Z Corporation Technology Helps Aspiring Engineers Make Hawaiian Resorts Sustainable

State Contest Sponsored by Z Corporation, RAPID Technology and State Department of Education CTE office.

What can be done to make the hotels and resorts of Hawaii more green?

That’s the challenge for high school students from throughout the state of Hawaii who will converge today and tomorrow in Honolulu for the second annual “Career and Technical Education (CTE) 3D Design and Printing” competition.

The contest is sponsored by the Hawaii State Department of Education CTE along with Z Corporation, maker of the fastest 3D printers, and 3D printing service bureau and Z Corporation partner RAPID Technology LLC. 3D printing is an increasingly mainstream product development technology that produces physical objects from 3D data much as a traditional office printer creates a document from a word-processing file.

Students will receive a secret challenge today: to redesign a new energy-efficient product that’s actually in development and will make its way into hotels and resorts. Details of the mystery product will be explained at the contest. Competitors will have one day to design the product and the next day to present their idea along with a ZPrinted (3D printed) prototype to a panel of industry professionals whose members range from engineers to marketing specialists.

“Sustainability should be part of every designer’s thinking and skill set,” said Z Corporation CEO John Kawola. “By operating clean and eliminating waste and errors, ZPrinters are great tools in sustainable design and education, helping to prepare students for solid careers. We are eager to see the ideas of these creative students.

DavidRAPID is lending two Z Corporation 3D printers to the competition – a ZPrinter® 310 Plus and ZPrinter 450 multicolor printer – and CTE is lending a second ZPrinter 310 Plus. Because of the ZPrinters’ speed, it’s easy for day one’s designs to become day two’s concept models, even en masse. “Because of the short turnaround time, the speed of the Z Corp. 3D printers to produce parts in hours instead of days is what makes that part of the competition possible,” said Russ Ogi, RAPID’s COO. “We see students from across the state gaining an increasing interest in 3D CAD, engineering and product design.”

Z Corporation is providing consumable materials for the 3D printers and sponsoring the first place prize for the competition.