The era of modern technology has been one of many monumental leaps in terms of what can be done by everyday people. The gaps between imagination and action have been closed down to a point so narrow that it may have been seen as the domain of science fiction only a couple of decades ago. One of the most interesting leaps in technology has, no doubt, been 3D printing. While it is still seen by many as a platform that is closed out to many of the ‘normal’ people, and available only to the more technologically advanced segment of the public, this too has been changing in recent years.

Many institutions and universities abroad have incorporated 3D printing into their advanced design curriculum and also used it as a way to supplement learning in more traditional forms of academia. This revolution has, however, been something that has unfortunately not been felt very strongly in India.

That was until recently, when a start-up in India has started bringing the world of 3D modeling, design, and printing to schools and colleges across the country. The company, named 3Dexter, has been working on ways to simplify and streamline the entire learning curve of 3D printing in an effort to augment education in India and provide students with a new dimension of learning.

The company is fundamentally the brainchild of a group of close friends who have been testing and trying out new and improved ways of truly integrating modern technologies like 3D printing and design into technical education across colleges and schools in India in an effort to enhance the quality and learning. One of the co-founders of the company, Shantanu Kwatra, said that the idea for looking into the paradigm of 3D printing in traditional education pedagogy saw its inception during the discussions they had had in class in early April of 2015.

The group felt that technologies such as this enabled students to go deeper into the subject and its applications and also allowed them to give shape to many intangible concepts that students would deal with in their education. The research for this entire venture came from the profits of one of their previous travel related projects.

Shantanu and his group of friends started out on this mission while they were still students in college, juggling course work and other responsibilities along with their research into this field. The culmination of all of this dedication has been seen as the forming of 3Dexter. The company has been setting up 3D printing and design labs with a technical focus across five live schools in the country. They also provide a syllabus with real course objectives.

This pilot run has seen tremendous success in terms of the sheer interest students have shown towards the material taught as well as the way in which it was presented to them.