From Bacteria to Buildings: Additive Manufacturing Outside of the Box - S. Keating - MIT PhD Defense

Mechanical Engineering PhD defense presentation by Steven Keating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in August 2016. More information at matter.media.mit.edu/people/bi... and at www.stevenkeating.info
To view the Q&A session following this thesis presentation, a video link is here: • Q&A Session following ...
The presented research was conducted within the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab. Thank you to my thesis advisors:
Dr. Neri Oxman
Dr. David Wallace
Dr. Woodie Flowers
And thank you for watching!

[@thomasj4370]

This hurts quite a bit finding such an inspiring person just to read he's already dead. Such a bright mind. What a loss!

[@SinceNightmoon]

Inspiring in WHAT??? Creating more waste ? a House out of Foam ?? 44:01 and Light Bulbs for the Corals and Polarcaps... 44:25 and 45:10 . Dude rly this guy isnt Inspiring hes the wrong person.

[@Tiguiso]

@@SinceNightmoon I'm sorry, where's your phd? What forms of additive manufacturing did you invent?

[@satibel]

@@SinceNightmoon a house out of foam and concrete that basically doesn't need any added insulation and can be built for cheaper and safer than current methods is pretty inspiring. in addition to that you could have a small city built by like 3 people, similarly to the cat autonomous mines

[@garyfrancis6193]

@@Tiguiso Appeal to authority is not a good argument. You are the type that says someone can’t look outside and say it’s a nice day unless they have a PhD in Mereorology. Give it up.

[@alegend4evr]

@@garyfrancis6193 A PhD isnt an authority, its an accomplishment in a field of science that helped pave the way to innovation, that alone is inspiring dumbass. Is someone's accomplishments despite fighting brain cancer not inspiring to you?

[@wofakwame4163]

He's gone and has left a lasting legacy for me and you, I mean, humanity.

[@martincotterill823]

R. I. P. Steven, the world is a poorer place without you

[@michaelrobb9708]

he like died?

[@martincotterill823]

@@michaelrobb9708 The brain tumor came back

[@thomasolson7447]

He didn't do anything, other than impress a bunch of dumb people.

[@lithostheory]

@@thomasolson7447 You’re a sad cynical person.

[@thomasolson7447]

@@lithostheory and you're butt hurt. Never insult a person the way you just did. You've essentially admitted to being stupid.

[@shaun6828]

His life may have been short, but it seems he made good use of the time he had. Glad he was working for the benefit of others.

[@FooPiew]

You have inspired me a lot in many ways, sir. May you rest in peace.

[@sangamitraable]

why do you write, rest in peace

[@FooPiew]

@@sangamitraable Because he has returned to heaven. news.mit.edu/2019/celebrating-curious-mind-steven-keating-0722

[@sangamitraable]

@@FooPiew that's very saddening brother.....science community loosing such an inspiring brilliant mind.... And humanity loosing a wonderful human being 😭😭😭😭

[@sangamitraable]

@@FooPiewI m very saddened😭😭😭

[@utetrahemicon]

He reminds me of the saying scientists discover things, but engineers build things. Mr. Keating does both.

[@chadeller5588]

Ten lifetimes worth of discovery packed into six years. Amazing.

[@leeboriack8054]

Such an inspiring young man, hard to fathom he passed away at age 31. What would the world be if he had lived a longer life.

[@nalissolus9213]

What happened to him?

[@nalissolus9213]

ok, someone says brain tumor, that's brutal. Life is so unfair.

[@nadjadavidson411]

Oh no! How sad 🥲

[@OrderedEntropy]

Smart people that die "before their time" have some things in common they either committed suicide, with the pretence of knowing enough, or they die from a brain related, or nervous system related issue, makes me wonder that they are smart due in part to these complications.

[@TheNefastor]

The world would have been the same, except with maybe one more executive working for a 3D printing company. FIY : filament deposition 3D printing was patented in 1989 by Statasys, who just blocked anyone else from using the technology. It had to be reinvented from scratch by makers everywhere. Smart people don't change much, the power to effect change lies with the money, and the money likes for things to stay the same. Still, too bad he passed away.

[@mimamsadiary8588]

OMG, such an impressive research! RIP my friend. The world will miss you and your pioneering research.

[@johnh8615]

He burned fast and hot … what a wonderful star enlightening humanity’s way. So few of his caliber. Thank you sir RIP.

[@Bjokac]

How the fudge has this only 80k views ? Deserves a hundred times more, for the betterment of humanity.

[@TRINITY-ks6nw]

He was not cardi b or any other that pop culture thinks we need

[@DieselRamcharger]

because its all bullshit.

[@gaaraofddarkness]

*Rest in Peace Steven* You life story is an inspiration to a lot of us.

[@ghostsdefeated4078]

I was watching this and found it wholesome how he jokes about his tumor and now I found out he passed... may he rest in peace

[@walterrutherford8321]

I didn’t know he had passed as I watched this. I would’ve loved to have spent any amount of time chatting with him. If that was his PhD thesis I’ve no doubt he got his degree. He deserves two or three PhDs for all the work he put into this and all the ground he covered (sometimes literally). What a loss. I hope someone is carrying on his legacy.

[@davidmarcus3757]

This may be the best lecture I have ever watched on any subject. Bravo!

[@canbiance]

inspiring to all of us interested in AM. You have left your legacy and it saddens me to think of what more great discoveries you would have enlightened the world with. I have worked alone in warehouses and I can tell you its not easy, I couldn't image going through chemo at the same time. What an inspiration to us all and you will live on with all of us RIP

[@alisina1472]

What an amazing human being.

[@steffankaizer]

yes he did great things but i think there are systems in place to slow this devellopment in the same way like drag slows down vehicles. its hard to break through those invisible rules. i wish him great understanding of those systems and maybe all this can become a reallity

[@vegonomia-nosprotegendodoc9011]

It is so good to see a bright future, one where additive manufacturing will help make things cheaper and greener. He seemed like a wonderful person.

[@p.amarin6093]

It's really good that you are healthy and alive to tell us this amazing things, TVM.

[@sallesekulic]

Steven Keating i just think that you are massively underfunded .... in the name of all of us whom are not "that smart" thank you for existing and doing what you do

[@hth4802]

Hey, Thanks for putting this online, your a Very Bright guy.Love the information, Your Story about the tumor, Staying positive, Creativity with the work you did, All your creations. Thx!

[@DeepSpaceConsulting]

Wow mind blowing!!! Thank you for sharing your years of research! As a postgraduate student undertaking additive manufacturing, this opened me up to a whole new view of thinking!!!

[@StephenMHnilica]

Thank you for this. I'm so happy that even though you've passed away, you've left a legacy of ideas that is potentially world changing!

[@sevendesign1805]

How is it that this video has only been viewed 33k times after ~18 months?! This info is incredible. This presentation is so inspirational. Thanks for sharing!

[@damoncrumley741]

I agree with others that this is so fascinating. Congratulations on what you've achieved from your work and thank you for sharing it.

[@ThomasTheFapEngine]

RIP Steve, Truly revolutionary stuff. I just hope we see more of Your ideas eventually come to fruition

[@phrebh]

Amazingly watchable and approachable for a defense. Good work!

[@tranquilityrules]

He knew all this in review before death.that was the waiver in his voice in this presentation.

[@lancemillward1912]

The idea has exponential growth. You will live on though these great experiments into potential futures.

[@utetrahemicon]

Ch, Ch, Ch, Chia-crete structures. This was one of the best videos I've ever seen.

[@makerbotplanet]

Where are you now? This is so relentlessly thoughtful and full of great ideas.

[@seditt5146]

dead

[@anatolikos]

Geniously mind expanding, radiating enthusiasm & determination. Achiever spirit, gigantic work.

[@AlwayzPr0]

That was a great talk. I really enjoyed your research and findings.

[@MATLOCKE269]

This is the coolest stuff I've ever seen! Next Level! Dude is a genius! Even after they removed 1/4 of his brain! I recently got into 3d-print and it's awesome!

[@thomassutrina7469]

It is funny that while working for Dow Chemical at Midland MI ~April 1964 to ~1976 I saw that they build a robot device that used the foam that you used but put it in to a fabric tube and built structures like your dome. Obviously never went anywhere. US3443276A "Apparatus for making walled structures of plastic foam" US3331173A "Compound construction elements and method of manufacture and assembly" UA3519523 "Composite coreboard having a plurality of partially nested, channel-shaped skin elements" US3978255A & US4022644A

[@myuwati6367]

Rest in peace Steven, sorry for losing such a great researcher.

[@terrenceobrien5271]

Living infrastructure, as intelligent matter, covering the globe in less than a day. That’s where the self assembling, self perfecting is leading us. Wow!

[@youretheai7586]

What a fascinating concept and presentation! Emulating nature is always the best approach to problem solving. Just yesterday I was leaning about composting and biochar and now this.

[@sangamitraable]

You did 20 yrs work in one PhD......o man I wish I cud accomplish half of work by the end of my PhD .

[@seditt5146]

He died at the age of 31.... I highly doubt he started his PhD when he was 10 years old LOL

[@CorvidianSystems]

@@seditt5146 you misunderstood what Adnan was saying.

[@zyanidwarfare5634]

Amazing way to build, print out the shell then fill the hollow insides with concrete or whatever then sand down the rough bits outside and inside, paint it and done

[@GvIn2it]

Amazing, Great watch.

[@Elemastah]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing!

[@unlost117]

So inspiring. Great presentation. Keep up the good work.

[@NiVofHiR]

BRAVO! WELL DONE, KEEP UP THE FANTASTIC WORK!

[@jeffturner6698]

Bravo! Your open-minded curiosity combined with intelligent observation of nature, and asking questions to go where you want to go is BRILLIANT. You sir are a magnificent example of how we all should approach challenges- no SOLUTIONS in our current society. What kind of world we have if we all had YOU as our science teacher in grade school?? Thank you for raising the bar and blowing my mind- in the best way by showing us whats POSSIBLE! 🙏🏼🤔😄

[@danielsquires4800]

TY this is very informative, love it

[@chibiebil]

Incredible what you have archived on your own I had some of the ideas but could never bring them that far. Wish I could work for you I would learn so much :D

[@kevinlindsey6863]

very interesting, we are following similar paths, look forward to seeing how it develops

[@theuglybeing4673]

That house sick! literally! now im homesick!

[@ConstructionKronies]

👍Steven, i'm a 39 year old construction worker, project manager, safety (NCSO) adviser and now run my own contracting business. I have been in the trades for 24 years now. Your work is so very important to us and is fascinating. I have been building massive projects up here in Edmonton for almost 12 years now and have been monitoring this tech for a while now. I just wanted to let you know that you have my support. Additive manufacturing and solar power is essential for sustainable building. Have you experience with atmospheric particles such as the bi-products from power plants to create materials?

[@rhys54252]

Wow! Thank you

[@user-le8lj1rz3p]

you are super wonderful. awesome. God bless you! great motivation you gave me.

[@FBlaise]

Wow that was fun to watch..

[@Kano8773]

Incredible!

[@Standbackforscience]

stuff like this gives me hope for humanity

[@SinceNightmoon]

Hope for Humanity ? building stuff out of Foam ? that is flameable.. gj rly where do u think ur foam waste comes to ?

[@alexmaghlakelidze]

very fascinating topic. and enormous work done sir! as an Architect and 3d printing enthusiast. this is very fascinating for me. my dream is to have ability to be in the research like this!!! keep researching!!!

[@goldeninfinity3645]

You sir are a genius ! Keep moving forward with EVERYTHING you are doing! If u need any help I will if u ask. And cancer with brain surgery WOW !

[@holemajora598]

Great presentation.

[@martincotterill823]

Wow! An amazing story!

[@normdoty]

Steven Keating ; you might just have saved my life !! NO i'm not kidding or joking around !! I have been smelling the oddest things at random times and everyone says don't worry about it. now I know better, I will get an appointment as soon as we can find a Dr. . thanks a lot, very glad you mentioned your problem, sorry you had your problem, i hope your are doing well now. btw your lecture is great, we are looking to get a small 3d printer for us. again thanks.

[@sallerc]

Wow, did you get an appointment? Find anything?

[@gabrielaverell2747]

What an interesting video and human! I would definitely pay full price and buy some popcorn and pop!

[@ninalli]

Totally excellent!

[@gingerznz5742]

What an amazing journey. I would love to bring this technology to New Zealand. We have such a huge need for houses but the cost to build is so high. This creates an even greater gap between rich and poor.

[@srpitu]

Amazing...

[@greggmcclelland8430]

Good job learning a lot about a lot of different subjects. I would love to understand the skill sets you learned outside of school versus the skills you learned in your classes. Who inspired you early on? What made you go into research?

[@tokugagua2008]

True inspiration

[@bigdaddybenn]

Amazing work. Wow. The concepts explored here will no doubt move forward to change manufacturing as we know it today. Ever consider utilizing a telescopic crane? The movie industry has done quiet a bit with these. Check out the Hyrdascope as an example - replace the 200+ lb camera with your arm or XYZ attachment. Again, very impressed. Been casually researching larger scale 3d printing for years and you nailed it here on vision and application. Looking forward to following your work!

[@mechminded2207]

With the living structures at the end, imagine setting several of those bots, with AI up in a park, where each has been set the task of creating their different forms, but also to seek out the forms of the other bots, learn from them, and adapt / modify the basic design to generate new ones. An iterative process that would grow through feedback.

[@juandelacruz1520]

Impressive

[@davidantill6949]

Very sad to hear this guy has died. Hopefully his legacy will inspire many others.

[@lukerowe2315]

very impressive person

[@TheGaijinGamersPlay]

this changes everything, in a few years time we can print literally anything, and with every other job being automated this great man just gave us the tech to take any material down to the microscopic level and print with existing material, this will stop waste cause we can simply break down our trash back to its base elements and reuse them again. this thing can build houses for the homeless, print food, print other machine parts, etc. pretty much can have whatever we want now.

[@kirill2525]

but that would put people out of work and companies out of business so they will suppress this just like they do with energy. we have zero point energy tech which means we can power the planet from atoms without putting in energy. people have made simple generators to power their holms but all that got shut down. We have enough food t feed everyone yet we throw it away because if everyone has food, prices drop. I can go on and on but you get the point. as long as people keep having the mindset of fucking others over for personal gain, this planet will not get any better. technology is not the problem, it's the people who try to hide it and everyone else who doesnt do shit about thoes people. thats the problem

[@leocurious9919]

How is that what you take from this video? Where is the "tech to take any material down to the microscopic level and print with existing material"?

[@abramsonrl]

Best supervillain backstory ever

[@johnlindsey7355]

Those glass structures the fractals I would use those as like a bone structure and then print something on top of that you know what I mean that would give you stiffness and rigidity and then but anyways very interesting stuff you got going on there little buddy

[@aakardev4699]

Congratulations Keating. Its good to know how MIT promotes and inspires new age technology. I am sure he was not asked to defend on References and author references otherwise the defense topic would have ended in additional academic theory . Unlike Indian IIT, and premier academic institutions end up in narrow mindedness, they don't look at the topic and passion for creative thinking and practices. Thanks Keating. Hope Indian Government can Lear something from your PhD.

[@jubiludrofher7534]

this guy was going places

[@AKT_SNP]

Let go any of these meaning, you've surpassed any on my future achievements just by memorizing that many words without a hiccup. Maybe if i would watch it hundred times i would learn something. If i understand correctly, out of everything what is shown here that there is short way out of this to command & conquer buildings in real life.

[@pmacgowan]

What a great lateral thinker

[@jhoferparil]

Future applications today : 1. socialized housing for 3rd world countries 2. undersea habitats 3. can be sent to mars ahead to construct main shells of habitats, so when people arrive they are just gonna install electronics. 4. space construction and repair, using old satellites(space trash) as raw materials 5. temporary facilities that leave no trace when left behind 6. Living buildings or living cities instead of concrete jungle cities Thank you steven, we are able to peak into new possibilities.

[@kevinedwards4565]

This is amazing, totally blew my mind! I do CNC routing but can totally relate to the whole printing and multi-tool process manufacturing. If you ever need to farm any CNC work out, hit me up, I'd be happy to help. I would love to be a part of a project like this!

[@rverm1000]

nice i wished i had the funding for such creative projects.

[@donaldtrump5489]

could do so much with a modest budget.

[@ancienttechnology7337]

would be easier to control the food supply for the bacteria so that you don't have to actually print the bacteria just merely "print" or manufacture their food in the shape you want and then spray the engineered bacteria on.

[@raymondweiwenjian5937]

That's very fascinating and inspiring talk! I am curious about how you manage the multi-color printing. Do the the changes of colors have a preset first before you start to print it? Or you have multiple material container connecting the same nozzle and can be changed randomly as you want? It looks like you have a preset first. So every time when you print something you have to set up the combination of colors first? And for the architectural scale printing, it is really good! Do you plan to start to combine different materials such as flexible material and strong material like steel in one print? It feels exciting!

[@broderp]

Where's the conversation about building?

[@altgenesis]

So you should be able to print a human heart in the future or other organs. Blood vessels, veins, etc.

[@kazimir8086]

"wow" - Owen Wilson.

[@citizenfriendly3845]

This is the future for computer chips maybe 30 years from now

[@agentkaabi9967]

Long story short He made a real life RTS Game .

[@websonic1000]

Very impressive, and lots of hard work I presume. Is this project still alive?

[@stanleydenning]

Let's not forget this fine gentleman. Like the way, we did Mr. Nicola Tesla. Brilliance may be short-lived. But impacts the world forever.

[@danadronen9361]

Instead of adding an Additive to plastics do you think they could build a house from hemp resin?

[@hugoamkreutz2081]

pure chad

[@wpegley]

Print with glass? .

[@MrPYACOBY]

Holy God! This man is amazing. Have many, many babies, sir!

[@imb6068]

Uhhhh

[@brontsmoth671]

He dead.

[@missgoddess1]

I'm speechless after seeing this. Can't wait to see how these experiments and theories have developed since (nearly 2 years ago).

[@RoverT65536]

Wow

[@tedweird]

Very interesting, and definitely potential future. I just worry that this paves the way for the grey goo...

[@MouseGoat]

But we really need lage self building struktures if we whant to go to space. I would say the sky is the limit with this teck, but the sky is only the beginning.

[@innocentqwa4630]

Have you considered building with a small swarm of drones? Instead of having them all have full access to their building materials, they could pick up some, go to the location, drop some off, then go back for more like termites.

[@platinumgroupllc2575]

What about foam concrete my brother, insulation and structural integrity. Well done, really enjoyed learning about you, your genius and approach to sustainability

[@davidwilkie9551]

Awe