The government's inaugural innovation summit in March saw teams brought together from across the Defense Department, State Department, and U.S. Agency for International Development, to find new ways to improve government services and citizens' lives.
Called the "Defense, Diplomacy, and Development Innovation Summit Pitch Challenge," or "D3 Innovation Summit" for short, two Air Force teams were selected out of 500 submissions to travel to Washington, D.C. to present their ideas.
Yesterday, Air Force Times brought you the story of a group of airmen who focused on protection from active shooters. Today, we spoke with a team that looked at new and easy ways to print buildings.
3D printing is a technology that's starting to sweep across the nation, allowing businesses to cheaply and quickly produce parts, and printing devices have even started being sold for people's homes.
Yet while most of the technology has focused on creating smaller objects, four airmen who were college friends decided to take a look at using 3D printing to create something much, much larger: a house.
"What 3D building construction is, is essentially manufacturing with a mouse-click, or automated construction," said Capt. Matthew Stalford. "Although technology has improved and materials have improved, techniques in the construction industry haven't changed, really in 100 years. They're a little dangerous, they require lots of manpower. We kind of see the technology moving in the direction of becoming a lot more automated."
Current commercial technology is experimenting with 3D printers on cranes and tracks that can build a structure from the ground up, or units that sit in the middle of an area and use an arm to build a structure around them.
It could have applications for both military and civilian use. The armed forces could use it to quickly construct hardened structures including barracks or hangers. Agencies like USAID could also quickly build housing for refugees that would be more comfortable, more durable, and better for quality of life than tents.
"You can print these very simple houses in hardened shelters much quicker, cheaper, safer, and do so even in current construction environments…or a combat environment," Stalford said.
Computer designs could also allow the 3D printing machines to create pluming, space to do electrical work, and doors while constructing the building.
"The technology's really only limited by the creativity of the people who design the buildings," he said.
The team's research won the "Impact" award at the D3 Innovation Summit.
Stalford said he became interested in participating in the event after seeing an e-mail that was sent out DoD-wide calling for submissions.
"The intent was to generate ideas on how to leverage innovation for an emerging or current technology and to advance the efforts of diplomacy, defense, and development," he said.
The summit was an opportunity to take action on trying to further development of the technology, rather than just "having a couple of beers and talking about it," Stalford said.
He found a common interest in 3D printing with some of his friends . In fact, the team consisting of Stalford, his brother Capt. Andrew Stalford, SrA Lianne Blackburn, and SSgt. Ismael Montecel, were old friends from the University of Texas.
They were spread out on assignments – Stalford at Cannon, N.M., his brother Andrew Stalford at Offutt, Neb., Blackburn at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, and Montecel at Eglin, Fla.
"All four of us hadn't been in the same room for over seven years," Stalford said, adding that the team finally reunited when they came to D.C. to present their project. "That was the first time we had been in the same room since college, so it was great working with them again."
The team was able to bring together diverse perspectives, Stalford said, pointing out that Andrew is a pilot, and Blackburn is a medical technician.
Now the group has had to "return to our day jobs," Stalford said, but is still interested in furthering the idea.
"In our spare time we're exploring patent options for specific government use, and reaching out to a lot of the people that we met to see who we might be able to hand this project off to so that really the U.S. might be able to benefit," he said. "It's still going to take a little more legwork to make sure those ideas catch fire. We're excited to see where it goes and we're excited to see what happens."
Phillip Swarts is the aircraft, space, and technology reporter for Air Force Times. You can reach him at pswarts@airforcetimes.comor follow him on Twitter at @PFSwarts.
