The shout-out in Obama's State of the Union address was perhaps the biggest public endorsement so far of a technology that has its roots in the 1970s, but has recently begun to boom on two fronts -- as an increasingly accessible consumer product and an industrial one that advocates say could change the face of manufacturing.
Obama's exact words were:
Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. ... There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns. - NYTimes (Or you can listen to Obama's words starting at 15:50 in the video below.)
The funny thing was, immediately after he said these words, my email and phone blew up*, since I am everyone's "3D Printing friend."
* I fully recognize I am too old to use this kind of slang but, hey, I teach middle school.
