Engineers at BYU have been honing their 3D printing skills — their latest project is creating microscopic temples to commemorate the school’s 150th anniversary.
While 3D-printed replicas of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are nothing new, these are unique in that they are all smaller than a grain of rice.
Electrical engineering professor Greg Nordin and student Callum Galloway spearheaded the project, in which they made 150 replicas of existing Latter-day Saint temples, all of which fit on a 12-by-19 millimeter microchip.
Nordin has been researching micro and nano-fabrication processes for years to create devices that are microscopic in scale and can be used in a variety of applications. Typically, his lab focuses on creating a “lab on a chip” device, where a biomedical laboratory instrument is miniaturized to fit on a small chip.
“When we heard about the sesquicentennial ‘Beacons of Light’ celebration, we thought, can we use this super high-resolution 3D printing capability that we’ve developed to create something special?” Nordin said.
The engineers used a carbon-backbone-based material for the printing and projected ultraviolet images to build the different layers of the tiny temples.
“Using a process called photo polymerization, the small molecules in the materials link up in chains and result in recognizable tiny polymer temples,” the university said in a release.
The replicas include the iconic Salt Lake Temple and other well-loved temples from Washington, D.C., St. George, San Diego, Provo City Center and more.
“These temples probably won’t last 1,000 years, but there are some materials we could use with our 3D printing process that would last that long,” Nordin said. “Maybe we need to get some of those materials.”
Galloway, a computer engineering major, was a new member of Nordin’s lab when the project idea emerged, and he had prior experience with 3D printing. Nordin said Galloway “took it and ran with it.”
While many temples have similar floor plans, Galloway researched to find the first 150 chronological temples with unique floor plans, thereby providing more variety for the chip. He loves that in engineering, you can both enjoy yourself with fun projects and also work on technology that can change lives.
“It’s rewarding how we can enjoy this technology that we’re using in both an artistic and a spiritual way,” Galloway said. “Engineering is inherently art, and the best art and the best engineering are born out of passion. That’s something I see very much in this lab.”