Keynote Speakers
Amy Alexander
Senior Biomedical Engineer, Mayo Clinic
Amy Alexander is the Senior Biomedical Engineer in the Mayo Clinic Department of Radiology’s Anatomic Modeling Lab in Rochester, Minn. In her role, she uses advanced medical software to convert 2D radiological imaging data into 3D printed models. Her main focus is working directly with surgical teams to digitally plan a patient’s boney reconstructive surgery, and then design and print surgical cutting guides precisely aligned to that individual’s case. These life-size, patient-specific models and guides help surgeons from all specialties within the hospital prepare for and perform complex procedures. Additionally, the 3D models form a communication bridge for patients regarding their personal surgical plan. As an active member of the Radiological Society of North America’s 3D Printing in Medicine Special Interest Group (RSNA 3D SIG), Amy chairs the Engineering Education subcommittee. Within the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Medical 3D Printing Workgroup, she is chair for the Education of Engineers and Technologists/Technicians committee. Amy is also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Medical 3D/AM workgroup. Since 2015, Amy has trained under distinguished Mayo Clinic Radiologists and emeritus Chairs of the RSNA 3D SIG, Dr. Jane Matsumoto and Dr. Jonathan Morris. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). She holds a certificate in Additive Manufacturing for Innovative Design and Production through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a certificate in Additive Manufacturing Technologies through SME. In 2019, she was recognized as one of 14 international recipients of the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer (OYME) award. Amy also enjoys all opportunities to teach anatomic modeling to students at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels, and speaking with anyone interested in the intersection of STEM, medicine, and the arts.
Melodie Yashar
Design Architect, Researcher and Co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+)
Melodie Yashar is a design architect, researcher and co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+), a group building upon a 10-year portfolio of academic space research and practice developing human-supporting concepts for space exploration. In 2015 SEArch+ was awarded the top prize in NASA’s Centennial Challenge for a 3D-Printed Habitat for the proposal "Mars Ice House." SEArch+ maintains ongoing collaboration with NASA Langley conducting feasibility studies for related ice habitat concepts. Having recently completed Phase 3 of NASA’s Challenge, Melodie has led team SEArch+/Apis Cor to win first prize in Design for “Mars X-House,” as well as first prize in Construction Levels 1 & 2. Since 2017 Melodie has led SEArch+’s research developing functional prototypes and materials systems for future space habitats. Melodie has worked as a researcher for grant projects specializing in human factors with the Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames. She received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a Master of Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.
Speakers
Pamela Cabahug-Zuckerman
Postdoctoral TL1 Scholar, NYU Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Department of Orthopedic Surgery
I am an engineer-scientist, with the goal to use principles in Biomedical Engineering (BME) to understand biological control mechanisms and use this knowledge to develop treatments to solve medical problems. In particular, I have been studying bone, and how bone tissue cells respond to mechanical signals to affect its maintenance and remodeling. In my PhD work at City College of NY (CCNY), and current research at NYU, I have been pursuing solutions to the challenges of disuse or aging. At CCNY, I studied under renowned scientists and engineers Drs. Schaffler, Cowin and Weinbaum. Under Schaffler, I lead the work to establish that osteocyte apoptosis is the controlling factor in disuse osteoporosis (J Bone Miner Res. 2016 Jul;31(7):1356-65). In my PhD Thesis work, I identified an integrin-based mechanotransduction complex in bone cells using super-resolution microscopy (J Orthop Res. 2018 Feb;36(2):642-652.) I have been a Postdoctoral Associate in Dr. Alesha Castillo's Laboratory of Mechanobiology and Regenerative Medicine at NYU Departments of BME and Orthopaedic Surgery since February 2016. At NYU, I am investigating the role of the chemokine recruitment factor, CXCL12, in bone homeostasis and mechano-response using a mouse model. In addition, I am also studying age-associated diminution of load-induced bone formation. Ongoing work in these projects aim to find the molecular control and cellular signaling response for osteogenesis. I aspire to apply my pre-clinical research background to the most modern clinical applications, and to participate in profound engineering discoveries that improve the orthopedic quality of life for our aging population.
Carlos Castillo
Model Shop Coordinator, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, New York
Carlos is trained in architecture and is an experienced model maker and digital fabricator with a background in design fabrication at various scales. He is currently the Model Shop Coordinator at BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group in New York where he plays a key role in developing the studio’s 3D printing culture. He manages the printer cluster, leads staff trainings and educates designers on best practices for printed model production. Prior to BIG, Carlos was a team leader for Rafael Viñoly’s Design Research & Development Team, where he prototyped and produced several interactive design concepts. Prior to Viñoly, he worked with architect and artist Tristan Al-Hadad on large-scale public art installations.
Shreyas Chandragiri
Research Assistant, Jefferson Health Design Lab, Thomas Jefferson University
Shreyas is a research assistant at the Health Design Lab. At the lab, many of his projects consist of 3D printing for healthcare applications, ranging from devices to anatomical models. A lifelong tinkerer, Shreyas enjoys the variety of cases he gets to work on and always takes up the opportunity to experiment with new 3D printing technology. He received his BE in biomedical engineering from Temple University with a concentration in biomedical devices and instrumentation. Shreyas is currently a first-year student pursuing a medical degree at Jefferson.
Andres Gonzalez
RhinoFabStudio World-wide Director, CEO Co-Founder at BITS3D Corp
Andrés is a software trainer and developer since the 1980s.
He has developed applications for diverse design markets as well as training materials for different CAD and Design software including AEC Metric PRO, Mepal Draw, and the Integrator (BIM) for Autocad (18-2014), as well as the community of training materials www.rhino3d.tv for Rhino3D.
Andrés has written numerous multimedia books for such programs like Flamingo3D, Rhino3D, Grasshopper, RhinoCAM etc.
Andrés has been working with the Rhino3D Team since the very early stages.
He is now the head of the McNeel Southeast US & Latin American Division.
He is the worldwide director of the digital fabrication community called RhinoFabStudio as well as the Generative Jewelry & Fashion Design community GJD3D and Generative Furniture Design community GFD3D.
Andrés latest work is related to a card game, addressed to facilitate the learning of generative and computational design called www.Sudohopper3D.com.
Louise Harpman
Professor of Architecture, Urban Design, and Sustainability at NYU, Founder Louise Harpman_PROJECTS
Louise Harpman is a Professor of Architecture, Urban Design, and Sustainability at NYU and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Harpman is the founder and principal of Louise Harpman__PROJECTS whose work focuses on architectural design, urban design, and design research. Her website is www.louiseharpman.com. Harpman also directs the zeromicro™ Applied Research Consortium through which she holds trademarks in related zeromicro™ design applications. For more information, please see www.zeromicro.us.
Harpman is co-author of Coffee Lids (Princeton Architectural Press, 2018) with Scott Specht; Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned (Prestel, 2014) with Peder Anker and Mitchell Joachim; and co-editor of Perspecta 30: Settlement Patterns (MIT Press, 1999) with Evan Supcoff. She is a co-founder of Global Design NYU, which advances innovation in architecture, urbanism, and ecological planning.
Amy Hurst, PhD
Associate Professor at NYU, Director of the Ability Project
Dr. Amy Hurst is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Occupational Therapy in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and the Department of Technology, Culture and Society in the Tandon School of Engineering. She is the director of the Ability Project, an interdisciplinary research space dedicated to the intersection between disability and technology. Dr. Hurst is passionate about understanding current social problems and identifying opportunities for technology to empower individuals impacted by those problems. Her work sits at the intersection of assistive technology, interaction design, and engineering education. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon and a B.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jerrod Kennard
Computational Design Leader, Digital Design, Gensler NY
Jerrod is an architect and Computational Design Leader on the Digital Design team in the Gensler New York office where he leverages digital and computational approaches to assist in the design process. He focuses on digital workflows that utilize simulation/analysis and continue further into fabricationas well as using open-source hardware to explore the gap between the digital world and the physical realities of buildings. In his previous work he has led the computation design efforts and an applied research and development group. He established a 3D printing initiative that expanded to over 22 printers and a robust maker space program. Jerrod received his Master of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Stacy Kirsch, MS, OTR/L, C/NDT
Clinical Specialist, NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital
Stacy has worked at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital in the outpatient pediatric Rusk Rehabilitation department for the past 8 years. She is one of the pediatric Clinical Specialists in the inpatient and outpatient programs. Stacy has been a part of the Exoskeleton IRB approved research study for the past few years. She also completed her Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Treatment Certification in 2014 and has since implemented an intensive NDT program for children with cerebral palsy. She has presented at NYU’s Cerebral Palsy Conferences on Adaptive Equipment Options for Sports Participation, a Multidisciplinary Approach To Spasticity Evaluation and Management, and Upper Extremity Interventions: Splinting, Constraint Induced Movement Therapy/Bimanual Arm Training, and Robotic-Based Training, and most recently at AOTA on a Paradigm Shift in Pediatric Service Delivery.
Alex Meckes
Senior Customer Success Manager, nTopology
Alex Meckes leads the Customer Success team at nTopology where he works with customers to ensure they are getting the most out of nTop Platform software. Prior to nTopology, he helped manage a 3D printing lab at Harvard University making robots, medical models and other interesting things. For Alex, 3D printing was a hobby that got out of hand. nTopology creates design and engineering solutions to support advanced manufacturing and automation initiatives. In an environment driven by data and physics, using the latest 3D modeling technology, engineers can capture their knowledge in a robust and efficient way to repurpose it for tomorrow’s products.
Asli Oney
Makerspace Technician, Kohn Pederson Fox Associates
Asli Oney is the Makerspace Technician at Kohn Pederson Fox Associates in New York. Her role is to teach and implement advance fabrication strategies for the studio designers to create complex and refined physical models. She explores and implements emerging technologies for fabrication in order to advance modelling and visualization as a discipline; in doing so bridging the gap between physical and conceptual, offering new ways for architects to create and execute on a higher level. She solely manages the firm’s 25+ innovative machines of Additive manufacturing, Subtractive & Formative manufacturing. She is also the President of KPF Lab, a forum for highlighting innovative methods used to foster collaboration, efficiency, and creativity within the workflow of KPF.
Asli holds a Bachelor in Technology in Architectural Technology and Design from the New York College of Technology (NYCCT), City University of New York (CUNY). She holds a certification in Computation and Fabrication Certification through NYCCT.
During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded the National Endowment for Humanities Grant. Her Focus topic was A Cultural History of Digital Technology, 2015-2017 implementing GIS visualization, Data visualization, Mathematical Approach to Creating and Printing Topologies, Topological Optimizations in Design & Fabrication with Mathematics, and Autonomous Tensegrity Structures. For her thesis project her focus was the practice of form finding, form optimizing, and material composite constraints and behaviors, which allowed her to design and build her living/breathing wall composite structure. She has designed and built full scale pavilions for competitions, such as Bio-Catenaria for Figment NYC (Governors Island, 2017), and Resolution3 the University of Westminster’s Fabfest (London, 2017) where she received notable awards.
For the past 5 years, she has been teaching Digital Fabrication, coding, GIS visualization, Data visualization, and portfolio workshops at in her alma mater as well as CUNY, City College Architectural Department. Known as an architectural designer who consistently pushes the boundaries of technologies and fabrication methods, she actively shares her knowledge with the FDM community, manufacturers, architecture firms, fabricators, and material vendors.
Nathan Ott
Research Assistant, Jefferson Health Design Lab, Thomas Jefferson University
Nathan is a research assistant at the Health Design Lab. His research projects consist of building 3D models on FDM and SLA for healthcare applications. Nathan has built models for human as well as veterinary medicine cases. Nathan is a dedicated second-year medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College who enjoys volunteering at nearby clinics and using his 3D printing skills to help connect patients with their healthcare goals.
Michael Raphael
Founder & Owner Direct Dimensions, Inc.
Michael Raphael founded Direct Dimensions, Inc. (DDI) in 1995 as an engineering company to provide a “one-stop shop” for 3D technical services, product representation, sales, and support for all types of 3D scanning, imaging, and dimensional measurement solutions. Over the past 20+ years, DDI has expanded significantly to use the most comprehensive array of 3D scanning technologies and digital modeling solutions for the widest range of applications and industries. Today Direct Dimensions employs nearly 30 technical and professional staff and performs hundreds of 3D scanning and modeling projects every year using widest variety of 3D solutions with special emphasis on high accuracy 3D scanning solutions. See www.directdimensions.com for much more information. Michael started in the field of 3D metrology in 1985 as an engineer responsible for solving aerospace manufacturing problems at what became Lockheed Martin Corporation. While there, Michael helped develop and became the first user and customer of a revolutionary new portable three-dimensional industrial measurement technology, called the FaroArm, sold today throughout the world. Following several years of in-plant development, Michael left aerospace to form Direct Dimensions, Inc. in 1995. Michael graduated from Virginia Tech with BS degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics in 1985, followed by a Masters of Engineering Administration from George Washington University in 1990.
Miranda Sills
Research Assistant, Jefferson Health Design Lab, Thomas Jefferson University
Miranda is a research assistant at the Jefferson Health Design Lab. Her research interests consist of building 3D models for pre-surgical planning and patient education. She has built models for complex obstetric, liver resection, and head and neck cancer cases for Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals. She is an educator, training new technicians on how to apply design thinking to healthcare and how to operate 3D modeling programs for medical cases. When she is not in the lab Miranda is pursuing a medical degree at Jefferson.
Bernardo Schuhmacher
Model Shop Manager, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, New York City
Bernardo is the Model Shop Manager for BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group in New York City. He joined BIG in 2018 to oversee the studio’s fabrication facilities and to improve overall model production quality. Bernardo’s focus on educating teams with model making and digital fabrication methodologies has helped streamline the studio’s model production, an invaluable tool for each team’s intensive iterative design process. In the past six months, he has been working to shift BIG’s making culture from an analog approach to an almost exclusively digital method with a focus on 3D printing. Previously, Bernardo was the Director of Models and Fabrication for Viñoly Architects.
Nicole Wake, PhD
Director of 3D Imaging, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Nicole Wake, PhD is the Director of 3D Imaging at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Wake is also an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Radiology at NYU Langone Health. Dr. Wake specializes in creating 3D images from radiological imaging data. Specifically, she has coupled MRI data with a range of 3D printing, augmented reality, and virtual reality technologies to create individualized anatomically precise anatomic models for pre-operative planning. She is using these models to guide patient management and is investigating the added value of 3D printing and advanced image visualization in personalized medical care. Dr. Wake is the author of numerous high-impact publications evaluating 3D printing in medicine. She is actively involved in the RSNA 3D Printing Special Interest Group and the SME Medical AM/3DP Workgroup.
Lukasz Witek, M.Sci., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomaterials and Biomimetics, NYU
Director of Craniomaxillofacial Orthopedic Biomaterials Regenerative Applications Lab
Dr. Lukasz Witek has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomaterials at New York University (NYU) since September 2018. He earned his BSci in Biology at Temple University in 2008 and MSci in Biomaterials Science from New York University in 2011. Dr. Witek defended his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2015 at Oklahoma State University under the guidance of Prof. James E. Smay. Upon completion of his PhD studies, he re-joined NYU’s Department of Biomaterials as a post-doctoral fellow and Director of Craniomaxillofacial Orthopedic Biomaterials Regenerative Applications Lab, focusing on 3D printing for regenerative medicine applications. Dr. Witek has authored/co-authored over 35 journal articles, served as guest editor for multiple journals as well served as chair of the individual sessions at International Associate of Dental Research (IADR) and Society for Biomaterials (SFB).
Arthur Young-Spivey
Creative Director of Technology, BluEdge
Designer at heart, Young-Spivey has been an educator for over 20 years for both professional and as an adjunct professor at The New School Parsons. As a continued practice Young-Spivey has put his design engineer education to use within the table top, lighting, and furniture industry for over 30 years. 3D Scanning, additive manufacturing, and 3D Software has been a main staple and vehicle used to answer a wide variety of questions and manufacturing challenges. As the Creative Director of Technology for BluEdge Young-Spivey is charged with pushing forward a range of technological advancements in the Architectural, Construction, and Engineering industry.
