20 highly skilled developers and computer aided design (CAD) experts, 48 hours and one common challenge: to hack the mass customization in 3D printing. This was the first EIT Digital DeepHack that took place beginning of December in the EIT Digital co-location centre in Berlin.
With the partners Trinckle 3D, a Berlin-based scaleup and 2017 winner of the EIT Digital Challenge, and hackathon experts Ultrahack, EIT Digital challenged the hackers to develop a process-oriented overall concept that integrates product design, customization, customer interaction and/or (automated) manufacturing. During the hackathon, the teams had 48 hours between Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon to put their concepts into action and develop a product solution using CAD-based mass customization based on Trinckle's paramate platform.
Right from the start, Trinckle was enthusiastic about the teams that came together: "I'm super impressed by the EIT Digital Deep Hack: The CAD elite meets in Berlin to hack the boundaries of 3D printing applications, using our paramate platform", said Florian Reichle, CEO of Trinckle.
Read full blog post by Trinckle about the EIT Digital DeepHack
Also three students from the EIT Digital's Master School participated in the DeepHack: Shruti Kuber, who is doing her Masters at TU Berlin in Embedded Systems & Innovation and Entrepreneurship , valued the DeepHack for its go-to-market approach: "I liked most that it was not only a ‘work and presentation' kind of hackathon, but we actually got to use Trinckle's API and made a product out of it which is basically ready to launch tomorrow." Together with Sai, also Master School student, she formed the "Build-A-City" project that allows users to turn photos into 3D printings of city landmarks, which makes for the perfect souvenir instead of generic fridge magnets.
In the end, three teams were awarded. The winning teams received a total prize money of €5,000. Additionally, all participants got a license to use the Trinckle paramate software platform for 12 months.
1st prize winner: The team "3D printed camera caps" developed a configurator for the design of specific, low volume camera lens caps, allowing for different designs, colours etc. The team of ETH Zurich students and professionals from Swiss camera manufacturer ALPA saw the need for mass customization of camera lens caps since these tend to get lost quite often.
2nd prize winner: The team "ArmHero" not only built a customizer for 3D printed prosthesis for pediatric patients, but also - as children without upper limbs often tend to refuse to use prosthesis - 3D printed attachments with ‘superpowers' (e.g. ball-throwing mechanism). This way, children get used to wearing a prosthesis and can develop a positive relation to it. Part of the ArmHero team was Mohamed Hamza who is an EIT Digital Master School Student at TU Berlin.
3rd prize winner: The team "3D printed camera handles" developed a configurator that takes length and width of the customer's hand into consideration, to create 3D printed camera handles which are uniquely designed to have the perfect fit while additionally giving various options in terms of colours and design.
The DeepHack in Berlin was the first in a series of events that will take place all over Europe and in the Silicon Valley. As open innovation events, DeepHacks gives business teams immersive access to the brightest and most creative next-generation digital innovators and entrepreneurs to solve their most critical business challenges and to create new business solutions. If you are interested to learn more about opportunities to participate as an industry partner, please contact iep@eitdigital.eu.
