Analysis, and Soft Computing. Consumers' expectations are naturally expressed in the form of vague assessments related to human perceptions. Soft Computing techniques, namely Fuzzy Logic, can assist both Sensory Analysis and Kansei Engineering in the design and customization of products because of: (1) their suitability for computing with perceptions, and (2) their ability to tackle with imprecision and uncertainty in system identification. The utility of the software has been illustrated with a case study related to gin packaging.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.