TED TALKS ... Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of "4D printing"

I recently watched a TED TALKS video title “The emergence of 4D printing.”  The talk was presented by Skylar Tibbits.  It was just short of a 9 minute presentation on how 4D printing can revolutionize manufacturing and construction by creating objects that can self-assemble or reshape themselves over time.

http://www.ted.com/talks/skylar_tibbits_the_emergence_of_4d_printing.html

The discussion started with a brief history 3D printing and it’s evolution since the 70’s.  This helped level setting the talk, getting people up to speed on what 3D printing is.  He also discussed how current manufacturing and construction processes have major issues and perpetual re-working that needs to be done.

The main focus of his discussion was on water pipe manufacturing and construction.  He went on to discuss that in today’s world pipe assembly and maintenance is a constant battle.  There are many parts that are involved in constructing new piping.  Once the piping is made and installed, it inherently cannot keep up with demand and must be replaced to accommodate smaller or larger volumes.  For example, If you want to expand the volume of water running through a pipe, you must rip out the old one and replace it with a new larger pipe.  What he was proposing was that the use of 4D printing, you could create objects that self-construct which would eliminate complex construction and also an object that can reshape itself over time.  In terms of the water pipe, that simplifies the construction component of the pipe, reducing cost as well as eliminating the maintenance if it can indeed reshape itself as volume/demand decreases or increases over time.

Shawn did a good job of giving background on the current situation as well as what he is proposing for the future.  This was backed up by demonstration of how 4D printing will work and how using a form of energy can help reshape an object.  He threw in background references to support his level of knowledge and education and current project in process with companies for credibility.

The visuals were used during the background portion of the presentation as well as an example of what 4D printing can do in terms of reshaping an object.  This was useful and engaging to me the audience.  There was no audience participation, but this was one of those topics that I do not believe many folks have common knowledge of at the moment, so I don’t see how audience participation could have really happened.  Although I do admit I do not know the background of the audience members, he could have been discussing this with fellow MIT colleagues.

Overall I enjoyed the presentation, it flowed well and there was a definite order to the presentation that allowed the audience to get up to speed on the topic and understand what the presenter was presenting.  He was very engaging and it was a presentation that gets you thinking in a different way, looking at things differently.  I've studied Lean Manufacturing and I thought that this was very similar in the fact that this makes you think about things differently and how we could possibly do things in a way we have not thought of before to improve a process or product.