In Fall 2024, SiDi Lab hosted a group of three freshmen students, Ian Clark, Parth Mehta, and Retvin Pant, through the Freshman Introduction to Research in Engineering (FIRE) program at the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their project, “Swarm Manufacturing with Robotics,” mentored by PhD student Ronnie Stone, won first place in the final design competition. In this project, the team designed a novel fused deposition modeling (FDM) extruder system for robotic arm-enabled 3D printing, building an important link in realizing swarm-inspired hybrid manufacturing. Congratulations to the team for their impressive work, as they just joined UT ME for the first semester! Check out the demo below and stay tuned for our next design iteration.