14 DAY TRIAL // Lots of inventions somehow end up successful, while others of great promise get covered in the mass media only to mysteriously and quietly disappear afterwards. The 3D printer that a team of MIT students just invented could go either way.
Kyle Hounsell, Kristine Bunker, and David Donghyun Kim recently turned in their spring semester project for the additive manufacturing class run by Professor John Hart: a 3D printer that can layer ice cream into various shapes.
They showed the effectiveness of their idea by having the printer create a star. How does it work? The machine extrudes soft serve ice cream and immediately freezes it, thus the possibility of arranging it into shapes on a plate.
The three students wanted to make something that would be a hit with kids, and we all know that ice cream always works to brighten their mood, brain freeze or not. As you all may or may not know, 3D printing isn't exactly easy to introduce or teach to the younger generation, since it relies on CAD know-how, among other things.
Not that adults are any less likely to be interested in it. A sweet tooth is a sweet tooth no matter one's age.
Liquid nitrogen was used to freeze the ice cream as it came out of the extruder. Otherwise, a Solidoodle 3D printer did all the work. There are no plans to market the idea, alas.
