Overseeing 24 3D printers within the machine shops, my duties are to keep the printers operating, calibrated, and accessible for our student body. 

Keeping each of these machines operating is a balancing act in project management and understanding the level of student demand. In one academic quarter, I expect an average of 80 issues requiring repair for our FDM 3D printers (mostly Prusa Mk3S's). I can diagnose, repair, test, and calibrate these machines quickly and flexibly throughout the week as they go down to keep up with high demand. I also supervise a group of 15 other shop technicians to help fix some of these issues.  

One of the responsibilities I most enjoy is working directly with students and professors to help bring their designs to life with more advanced 3D printing. As people reach out to me, I meet with them one-on-one to advise on their designs, assess the feasibility and material selection of their parts, and 3D print them on FDM, SLA, or continuous fiber 3D printers. 

I complete SLA 3D printing requests using our Formlabs Form 3 and Form 4. I can print anything from breadboard adapters for students' senior projects to robust hardware mounts for a professor's lab upgrades. It has also provided opportunities to develop my DFM skills for additively manufactured parts. 

Interfacing with these groups of passionate students and engineers has been a privilege and learning experience as I play a small part in each of their projects to assist them. I have also used this platform to learn more about additive manufacturing and the many problems and design considerations that an engineer must address in creating a part. 

Cal Poly's newest makerspace with the machine shops holds 48 FDM 3D printers for student use, aside from the other eight I manage. The space also contains laser cutters and an embroidery machine. This combination will serve as a widely accessible, no-barrier-for-entry workspace for students interested in digital fabrication.

In my role, I have worked to help develop the space, logistics, and maintenance workflows ahead of launching the space. My main priorities are to increase resource accessibility for students and keep the high level of quality that the machine shops have held thus far.