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Project # 39
Fuse.io: Enabling Expressive Multimaterial Modeling through Modular CAD-CAM Fuse Bead Prototyping
| Team Lead: | Mariah Gardner |
| Other Team Members: | |
| Faculty Advisor(s): | Cesar Torres |
| Department: | CSE |
| Project Type: | REU |
| Title: | Fuse.io: Enabling Expressive Multimaterial Modeling through Modular CAD-CAM Fuse Bead Prototyping |
| Abstract: | Material modeling tools are crucial for designing complex structures, metamaterials, and multi-material models. However, the complexity of traditional CAD tools limits their accessibility and makes it difficult for users to fully understand material behavior. The traditional CAD-simulation-CAM workflow separates users from direct material interaction, hindering the intuitive understanding of the tangible effects from stress, strain, shear, and tension. To enable an experiential, tinkerable, and playful modeling experience, we introduce Fuse.io, a digital fabrication design workflow where fuse bead geometries are 3D printed using different functional and aesthetic thermoplastics and fused physically or digitally into larger patterns or structures. The workflow demonstrates modular CAD-CAM as a technique to minimize the role of virtual design through the rapid fabrication of modular physical building blocks. Through a set of exemplars, we demonstrate how our technique can enable craft exploration of metamaterial, multi-material models, three-dimensional forms, and physical computation design. We discuss the value of craft in enabling digital fabrication sketching and the portability of fuse beads as a ubiquitous thermoplastic prototyping technique. |
| Poster: | View Poster #39 (PDF) |
| Judges Scoring: | Submit Evaluation (judges only) |