Rising Media has announced the full program for next month’s Inside 3D Printing San Diego Conference and Expo, the largest professional 3D printing event worldwide, and it sounds like there will be some really interesting exhibits this year. 
The event will be taking place at the San Diego Convention Center from December 14-15, 2016, with a full day of pre-conference workshops available on December 13. This year’s program will have multiple networking opportunities for additive manufacturing professionals, and features dedicated conference tracks focused on 3D printing applications in business, manufacturing, medical, and metal. There will be keynote speeches from industry leaders including Weidong Huang of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Hod Lipson of Columbia University, and Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates, Inc. Click here to see a full list of conference speakers.
“3D printing is undergoing a watershed moment, as big and small companies alike begin to use the technology to manufacture finished goods. Several breakthrough technologies in plastics and metals promise to drive this exponential growth,” said Tyler Benster, conference chair and General Partner, Asimov Ventures. “We have some surprises in store at Inside 3D Printing San Diego, as several companies emerge from stealth mode to unveil ground-breaking new technology, while other established presenters discuss best practices for emerging business models.”
In addition to disclosing the conference schedule, Rising Media also announced The Nature Game, developed by Turlif Vilbrandt, the CTO of Uformia, and inspired by Alan Turing’s 1950 Turing Test. The Nature Game is a competition that challenges participants to create objects which are hard or impossible to determine as objects that have been created by natural growth, or by human 3D design and manufacturing. It asks the question, “Can an object be explicitly designed and fabricated by humans that seems to be naturally grown and/or expresses properties and complexity only found in naturally produced objects?”
“We are now able to understand and control all types of matter at scales beyond our own perception. In the next 30 years, manufacturing systems will communicate and fabricate alongside natural systems and human made objects will no longer stand apart and separated from natural processes,” said Vilbrandt.
Objects created for The Nature Game will be on display at Inside 3D Printing San Diego. Event attendees will have the opportunity to view these objects, and venture a guess as to whether they are human-made, or found in nature. San Diego-based bioprinting company Organovo will be displaying 3D printed tissue for attendees to view through a microscope as part of The Nature Game.
Also on the conference agenda is the Frontier Tech Showdown, a startup competition for early-stage startups in 3D printing, robotics, and virtual and augmented reality. The winner will receive a $15,000 Uncapped SAFE, courtesy of Asimov Ventures. Paul Cutsinger of Amazon Alexa will host The Frontier Tech Hackathon, which will focus on building voice-enabled software. There will also be a special panel aimed at exploring diversity and multiculturalism in frontier technology industries. 
Inside 3D Printing San Diego is co-located with Rising Media’s RoboUniverse and Virtual Reality Summit at the first Frontier Tech Forum. The combined expo hall expects over 50 exhibitors showcasing the latest in frontier tech hardware, services, and software. Prices increase on-site, so register before December 14 to save money, and don’t forget to enter the code 3DPRINT at checkout for an additional 15% off.
Inside 3D Printing has hosted 33 events globally since its 2013 launch, and this will be the series’ fourth California edition, with previous events hosted in San Jose and Santa Clara. Make sure to follow the conference on Twitter using #I3DPConf. You can learn more information about the conference here. 3DPrint.com is a proud media partner, and will also have an exhibit at Inside 3D Printing San Diego. Discuss in the I3DP forum at 3DPB.com.
