Credit: 3Ders
The country’s Ministry of Education will develop mobile 3D printing labs to visit schools.
3Ders reported on the announcement of the ‘Fab Trucks’ by the ministry, which stated that its plan would “promote 3D printing amongst its youth” and “solidify the country’s reputation as a talent pool for 3D printing”. The trucks are mobile digital fabrication laboratories, and will visit 497 high schools and 160,000 students and teachers across the country in the next two years.
The “very ambitious project” will allow students to “experience and play with” 3D printing, with workshops and presentations taking place. The Ministry of Education hopes that the plan will “nurture a whole generation of talented creatives that are familiar and comfortable with 3D printing technology”, transforming Taiwan into a “creativity base set to compete internationally”.
There are six trucks costing $224,000 (€207,734) each, containing DLP (light-curing) and FDM (fused deposition modelling) 3D printers as well as a CNC milling machine and laser cutters. The ministry previously set up experiment centres containing 3D printers in a number of Taiwanese schools and has sponsored 3D printing classes, while also providing research and studies classes as well.
Wu Si Hua, Taiwanese Minister of Education, stated that the programme “lets students, through their experience and learning, realise their good ideas using new technology. Taiwan should quickly transform into an innovat[ive] society”. The trucks will enable students, he added, to “experience how [their] creativity can be turned into actual products”, and pupils will be able to use the trucks “as much as possible” for free.
It recently emerged that China is to install a 3D printer in each of its 400,000 elementary schools. Market analysts expect the global 3D printing market to be worth $20 billion (€18 billion) by 2019.