ShakeAM aims to share additive manufacturing design knowledge and best practices.
Ask anyone who works in additive manufacturing (AM) about the industry’s biggest challenges and education will almost invariably be at the top of their list. Despite being comfortably established at the top of NASA’s technology readiness levels, there are still numerous misunderstandings and myths that need debunking when it comes to 3D printing. Of course, as has been perspicaciously observed, knowing is (only) half the battle.
Even if we all agree that lack of AM education is a problem, what does the solution look like?
For Andrew Triantaphyllou, it looks like ShakeAM. “It’s about SHAring Knowledge and dEsign for AM,” he says. “So we came up with this acronym. It’s an online ecosystem and best practices database aimed at intermediate-level people – mostly students or professionals who may already have a printer and want to advance to the next level.”
Triantaphyllou is an engineer by training with a master’s degree in 3D printing for manufacturing. Living in Greece, he joined a European Union program called Erasmus+ that builds education and training resources. The program brought six organizations together to create ShakeAM over the past two years. In addition to Triantaphyllou’s own SME, MakeAmazing, these include:
- Brunel University
- EIT Manufacturing Central
- European Federation for Welding Joining and Cutting
- The Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation
- Lisbon University
While Triantaphyllou acknowledges that there are many online training resources for AM available he also believes that, “We’re competing with these existing resources by offering something a bit different.”
What is ShakeAM?
At the core of ShakeAM is AGORA, a self-described “social innovation network” developed by EIT that serves as a content and networking platform for the project. Once logged in, users are presented with an interface that should seem familiar to anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with social media: there’s a timeline of posts, a directory of members and links to various documents, resources (including a job board) and online courses.
ShakeAM modules include:
- Strategic Considerations in DfAM
- Preparation for Manufacturing
- Post Processing & Inspection
- Generative Design & Practical Exercises
- Design for Sustainability
“We’ve aligned our course with European standards, which gives it more credibility,” Triantaphyllou explains. “It’s a free course, paid for by Erasmus, and we’re now in the final stages of sorting out the certificates of attendance and, hopefully, turning it into a recognized certification for DfAM.”
In this sense, ShakeAM is of a piece with many other online AM training programs, such as those offered by MIT or the EOS Additive Minds Academy. But it’s the social media platform that ShakeAM’s creators hope will help set it apart.
“The idea is for the trainer to be part of the platform, with students enrolling and hosting a training course for one of the modules—either in the classroom or in hybrid online,” Triantaphyllou says. “That’s where the trainer element comes in, making it more interactive than just passive content consumption. We think this interactivity is what’s missing in a lot of other platforms.”
In demonstrating ShakeAM, Triantaphyllou offered an example of someone tagging a resource on the AGORA platform with a clarificatory question. Other members are able to see these on their timelines and respond, resulting in something like a combination reference library and discussion group.
As with any social media platform, part of the value of AGORA comes from network effects, where the service becomes more useful the more users are connected to it. Ideally, that means it will evolve into something like LinkedIn, though hopefully much more practical and much less promotional.
Want to try it for yourself? All you need is a student or professional email address to get started. Visit the AGORA login page and request to join.
