Asia University (AU) held a forum entitled “3D Printing – Computing, Chance, and Challenge” on Nov. 18. President Jing-Pha Tsai hosted the forum and invited Prof. Hsu-Pin Wang, Chief Manufacturing Officer as well as Executive Director of Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute; Prof. Cheng-Kuo Sung from the Power Mechanical Engineering Department at National Tsing Hua University; and Dr. Ji-Bin Hong, Director of 3D Printing Technology Center in the Southern Region Campus of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), to discuss the developments and applications of 3D printing.

    At first, Prof. Hsu-Pin Wang gave an overview of the 3D printing technology that is applied to biomedicine and industrial manufacturing processes. “Lots of techniques that did not exist before are now realized by 3D printing,” he said. “By integrating 3D printing with specific materials, more medical helps can be offered now to patients and speed their recovery. In the future development, we have a lot to learn from Mother Nature and can be inspired by observing and simulating the behaviors and shapes of creatures to improve our lives through 3D printing applications.”

  Prof. Cheng-Kuo Sung followed to talk about the various developments and applications of 3D printing in Taiwan, which was expected to increase the overall output value of the related industry. He said that 3D printing technology is flourishing under the relevant policies led by the government and that many schools and enterprises put a large amount of manpower and money to related R&D. He believed that AU could join and devote its efforts to the research and application in this field as well.

  After that, Dr. Ji-Bin Hong presented the laser developments and applications in the 3D Printing Technology Center of ITRI Southern Region Campus, where the 3D printing reaches a high quality of precision. He said that the center is cooperating with the industry to develop 3D printing equipments to increase the output value. Also, high value-added applications, such as jewelry design, are created and granted international prizes, and chances to work with overseas corporations are also increasing.

  AU President J.P. Tsai said that Asia University and China Medical University has together formed a “China Asia Associated University,” and set up jointly a “3D Printing Medical R&D Center” at the China Medical University Hospital, owning their 3D printing centers and teams, respectively. 3D printing has created highly-valued industry in recent years and made a major breakthrough in medical treatments, so that AU hopes to add resources including technologies of software integration, 3D image processing, and biomedicine, creative design concepts as well as marketing and industrialized development strategies to build the best 3D printing medical R&D center in Taiwan.