so it’s it’s really interesting for me
to be up here today because exactly
three years ago I was sitting in this
room while
talk about what sounded like what you’d
get if you combined amazing
architectural beauty with just pure
nonsense and it’s really it’s funny
looking back on this because all of what
he talked about that day is exactly what
I do every day of my life now and I
really love the idea of that you know
that a chance encounter at a symposium
on the artistic side of 3d design could
have led to me deciding to make an
everyday living out of something
especially something that I get so much
joy out of in something in such a cool
new field really and so that new field
that I’m talking about is something
that’s become known as digital
fabrication which more than anything
else just means making things using
easily accessed high-tech tools and so
I’ve been so like entrepreneurs often do
I’m somebody who entered into an
industry without really having any prior
knowledge of it whatsoever I’ve been
doing digital fabrication ever since
graduating from here two years ago where
I studied entrepreneurship and how to
start a company and so our education in
the major worked in a pretty unusual way
because basically on day one we were
just told start a company you know just
start one and of course you know you’d
ask well hold on wait a minute isn’t
that why we’re here and the
Entrepreneurship major to learn how to
start a company what do you mean what
how do we just start a company what do
we do you know where do we start and so
the answer we were given was mm-hmm
that’s right yep you got it go get him
go ahead and so of course they would
teach us too but it was obviously a real
learn on-the-go kind of situation you
know and so I think thinking about I
really think that a lot of creative
people tend to start like that really
you know we always know that we want to
do something we want to do something
cool but often times we really have no
idea what that will actually end up
being and I love that because in the
reason for that is because learning to
be creative more than anything else
learning to be creative is purely habit
in purely developing the right mentality
it’s learning to be creative it’s purely
habit and purely developing the right
mindset and so throughout my time thus
far you know starting companies and
pursuing different entrepreneurial ideas
my story has been or my time has been a
story of learning how to think in three
distinct ways thinking like an artist
thinking like an
in thinking like a businessperson so
that first year when we were told to
simply just start a company was
definitely a struggle for me but at the
same time showed me how much of a normal
thing creativity can be I think a lot of
times the picture that we’ve been fed of
of the creative person is like this this
picture of like this movie director with
like this wild hair or like this
musician who who maybe looks like he
doesn’t quite take care of himself all
the way or well anyone who looks like
they don’t bathe or take care of himself
really I really feel like a lot of us
have that view and in realistically
that’s not the case of course anyone can
learn to be creative you know I find
that the more you just learn to keep
your eyes open
the more different ideas you begin to
have it’s amazing how just having it’s
amazing how much you can accomplish just
by having this view instead of this view
all the time right
and so as that first year when I went on
and I was able to learn how to start
listening to the good ideas around me
and maybe form some of my own I started
to see this amazing shift in the way my
mind would just latch on to good ideas
and keep them there over and over I kept
getting drawn back to the idea of
customization and personalization within
a product I would think about things
entirely unique to a person such as
their name or their personality or or
going a little deeper maybe things that
would define them you know like their
like their fingerprints or their DNA or
their voice one thing that I had seen
online that really stood out to me was
how people were making jewelry based off
of sound waves and in audio waveforms
you know and so I really liked that idea
and after a little while came up with an
idea centered around preserving sound
waves in the form of just audio waveform
bracelets the idea was to have somebody
who could go onto my website and just
record themselves saying a message
anything really you know happy birthday
grandma or I miss you dad or I love you
and I wanted to somehow take this
message that they recorded somehow take
it and transform it into this
three-dimensional sort of rubbery shape
that you could give to somebody as a
gift and so I was so excited you know I
finally had my idea I told a couple
people and they all seemed to like it a
good amount and so then I was just faced
with that big question you know I
thought yes
finally I’ve got my idea okay what on
earth do I do with it how do I do this
and so having really no absolutely no
idea where to begin I just decided to
sit down with different teachers and
business mentors that I had at the time
it’s really good if you really need to
have people like that that you can go to
and so I just sat down with them I would
tell them about my idea and they give me
different advice on on how to get them
made or or which investors to go to and
and everything like that I immediately
saw that prototyping this idea would be
essential you really need to prototype
anything that you make if you’re going
to sell it which was especially true of
of such a weird new kind of concept you
know and so one morning one of my invent
my business mentors had taken me out to
eat one day and he asked me have you
thought at all about 3d printing and
this turned out to be a pretty big
question to me because of the doors
that’s open in the past I’ve gone down
since then I think we’ve all at least
heard of 3d printing right you know
we’ve seen you know those YouTube videos
of the 3d printed cars or all the
robotics in the 3d print prosthetics
being made for disabilities and and
everything like that but still to a lot
of people I found that 3d printing is
still a bit of a foreign kind of weird
concept you know like how does it even
how does it really work people will ask
me you know does it like it’s like fold
paper inside into shapes to make stuff
or you know is it just magic you know is
it you know are there little elves
running around in the machine making
everything for you
spoiler alert it is it is the elves and
so I was immediately fascinated by the
idea of 3d printing by the thought that
you could literally picture anything in
your head and it was possible to tell a
machine how to make it for you on the
spot and just really love that idea and
the question was can I myself actually
use this to my advantage for my idea or
was it still you know just a little too
future II of a concept to really fully
take advantage of for someone like me
just yet after doing a ton of research
which is you know very important always
I decided that my idea might actually be
doable but I also didn’t have any money
to spend on the idea which meant that I
was going to have to learn a lot of
stuff and in being completely honest
with you a lot of what I’ve figured out
and done since then really just wouldn’t
been possible 10 to 15 years ago and
that is because we have so so many
resources right there today just waiting
for us to use
so so many of them the problem is a lot
of us just don’t know that’s the case I
mean even here at our school in
particular we have access to a website
called Linda full of hundreds of
different tutorials on any professional
software you could name you know from
things like Photoshop to JavaScript to
Sibelius from music or Maya or AutoCAD
for 3d stuff programs that some of which
would cost hundreds to learn in an
educational setting if not thousands to
learn that we have access to any time we
want wherever we are just on our
computer just because we want to so I
started using this and started teaching
myself a very basic 3d software a free
one by the way called blender so that I
could make some of my my prototype
bracelet shapes and I will tell you at
first I mean they were just so ugly let
me just look at that that’s a boat
that’s supposed to be a sound wave
doesn’t that doesn’t just look stupid
but I still needed some prototypes to
work with and so to get them made I took
advantage of another awesome modern-day
resource that we have being another
website called shapeways where what you
can do is you can once you’ve created
this 3d file of something upload it to
them and they will 3d print it in in
send it to you it’s which is a great
resource because even ten to fifteen
years ago prototyping was something that
was hugely expensive no matter who you
were I mean even for my little three
inch bracelet shape
I made the I made the mistake of going
to one of these old-fashioned
prototyping companies at first and they
wanted to charge me $200 for what I was
able to get 3d printed for like 12 so
like I said I was just fascinated by the
idea of 3d printing in just the concept
of pure creation coming alive before
your eyes right and long story short I
ended up getting my own 3d printer and I
realized that I really just loved
physically making things you know which
is interesting I’d never really known
that about myself to before to that kind
of extent in fact the night before my 3d
printer arrived in the mail I was so
excited about that I was on that I was
dreaming about it and in my dream it got
to my house and the first thing I made
was the the Iron Man arc reactor thing
that he has in his chest the the blue
battery thing and so the next morning in
real life my 3d printer arrived and I
decided hey I need to make something now
so maybe I should do it and so this was
my first ever creation just for fun and
and all right so listen here you know
the thing about arc reactors if you’re
gonna make them you you don’t mess
around you don’t play games you do it
all the way so I decided to make it so
that it glows and everything and you
know I realize this is probably the
closest I’ll ever get to being Iron Man
so I just want to enjoy this so so I
started making all kinds of cool stuff
just because I could and because I loved
it you know these are some of my things
that I’ve made this is my Amon masked my
3d printed exoskeleton exosuit love my
baby Groot my star-lord gun and of my
personal favorite by a very significant
margin my Majora’s Mask a lot of these
things weren’t even things that I myself
designed but just files that I found
online that other people had shared on
another excellent excellent resource
being a site called Thingiverse um so so
then what I was really doing more than
anything else what I was doing was
developing a new mindset a new way of
looking at the world all my life I had
been an artist I thought like an artist
you know I’d grown up making videos
writing screenplays choreographing sword
fights with my friends or drawing little
characters and then all of a sudden now
is in this world of manufacturing in
little annoying little tolerances and in
in geometry and really just thinking
like an engineer and it wasn’t even so
much an intentional shift as it was just
a natural progression as someone
starting something new and so around
this time I had a chance to go to that
symposium that took place in this room
which was really just a conference on
digital fabrication and how art meets 3d
design using things like 3d printing and
laser cutting and all of that nonsense
that pier nonsense I mentioned earlier
that as it turns out may not be quite so
far-fetched and crazy after all sitting
where you’re sitting I learned about
something called parametric design oh
and this is my my creation from start to
finish of my my waveform bracelets and
so I wasn’t quite at that point yet but
I started learning about something
called parametric design which more than
anything else just means making thing or
it means putting customized input into
the form of a product that’s what these
artists and designers were doing they’re
taking just any type of product and
putting custom input into just it’s for
and it’s crazy because this is exactly
what I’d been doing with my company
wavelet without even realizing I would
be taking the custom part the Soundwave
in putting it into the form of the
bracelet of the of the product itself
only now I saw how it could be done
infinitely easier and quicker using
little codes or algorithms that look
something like this and so there are
tons of really cool examples of
parametric design being done all over
the place today Nike has been doing it
for a while using their custom shoe
building website jewelry designers use
it for things like ring size adaptation
and fitting their customized products to
their specific clients one though you
guys would really appreciate this I
think is this beer company this beer
glass company what they do you give them
a sample of your DNA and they take that
may analyze it they look for your
genetic predispositions to things like
alcohol tolerance and flavor preference
and they use this stuff to literally
craft and control and form the shape of
a cup that’s custom to you based off of
your DNA pure parametric design it’s
it’s absolutely nuts it’s just nuts
and so the cool of the most captivating
to me though that I saw that day sitting
over there was learning how architects
were using parametric design I saw some
of these pictures that day of these
sprawling organic architectural designs
and furniture designs and lighting all
of which were just direct products of
these algorithms that people were
creating even cooler even cooler than
that was the ways that they were
physically making them or fabricating
them as it’s called since much of it
could be done using easily access tools
such as CNC routers and in laser cutting
machines I decided pretty much
immediately to start learning how to do
this type of design and so spent the
next several months buying a couple
things I would need and taking tutorials
for another 3d software called
rhinoceros that would allow me to make
these codes I really wanted to see if I
could start a company around selling
some of these designs being honest I
really wasn’t sure if it would be
possible or not but I really just love
the idea too much not to try it one of
the one of the challenging things one of
the tough things about starting anything
new like this can be getting past that
initial nagging question you know where
you ask yourself you know can I can I
really do this or am I just kind of
kidding my
healthier so it was incredibly
satisfying when I finally had my first
product to show in the form of a chair
that I had designed I love I love the
relationship that math and nature take
on in parametric design and so I decided
to name my company terraform after the
idea of shaping the earth around us to
suit our needs since then I’ve made a
number of other models and designs that
are for sales some some being laser-cut
lights and pendant lamps others being
benches and different interior geometric
types of fixtures the thing is right now
is such a right time for
Entrepreneurship never in the history of
the world have we had just so many
resources right there at our fingertips
waiting for us to use them I mean almost
everything I’ve done I either did for
free or just by figuring it out as I
went along and not because there’s
anything special about me in particular
you know I’d like to think there was
maybe but the truth is I mean anyone who
just has a passion for an idea could
have done it and can do it I just
remember you know is is learning these
kinds of things always easy definitely
not you know do you see results right
away absolutely not but can it be done
yes can even a younger person like a
college student have an idea that makes
money absolutely yes I just remember
being in this room hearing that and
having a sink into me for the first time
and just the feeling of hope and
excitement that I had from it and if I
can pass that on to anyone else then I
will you know
just don’t let doubt or fear of failure
be the thing that stops you if you’ve
got an idea you know I say make your
stuff make yourself step out I say go
for it I say give it a try and if you’re
more of the business minded person I
would encourage you take a little while
to just think like an artist see what
happens
know maybe you are more artistically
minded learn a computer language try
thinking in a technical way even if it
is a little challenging in hard at first
it definitely was for me I say find that
idea that you love and get to work thank
you
[Applause]
you
to be up here today because exactly
three years ago I was sitting in this
room while
talk about what sounded like what you’d
get if you combined amazing
architectural beauty with just pure
nonsense and it’s really it’s funny
looking back on this because all of what
he talked about that day is exactly what
I do every day of my life now and I
really love the idea of that you know
that a chance encounter at a symposium
on the artistic side of 3d design could
have led to me deciding to make an
everyday living out of something
especially something that I get so much
joy out of in something in such a cool
new field really and so that new field
that I’m talking about is something
that’s become known as digital
fabrication which more than anything
else just means making things using
easily accessed high-tech tools and so
I’ve been so like entrepreneurs often do
I’m somebody who entered into an
industry without really having any prior
knowledge of it whatsoever I’ve been
doing digital fabrication ever since
graduating from here two years ago where
I studied entrepreneurship and how to
start a company and so our education in
the major worked in a pretty unusual way
because basically on day one we were
just told start a company you know just
start one and of course you know you’d
ask well hold on wait a minute isn’t
that why we’re here and the
Entrepreneurship major to learn how to
start a company what do you mean what
how do we just start a company what do
we do you know where do we start and so
the answer we were given was mm-hmm
that’s right yep you got it go get him
go ahead and so of course they would
teach us too but it was obviously a real
learn on-the-go kind of situation you
know and so I think thinking about I
really think that a lot of creative
people tend to start like that really
you know we always know that we want to
do something we want to do something
cool but often times we really have no
idea what that will actually end up
being and I love that because in the
reason for that is because learning to
be creative more than anything else
learning to be creative is purely habit
in purely developing the right mentality
it’s learning to be creative it’s purely
habit and purely developing the right
mindset and so throughout my time thus
far you know starting companies and
pursuing different entrepreneurial ideas
my story has been or my time has been a
story of learning how to think in three
distinct ways thinking like an artist
thinking like an
in thinking like a businessperson so
that first year when we were told to
simply just start a company was
definitely a struggle for me but at the
same time showed me how much of a normal
thing creativity can be I think a lot of
times the picture that we’ve been fed of
of the creative person is like this this
picture of like this movie director with
like this wild hair or like this
musician who who maybe looks like he
doesn’t quite take care of himself all
the way or well anyone who looks like
they don’t bathe or take care of himself
really I really feel like a lot of us
have that view and in realistically
that’s not the case of course anyone can
learn to be creative you know I find
that the more you just learn to keep
your eyes open
the more different ideas you begin to
have it’s amazing how just having it’s
amazing how much you can accomplish just
by having this view instead of this view
all the time right
and so as that first year when I went on
and I was able to learn how to start
listening to the good ideas around me
and maybe form some of my own I started
to see this amazing shift in the way my
mind would just latch on to good ideas
and keep them there over and over I kept
getting drawn back to the idea of
customization and personalization within
a product I would think about things
entirely unique to a person such as
their name or their personality or or
going a little deeper maybe things that
would define them you know like their
like their fingerprints or their DNA or
their voice one thing that I had seen
online that really stood out to me was
how people were making jewelry based off
of sound waves and in audio waveforms
you know and so I really liked that idea
and after a little while came up with an
idea centered around preserving sound
waves in the form of just audio waveform
bracelets the idea was to have somebody
who could go onto my website and just
record themselves saying a message
anything really you know happy birthday
grandma or I miss you dad or I love you
and I wanted to somehow take this
message that they recorded somehow take
it and transform it into this
three-dimensional sort of rubbery shape
that you could give to somebody as a
gift and so I was so excited you know I
finally had my idea I told a couple
people and they all seemed to like it a
good amount and so then I was just faced
with that big question you know I
thought yes
finally I’ve got my idea okay what on
earth do I do with it how do I do this
and so having really no absolutely no
idea where to begin I just decided to
sit down with different teachers and
business mentors that I had at the time
it’s really good if you really need to
have people like that that you can go to
and so I just sat down with them I would
tell them about my idea and they give me
different advice on on how to get them
made or or which investors to go to and
and everything like that I immediately
saw that prototyping this idea would be
essential you really need to prototype
anything that you make if you’re going
to sell it which was especially true of
of such a weird new kind of concept you
know and so one morning one of my invent
my business mentors had taken me out to
eat one day and he asked me have you
thought at all about 3d printing and
this turned out to be a pretty big
question to me because of the doors
that’s open in the past I’ve gone down
since then I think we’ve all at least
heard of 3d printing right you know
we’ve seen you know those YouTube videos
of the 3d printed cars or all the
robotics in the 3d print prosthetics
being made for disabilities and and
everything like that but still to a lot
of people I found that 3d printing is
still a bit of a foreign kind of weird
concept you know like how does it even
how does it really work people will ask
me you know does it like it’s like fold
paper inside into shapes to make stuff
or you know is it just magic you know is
it you know are there little elves
running around in the machine making
everything for you
spoiler alert it is it is the elves and
so I was immediately fascinated by the
idea of 3d printing by the thought that
you could literally picture anything in
your head and it was possible to tell a
machine how to make it for you on the
spot and just really love that idea and
the question was can I myself actually
use this to my advantage for my idea or
was it still you know just a little too
future II of a concept to really fully
take advantage of for someone like me
just yet after doing a ton of research
which is you know very important always
I decided that my idea might actually be
doable but I also didn’t have any money
to spend on the idea which meant that I
was going to have to learn a lot of
stuff and in being completely honest
with you a lot of what I’ve figured out
and done since then really just wouldn’t
been possible 10 to 15 years ago and
that is because we have so so many
resources right there today just waiting
for us to use
so so many of them the problem is a lot
of us just don’t know that’s the case I
mean even here at our school in
particular we have access to a website
called Linda full of hundreds of
different tutorials on any professional
software you could name you know from
things like Photoshop to JavaScript to
Sibelius from music or Maya or AutoCAD
for 3d stuff programs that some of which
would cost hundreds to learn in an
educational setting if not thousands to
learn that we have access to any time we
want wherever we are just on our
computer just because we want to so I
started using this and started teaching
myself a very basic 3d software a free
one by the way called blender so that I
could make some of my my prototype
bracelet shapes and I will tell you at
first I mean they were just so ugly let
me just look at that that’s a boat
that’s supposed to be a sound wave
doesn’t that doesn’t just look stupid
but I still needed some prototypes to
work with and so to get them made I took
advantage of another awesome modern-day
resource that we have being another
website called shapeways where what you
can do is you can once you’ve created
this 3d file of something upload it to
them and they will 3d print it in in
send it to you it’s which is a great
resource because even ten to fifteen
years ago prototyping was something that
was hugely expensive no matter who you
were I mean even for my little three
inch bracelet shape
I made the I made the mistake of going
to one of these old-fashioned
prototyping companies at first and they
wanted to charge me $200 for what I was
able to get 3d printed for like 12 so
like I said I was just fascinated by the
idea of 3d printing in just the concept
of pure creation coming alive before
your eyes right and long story short I
ended up getting my own 3d printer and I
realized that I really just loved
physically making things you know which
is interesting I’d never really known
that about myself to before to that kind
of extent in fact the night before my 3d
printer arrived in the mail I was so
excited about that I was on that I was
dreaming about it and in my dream it got
to my house and the first thing I made
was the the Iron Man arc reactor thing
that he has in his chest the the blue
battery thing and so the next morning in
real life my 3d printer arrived and I
decided hey I need to make something now
so maybe I should do it and so this was
my first ever creation just for fun and
and all right so listen here you know
the thing about arc reactors if you’re
gonna make them you you don’t mess
around you don’t play games you do it
all the way so I decided to make it so
that it glows and everything and you
know I realize this is probably the
closest I’ll ever get to being Iron Man
so I just want to enjoy this so so I
started making all kinds of cool stuff
just because I could and because I loved
it you know these are some of my things
that I’ve made this is my Amon masked my
3d printed exoskeleton exosuit love my
baby Groot my star-lord gun and of my
personal favorite by a very significant
margin my Majora’s Mask a lot of these
things weren’t even things that I myself
designed but just files that I found
online that other people had shared on
another excellent excellent resource
being a site called Thingiverse um so so
then what I was really doing more than
anything else what I was doing was
developing a new mindset a new way of
looking at the world all my life I had
been an artist I thought like an artist
you know I’d grown up making videos
writing screenplays choreographing sword
fights with my friends or drawing little
characters and then all of a sudden now
is in this world of manufacturing in
little annoying little tolerances and in
in geometry and really just thinking
like an engineer and it wasn’t even so
much an intentional shift as it was just
a natural progression as someone
starting something new and so around
this time I had a chance to go to that
symposium that took place in this room
which was really just a conference on
digital fabrication and how art meets 3d
design using things like 3d printing and
laser cutting and all of that nonsense
that pier nonsense I mentioned earlier
that as it turns out may not be quite so
far-fetched and crazy after all sitting
where you’re sitting I learned about
something called parametric design oh
and this is my my creation from start to
finish of my my waveform bracelets and
so I wasn’t quite at that point yet but
I started learning about something
called parametric design which more than
anything else just means making thing or
it means putting customized input into
the form of a product that’s what these
artists and designers were doing they’re
taking just any type of product and
putting custom input into just it’s for
and it’s crazy because this is exactly
what I’d been doing with my company
wavelet without even realizing I would
be taking the custom part the Soundwave
in putting it into the form of the
bracelet of the of the product itself
only now I saw how it could be done
infinitely easier and quicker using
little codes or algorithms that look
something like this and so there are
tons of really cool examples of
parametric design being done all over
the place today Nike has been doing it
for a while using their custom shoe
building website jewelry designers use
it for things like ring size adaptation
and fitting their customized products to
their specific clients one though you
guys would really appreciate this I
think is this beer company this beer
glass company what they do you give them
a sample of your DNA and they take that
may analyze it they look for your
genetic predispositions to things like
alcohol tolerance and flavor preference
and they use this stuff to literally
craft and control and form the shape of
a cup that’s custom to you based off of
your DNA pure parametric design it’s
it’s absolutely nuts it’s just nuts
and so the cool of the most captivating
to me though that I saw that day sitting
over there was learning how architects
were using parametric design I saw some
of these pictures that day of these
sprawling organic architectural designs
and furniture designs and lighting all
of which were just direct products of
these algorithms that people were
creating even cooler even cooler than
that was the ways that they were
physically making them or fabricating
them as it’s called since much of it
could be done using easily access tools
such as CNC routers and in laser cutting
machines I decided pretty much
immediately to start learning how to do
this type of design and so spent the
next several months buying a couple
things I would need and taking tutorials
for another 3d software called
rhinoceros that would allow me to make
these codes I really wanted to see if I
could start a company around selling
some of these designs being honest I
really wasn’t sure if it would be
possible or not but I really just love
the idea too much not to try it one of
the one of the challenging things one of
the tough things about starting anything
new like this can be getting past that
initial nagging question you know where
you ask yourself you know can I can I
really do this or am I just kind of
kidding my
healthier so it was incredibly
satisfying when I finally had my first
product to show in the form of a chair
that I had designed I love I love the
relationship that math and nature take
on in parametric design and so I decided
to name my company terraform after the
idea of shaping the earth around us to
suit our needs since then I’ve made a
number of other models and designs that
are for sales some some being laser-cut
lights and pendant lamps others being
benches and different interior geometric
types of fixtures the thing is right now
is such a right time for
Entrepreneurship never in the history of
the world have we had just so many
resources right there at our fingertips
waiting for us to use them I mean almost
everything I’ve done I either did for
free or just by figuring it out as I
went along and not because there’s
anything special about me in particular
you know I’d like to think there was
maybe but the truth is I mean anyone who
just has a passion for an idea could
have done it and can do it I just
remember you know is is learning these
kinds of things always easy definitely
not you know do you see results right
away absolutely not but can it be done
yes can even a younger person like a
college student have an idea that makes
money absolutely yes I just remember
being in this room hearing that and
having a sink into me for the first time
and just the feeling of hope and
excitement that I had from it and if I
can pass that on to anyone else then I
will you know
just don’t let doubt or fear of failure
be the thing that stops you if you’ve
got an idea you know I say make your
stuff make yourself step out I say go
for it I say give it a try and if you’re
more of the business minded person I
would encourage you take a little while
to just think like an artist see what
happens
know maybe you are more artistically
minded learn a computer language try
thinking in a technical way even if it
is a little challenging in hard at first
it definitely was for me I say find that
idea that you love and get to work thank
you
[Applause]
you
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