Dr. Peggy Shadduck, 214-378-1553,
For immediate release — April 21, 2014
(DALLAS) — Skylar Tibbits, founder and director of the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, captivated students, their faculty mentors and distinguished guests with his cutting-edge work on 4-D printing and its future impact during his keynote presentation for the Dallas County Community College District’s STEM Summit on April 4.
Tibbits’ experimental work in 4-D printing, which creates programmable materials that can assemble (or reassemble) themselves through the fourth dimension of time without external direction, has drawn the interest of manufacturing, architecture and design industries around the world. Also a 2012 TED Fellow, he has received several commissions and awards for his artwork and research in the field.
The summit was one of a series of events held throughout the academic year for the 120 high-achieving scholars and 23 faculty fellows in the DCCCD STEM Institute. The program, held at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, also featured afternoon panel discussions with top-level professionals in several STEM-related fields, as well as recruiters from universities and colleges throughout the state. Before he delivered his evening presentation, Tibbits hosted an afternoon question-and-answer session with STEM scholars and faculty fellows so that they could learn more about his research at MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab and opportunities for expanding their horizons in STEM disciplines.
“Since the STEM Institute began, its scholars and faculty fellows have enjoyed hearing from world-class speakers who are pioneers in their respective fields or who have made breakthrough discoveries to advance the world of science, technology, engineering and math,” said DCCCD Foundation Board Chairman Hunter L. Hunt, CEO and president of Hunt Consolidated Energy, Inc. “Skylar Tibbits definitely engaged our scholars and our future scientists, researchers and engineers on the fascinating topic of 4-D printing and its future impact.”
STEM scholars and faculty fellows had a chance to meet and chat with Tibbits and other special guests during a reception as the summit ended.
Dr. Jeverley Cook, executive director of the W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation of the Communities Foundation of Texas (a major supporter of the DCCCD STEM Institute), was among the distinguished guests who joined students and faculty for the evening presentation. “We are encouraged by the DCCCD STEM Institute’s mission to advance outstanding community college students in pursuit of STEM education,” he said. Many STEM scholars walked out of the summit with new insights and discoveries they gained to apply to their personal pursuits.
April Foster, a Mountain View College student and first-year STEM scholar who is pursuing a career in nanotechnology, said that the summit sessions were informative, with “a hint of class.” She added, “The panelists’ real-world knowledge and experience was priceless. Skylar’s presentation about self-assembly on a macro scale was fascinating. It opened my mind to imagine what else could be done with self-assembly on a grand scale.”
Omar Roa, a second-year STEM scholar at Brookhaven College who dreams of launching his own software company, discovered a rich wealth of knowledge from the activities. “The summit had an incredibly diverse group of speakers and universities represented,” he noted. “This gave me much more insight than I thought I would receive.” He added, “Skylar is an inspiration. He pursues what he thinks is interesting and has made it a lifelong passion.”
The summit was hosted by the DCCCD Foundation, which administers the DCCCD STEM Institute.
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