Boosting the scientific excellence and innovation capacity of 3D printing methods in pandemic period

BRIGHT ERASMUS+ Project 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095517

“Boosting the scientific excellence and innovation capacity of 3D printing methods in pandemic period” – BRIGHT Project Reference: 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095517 is an ERASMUS+ program which was funded within the key action “Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices”, Action type: Strategic Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness”.

The project has been started on 01.03.2021 and will end on 28.02.2023.

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is Lead coordinator of the BRIGHT project and the consortium is comprised by Technical Universities and SMEs partners that are coming from Croatia, Poland, Slovakia and Serbia (University of Nis, Poznan University of Technology, Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, BIZZCOM s.r.o, B.M. Plast d.o.o) – for more details please check the official website of the BRIGHT project: https://bright-project.eu/ .

The main objective of the BRIGHT project consists in providing teaching resources and methods for professors and students that are coming from the Higher Education institutions and are interested in getting relevant knowledge, skills and competences in the field of 3D printing methods that are used for producing medical parts that can support hospitals and medical institutions in pandemic period. The teaching methods, as well as the applications and knowledge shared by the BRIGHT consortium partners in the field of developing, producing and testing of medical products realized by 3D printing methods will easily ensure the exchange of the expertise, experience and good practice examples within, through and beyond the BRIGHT consortium to the other university partners, with the main aim to provide specialists that are able to support medical institutions using the resources of the BRIGHT project in the context of the pandemic.

The main resources that will be offered by the BRIGHT partners’ consortium will consist in:

BRIGHT support courses required for developing, producing and testing of medical parts that are required to be realized from different types of materials and different types of 3D printing methods
BRIGHT e-toolkit manual for digital learning (correlated with the support courses)
BRIGHT e-learning virtual laboratory platform for developing, producing and testing medical parts by 3D printing (in correlation with the support courses and the toolkit)
BRIGHT e-learning webinars related to the use of 3D printing technologies in the process of development, producing and testing of medical parts that can support hospitals in pandemic period (the webinars are correlated with the support courses, toolkit and examples provided for teaching purposes on the e-virtual laboratory platform)
BRIGHT e-case studies for project based learning method used in developing, testing and manufacturing of new medical parts by 3D printing technologies that can support hospitals in pandemic period (case studies are going to be launched on the e-platform of BRIGHT project so professors and students can use the resources provided by the BRIGHT project for developing, producing and testing of medical parts that are coming from medical sector, in cooperation with BRIGHT partners’ consortium and support of the SMEs).

Beside the expected results mentioned above, one major achievment reached so far have consisted in the organizing of the BRIGHT International Summer School on: “3D printing for medical applications” that was organized by the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, in cooperation with the BRIGHT consortium partners in the period 19-30.07.2021. A total number of 330 attendees from more than 20 European countries registered for their participation in this event which, even if it was held online, was able to establish a sufficiently strong connection with long-term positive impact not only between students and professors, but also between the universities and well-known European companies involved in the field of 3D printing, national and European development agencies, as well as public institutions of local importance (Cluj-Napoca City Hall). The message addressed by Mr. Emil Boc (mayor of Cluj-Napoca) to the participants emphasized that young people are characterized by an inexhaustible creativity which enables them to face any challenge of the labour market. This message provided a great motivation to the attendees who decided to share their knowledge and expertise in the frame of the BRIGHT International summer school organized with the strong support of the Board of the University of Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.

Many professors from T.U. Cluj-Napoca as well as from other Romanian and foreign partner universities gave lectures to the students enrolled in the summer school. These lectures provided the speakers with the opportunity of sharing their expertise in various medical applications of engineering: computer-aided design of medical devices, validation of the design solutions by finite element analysis, 3D printing of medical devices and their laboratory testing, etc. The students thus became aware of the fact that a large variety of aspects should be considered when devising new products for medical applications.

Several companies specialized in 3D printing and/or 3D bioprinting domain presented their new products as well as the latest developments in these fields: Materialise (Belgium), EnvisionTEC (Germany), 3D Systems (Germany), Spee3D (Germany), Stratasys (France), NU Technologies (Romania), Symme3D (Romania), and Omni3D (Poland). Three companies involved in the development of software solutions for medical applications also presented their achievements in the fields of computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, virtual reality and augmented reality: CADWorks (Romania), Solfins 3D (Serbia), and Bizzcom (Slovakia).

All these partners expressed their availability to cooperate in the future with students and teachers participating in the BRIGHT summer school (preparation of graduation/MSc/PhD theses, collaboration in Horizon joint-research projects, hosting students/researchers in their production facilities or laboratories, etc.)

Besides the large amount of technical and scientific information provided by lecturers, one should also emphasize the active participation of students and professors in seminars and laboratory meetings. The students were assigned laboratory works consisting in improving the design of a medical device, validation and optimization of the improved design, 3D printing of the redesigned medical device in the laboratories of the BRIGHT partners, and mechanical testing of the 3D-printed medical device. Students received important feedbacks and they have managed to contribute to the improving of medical models with the support of BRIGHT consortium experts. The members of the BRIGHT consortium expressed at the end of the summer school their commitment to support the attendees in the preparation of their graduation theses by mentoring or co-mentoring activities, as well as in applying for enrolment in the next edition of the BRIGHT International summer school (to be held in Croatia during July 2022). All students who were actively involved in the current edition of the summer school received attendance certificates with the Erasmus+ label at the end.

Further details on the BRIGHT International Summer School – 2021 Edition and the activities of the BRIGHT consortium scheduled for the time period 2021-2023 are provided on the Internet page of the ERASMUS KA 226 BRIGHT project: https://bright-project.eu