We will not be hosting an open house on Wednesday due to the Fourth of July. Why not? Hot dogs and fireworks!
We hope to see you next week for our regularly scheduled awesomeness.
How to: Innovate in Science with Open Source Technology
One of our core members, Jordan Miller, has just published a scientific paper using RepRap 3D printing technology to engineer living tissues for regenerative medicine. I’ll give you a rundown of the science and a step-by-step guide of how Jordan got to this great spot in his career. Jordan is quick to point out that this is work that would not have been possible 5 years ago, or without the help of RepRap, Hive76, and this wonderful city of Philadelphia.
There are other labs around the world that are attempting what Jordan and the rest of the team at UPenn and MIT have been working towards. The end goal of regenerative medicine research is engineered tissues and replacement organs for treatment of human disease. As Science news says,
Imagine a world where if your heart or kidneys failed, you wouldn’t have to endure an agonizing, possibly futile wait for a donor whose organ your body might reject. Instead, a doctor would simply take cells from your own body and use them to “grow” you a new organ.
Other lines of research are attempting to 3D print directly with living cells and gel. These so-called “bioprinting” approaches involve loading cells and gel in syringes to be used as feedstock to create a structure from scratch. The problem is that healthy liver cells, for example, usually die of starvation (lack of nutrients) and suffocation (lack of oxygen) while enduring the slow 3D printing process.
Enter Jordan and his innovation: since vasculature provides the lifeblood to resident cells, why not focus on the vasculature first?
Jordan and the rest of the research team at UPenn and MIT have developed a new way to create vasculature for living tissues. This 4 step process involves: 1) 3D printing a network of sugar filaments, 2) surrounding it with living cells in a gel, 3) dissolving away the sugar to leave behind a vascular network for 4) the delivery of nutrients and oxygen. He accomplished this with a custom built 3D printer, extruder and control software.
Here’s a step-by-step of Jordan’s many year process:
- Get a crazy idea to link sugar and vasculature when comparing the interior of a 3D print to a capillary network.
- Get a PhD in bioengineering
- Move to Philadelphia
- Join a hackerspace
- Get introduced to 3D printing, MakerBot and RepRap
- Assemble your first MakerBot
- Invent a heated build platform to dry your sugar while printing.
- Add a heater to the Frostruder so you can print molten sugar.
- Assemble a customized RepRap Mendel that fits your new extruder.
- Get help from your hackerspace to properly control your pneumatic extrusion.
- Work for months perfecting recipes and methods for printing vasculature.
- Write it all up in a research paper and submit!
You can read the Penn press release about this awesome science, an overview from Science News, or the full paper. A more detailed post about the hardware used in this project will follow and soon you’ll be able to make your own sugar extruder. (It prints chocolate too!)
Meet Mitch Altman!!!!
Next Friday (July 6), Mitch Altman’s nationwide AMTRAK tour of hackerspaces rolls into Philadelphia, and Hive76 will be welcoming him in style. Stop by our space on Friday night for an free lecture and electronics hacking workshop officiated by Mitch himself.  There will be food, drink, merriment, and of course the opportunity to swap ideas and stories with a living legend in the DIY community.
If you haven’t followed Mitch Altman’s career, you probably still know of some of his very cool projects, like his TV-B-Gone remote, or his Brain Machine glasses, and his many cool articles for Make: Magazine. Despite the great commercial success of his inventions, Mitch helped pioneer the Open-Source Hardware movement by publicly refusing to patent his ideas, and continues to inspire the maker community by advocating the free exchange of DIY electronics knowledge.
Come by on Friday, July 6, as Mitch demos his latest inventions and kits, and leads a fun hacking workshop suitable for everyone from total novices to advanced solder-smiths! Its guaranteed to be a great time!
Date: July 6, 2012
Time: 6:00
Location: Hive76 (915 Spring Garden St.)
Price:Â ADMISSION IS FREE! (kits for the workshop start around $10)
Hackers on a Train
Our neighbors at Make Lehigh Valley are hosting Mitch Altman, Jimmie Rodgers, “and crew” (?) for a day of classes, workshops, and talks over at Hive 4A. Hackers on a Train sounds very exciting, and at only $35, it’s probably one of the cheapest ways you’ll get to meet such popular pirate-makers.
These three hours pack in just about everything you need to explore hobby electronics. As a workshop participant, you will learn the basics of Arduino, electronic components and how they interact. Then you will be instructed in soldering up Adafruit’s BoArduino kit. Your boarduino will be used to build a TV-B-Gone which will include learning to use a USB-to-serial ttl cable, the Arduino IDE, solderless breadboards and reading schematics to get their.
What We’ve Been Up To
RepRap with Aluminum Extrusions == WIN
Last Night We started the build of another one of these box-modded MendelMax printers. With extra hands we got the whole frame, the feet, all the motors, and a large number of brackets mounted and aligned in just a few hours. Even Morfin was surprised how quickly it all came together.
This design has already led to the design of the first printable upgrade: Compact Y-Rod holders. As you can see, this part was derived from MendelMax 1.0, 1.5, and some awesome rod clamps by Jonas Kuehling.
Now the build volume actually surpasses a MendelMax, sitting at 265x247x220 mm. And see how flat those 0.4mm printed layers are? That’s because this aluminum bot is super rigid, giving fast and accurate prints. Sweet!
If you can come up with a good name for this bot, I’d definitely appreciate it. Post in the comments if you feel inspired.
Modified MendelMax RepRap Build starting Wednesday
Did you take Peejay’s Intro to Programming with Arduino class? You may have learned that Arduino’s are great for controlling 3D printers such as a RepRap.
Well, hot on the heels of our last RepRap MendelMax Build, I’ve been able to redesign the MendelMax to be a rigid rectangle… the upshot is the build volume is increased (especially in Z) without the footprint increasing. The build volume of this baby is 265x233x190 mm (or ~10″x9″x7.5″). The build assembly goes much faster, too.
Come on by Hive76 starting this Wednesday night to see or help put together another one. If you’ve been wondering about our upcoming 3D Printer Build and Operation Workshop with NextFab Studio, this is a great way to see what the fuss is all about.
Here’s a video of this box design Modified MendelMax printer on it’s first print. It’s been chugging along for a solid few days now, no problems so far. It’s printing so well, it’s time to build another one. Come join us!
Intro to Programming with Arduino
OMG, we’re having a class!
You may have heard of the Arduino microcontroller before, but if not, we’re here to tell you all about it! This class will be geared towards those that have no experience with programming, microcontrollers, electronics, or even hackerspaces! Rest assured that those with some deeper digging questions will have knowledgeable members of Hive76 on hand to answer them.
With the purchase of a ticket, you will get 12 hours of instruction spread over 4 class sessions (that’s 4 three-hour sessions) and an Arduino “starter kit” of parts. You have the option of bringing your own Arduino ($55), if you have one, or choosing the package that comes with the Arduino ($75).
Sessions start on June 3rd and continue each Sunday, through June 24th. Class times are 1PM-4PM. Students must bring a laptop with a USB port (Windows, Linux, OS X), and a willingness to have fun.
Tickets can be purchased here. To clarify, students only need to purchase one ticket to attend all four classes.
Seating is limited to only 10 students! Tickets are expected to go VERY fast!
Sunday Wargame Wrapup
Well the dust has settled, and one winner has emerged. Out of all 5 players, only Steve Mandelbaum owned the box, and in under 2 hours. Players had to first identify the target server by scanning for available hosts and then using nmap to enumerate services. Then players had a choice between brute forcing the ssh service, or grabbing the passwd and shadow files from the anonymous FTP service, the latter resulting in a faster crack. After that, players needed to find the administrator of the system and use sudo to read the full passwd and shadow files. Finally, the root user could be cracked and full access would be granted.
We all had a good time, and I can’t wait for the next challenge!
S4 is meeting for the first time on June 10th at 6 PM, where we’ll be taking a look at a simple penetration test scenario.
Hope to see you there!
Pentesting Wargame On Sunday
Sunday, May 20th at 6 PM we’re hosting a pentesting wargame. Players will learn how to use common security tools such as Medusa, and John the Ripper, and identify server misconfigurations and administrative carelessness.
Come and join in on the fun! Bring a laptop!