April 1, 2015
When opportunity knocks be ready to open the door. Paul Bates, UL’s Lead 3D Printing Development Engineer, took full advantage of that at the recent TCT + Personalize Asia 3D Printing Summit in Shanghai, China.
The well-attended China session was a major event in the additive manufacturing industry, with a number of major speakers on the agenda, who focused primarily on the need to enhance 3D printing education and China’s innovation challenges in the 3D printing space.
When a featured speaker backed out because of a family emergency, Paul filled the hole, moving from attendee to presenter literally at a moment’s notice. An expert in 3D printing education and training, Paul’s 30-minute discussion on 3D printing education and the knowledge gap in the industry, was very apropos for the Chinese audience.
“3D printing training and education is a problem right now,” said Paul. “Today, people are learning about 3D printing primarily from a variety of media sources. We all know we need to make the investment to close the knowledge gap. That’s our goal at UL – to fill an education need in the industry.”
Those in attendance at the TCT conference primarily represented a combination of university individuals and business leaders. Paul indicated that China is still learning 3D printing, and attendees were anxious to hear from the experts who spoke. Most of the speakers focused on basic topics -- how 3D printing works, and how it fits into the concept of Industry 4.0.
Paul’s focus on closing the 3D printing knowledge gap continues at the <a href="http://www.additivemanufacturingusersgroup.com/conference_agenda.htm" title="2015 AMUG" target="_blank">2015 Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference</a>, where he is the conference’s education track lead. The AMUG conference will be held April 19-23 in Jacksonville, Fla. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulBates99.