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Rice University’s Office of Innovation is partnering with California-based Redwood City-based Carbon and Austin, Texas-based manufacturer TyRex Group to make additive manufacturing equipment and expertise an integral part of its initiative to provide campus-wide access to prototyping and design facilities and services.
From left, Andrew Cooper, founder and CEO of TyRex Group; Rick Jennings, COO of TyRex Group; Paul Cherukuri, vice president of innovation for Rice University; and Grant Belton, lead design engineer at Rice Nexus, a prototyping facility Rices Office of Innovation is building at Ion, with the Rices L1 Carbon printer at TyRexs Austin, Texas, facility in February 2023. (Photo courtesy of TyRex Group )
Collaboration is the fastest way to get technology out of the lab and into the real world, said Paul Cherukuri, a physicist, chemist and technology entrepreneur whom Rice tapped last fall to fill the role of first vice president of innovation.
He said 3D printing is increasingly critical to university innovation because it allows you to create things you otherwise couldn’t make, and allows you to go from an idea to a prototype and downstream to a product very quickly.
To make 3D printing and other prototyping capabilities widely available at Rice, Cherukuris’ office is building the Rice Nexus, a dedicated ion innovation space where faculty and students can transform test ideas into viable prototypes that will be attractive to the industry and investors.
Paul Cherukuri (photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
In part, Cherukuri is building her own experience as a researcher. When he pitched his idea for developing 3D printable smart helmets to the Office of Naval Research in 2021, he championed the idea of working side-by-side with industry experts who specialize in manufacturing products with 3D printing.
The Navy was good at this because it understood the importance of thinking about production at the outset, Cherukuri said. This is the key to accelerating innovation. And this is where additive manufacturing really takes off.
The 3D printed Rice Smart Helmet will be both a protective device and a wearable technology platform that detects threats, monitors vital signs and provides situational awareness. (Photo courtesy of P. Cherukuri/Rice University)
The Rice Smart Helmet project reinvents the military helmet as both a protective gear and a wearable technology platform. When the Navy funded the project, it allowed Cherukuri to purchase two of Carbons industrial-grade 3D printers, an M2 model that was installed at Rice for smaller prints and a top-of-the-line large-format L1 that was installed at TyRexs. Austin facility nearly 170 miles from the Rice campus.
Cherukuri said the combination of the Carbon printers and TyRex expertise has allowed the Smart Helmets team to transition seamlessly from concept to production, and he wants to replicate that experience for other Rice labs. If I design on the L1, I can print and print 1,000 of them, and that’s a capability we didn’t have before, Cherukuri said.
Of TyRex, he said, “The fastest way to get a design ready for production is to work with someone experienced who understands the real-world challenges of product development, and that’s what they bring.
The Rice Nexus is scheduled to open this summer. Cherukuri said the facilities’ capabilities, funding and resources will be defined by what the Innovation Office learns from faculty surveys.
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https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/0417_PARTNERS-TyRex4-lg.jpg CAPTION: From left, Andrew Cooper, founder and CEO of TyRex Group; Rick Jennings, COO of TyRex Group; Paul Cherukuri, vice president of innovation for Rice University; and Grant Belton, lead design engineer at Rice Nexus, a prototyping facility Rices Office of Innovation is building at Ion, with the Rices L1 Carbon printer at TyRexs Austin, Texas, facility in February 2023. (Photo courtesy of TyRex Group )
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/0417_PARTNERS-pc-lg.jpg CAPTION: Paul Cherukuri (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/0417_PARTNERS-cutaway-lg.jpg CAPTION: 3D Printed Rice Smart Helmet Will Be Both Protective Gear and Wearable Technology Platform That Detects Threats monitors vital signs and provides situational awareness. (Photo courtesy of P. Cherukuri/Rice University)
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About rice
Located on a 300-acre wooded campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the top 20 universities in the nation by US News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing education, engineering, the humanities, music, natural sciences, and social sciences, and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,240 undergraduate and 3,972 graduate students, Rices’ undergraduate-to-faculty ratio is just under 6 to 1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason Rice is ranked no. 1 for many race/class interactions and no. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated the best value among private universities by Kiplingers Personal Finance
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