As 3D printing continues to transform the way we teach, research, and innovate, an important shift is happening: academic institutions and libraries are partnering with 3D print databases to enhance access to quality models. Whether it’s for biomedical training, robotics research, or book history education, these collaborations are unlocking new possibilities across disciplines.
Below, we explore a few repositories and platforms that have formed meaningful partnerships with universities and libraries — and why those relationships matter.
Focus: Bioscience, medicine, education
Institutional Tie-In: Strong collaboration with academic researchers and medical schools
NIH 3D offers an open portal for sharing high-quality, scientifically vetted 3D models. Originally developed to support biomedical education and research, the platform became particularly valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic for distributing PPE and clinical tools created in collaboration with university labs. The models here are more than just downloadable files — they are educational assets grounded in research.
You can create an account using your university google account.
Focus: Anthropology, paleontology, biology
Institutional Tie-In: Widely used and contributed to by university researchers
MorphoSource is a 3D data repository designed for sharing scanned biological and fossil specimens. It’s deeply rooted in the academic world, supporting everything from anatomy courses to evolutionary research. Universities use it not only to access models but also to contribute new datasets, often from rare or fragile collections.
Focus: Book history, printing technology, instructional use
Institutional Tie-In: Collaborative initiative between UNT, UCLA, and Texas A&M
The 3Dhotbed project is a fantastic example of library-led innovation. Developed through partnerships between university libraries, it provides 3D-printable teaching tools related to book history and movable type. Models range from early printshop components to illustrative replicas used in literature, history, and design instruction.
Focus: Engineering, prototyping, and industrial design
Institutional Tie-In: Widely used by engineering schools and student makers
GrabCAD is one of the largest online communities for mechanical engineers, offering an extensive library of free, downloadable 3D CAD models. While originally designed for professional engineers, it has become a go-to resource for university makerspaces, engineering departments, and student design teams. Many institutions incorporate GrabCAD into coursework, allowing students to iterate quickly using real-world parts and assemblies. It’s especially valuable in capstone projects, rapid prototyping, and cross-disciplinary design challenges.
Some academic institutions even contribute original models, tutorials, or design challenges to the platform, helping bridge the gap between classroom learning and industry practice.
Partnerships between 3D repositories and academic institutions offer benefits beyond simple access:
Accuracy & Trust: University partnerships ensure models are reviewed, high-quality, and aligned with scholarly or clinical needs.
Metadata & Rights Management: Institutional repositories handle licensing and versioning to support long-term access and reuse.
Pedagogical Value: Many models are developed with instructional goals in mind, not just design aesthetics.
Collaborative Knowledge Sharing: These platforms often act as bridges between institutions, enabling cross-campus innovation.
So, as is normal, there are different ways to tackle embedding video using systems here at SBU. I’m just going to look at google drive embeds. When you embed a video, it plays right there in the page, not something you have to click on which then opens up a new page or downloads the video to view it. Like this:
(BTW – this video I am using in this demonstration was made via copilot as I outlined in the previous blog post.)
So how did I do that? One usually won’t just drop a video into this blog site, as it will likely be too big. So the first thing I did after making the video, is drop it into my google drive. Make sure you share it to anyone that has the link or anyone at SBU as appropriate.
The thing is, the embed code from google drive is a wee bit hidden. You have to click on the three dots next to the file name, open it in a new tab, then click the three dots above the player area and then at the very bottom of the menu you can find the embed code. You will need to highlight and copy the code out from there.
Now that you have the embed code, what next? Well, here in the blog I switch from a Visual View to a Text view, and that shows me the html for the page and I just copy it in. It might look a little scary, but right after you paste, you can switch right back to the Visual Mode and safety.
In Brightspace, you go to the area you want to have the video, find this icon:
This is the “insert stuff” button which can be found in just about any text entry window where you can format the text.
Enter Embed Code is at the bottom
Paste in your code and hit next. It gives me a warning that you are getting media from another site. Click Allow. Click Insert. I got that warning again, and I told it to allow it again. And now it looks like this:
Google Drive auto captions the videos that you put in the drive. (You should still check and edit them.)
You do not get all the same engagement tools and analytics that you get in echo360 embedding, but I felt that this was still worth sharing.
a screenshot showing the menu navigation, Window -> Utilities -> Scripts from inside indesign.
Gilbert Consulting offers custom Adobe InDesign and Illustrator scripts to solve workflow issues. They provide 38 free scripts designed to automate tasks and enhance functionality within these programs. These scripts cover a range of functions, from adding hyperlinks and page buttons to analyzing documents and exporting files in various formats. Many scripts address specific formatting needs like table styles, accessibility checks, and image conversions. The scripts are frequently updated, and several are accompanied by blog posts or videos offering further instruction and context.
https://gilbertconsulting.com/scripts
I discovered these while taking the Advanced Accessible PDFs course on Linkedin by Chad Chelius.
Enjoy!
(more here – including a color contrast checker: https://accessibilityscripts.com/store/product-category/indesign/)
This is the original image of a handwritten math formula that was dragged into ChatGPT 4o with the query:
“I’m going to give you another image to interpret. Please switch this out to html if you can.”
It gave me the html:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″>
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″>
<title>Quantum Equation</title>
<script type=”text/javascript” async
src=”https://polyfill.io/v3/polyfill.min.js?features=es6″>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript” async
src=”https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js”>
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Quantum Mechanics Equation</h2>
<p>
\[
\dot{C}_m(t) = -\frac{i}{\hbar} \sum_n C_n(t) e^{i \omega_{mn} t} \langle \psi_m | H_1 | \psi_n \rangle
\]
</p>
</body>
</html>
and when this is opened in a browser, it looks like this:
and SOUNDS like this in the screen reader:
Here is the transcript produced by notebooklm from the audio file:
“over C subscript M left parenthesis T right parenthesis equals minus fraction start I over H with stroke end of fraction and area summation with N underneath C subscript N left parenthesis T right parenthesis E superscript I subscript MN T mathematical left angle bracket subscript M vertical line H subscript one vertical line subscript N mathematical right angle bracket”
If you pay for ChatGPT, you now have access to Sora, their video creation AI application. This is my first attempt… It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super goat!
Prompt: a herd of mountain goats can be seen charging up the side of a rocky hill. One of the ones in the front is carrying a ran banner. it is very dramatic and the camera zooms in as they get to the top of the hill.
If you are looking to work on your grades offline in excel, and you know you will want to create new columns that you want your students to see, create the columns first in Brightspace, and then export the file as a CSV. Even though there is language in the process that suggests you can create columns offline, I do not suggest trying to do this.
To create a new column, go to Manage Grades -> New -Item.
If this column only needs to be seen by students, and will not interact with anything else in brightspace, I suggest choosing the Text option for the item type.
Text columns are only visible to students if you have the setting “grade scheme symbol” checked in Grades -> Settings -> Org Unit Display Options -> Student View Display Options.
Conversely, if you don’t have this box checked, I guess you can use this column type to make notes about each student that you don’t want them to see? Like name pronunciations or pronoun notes.
Without even bothering to explore Adobe Express much, I just assumed it was a dumbed down version of Adobe Photoshop. It does satisfy that description, but it is also a dumbed down Premier, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, converter, AND text to graphic AI generator.
menu of quick actions
part two of quick action items in adobe express
QR Code maker:
Generative AI image style:
What is a seawolf?
Maybe make it look more like a university mascot?
or start with a real photo and just mess with that using AI
That one “Animate from Audio” I’ve blogged about before: https://you.stonybrook.edu/jadams/2024/06/12/adobe-education-institute-animate-from-audio-in-adobe-express/
Here is that Collage Tool:
Yet another toy to place with. Educate yourself about it as well. The Speech to Speech option can be used to do a deepfake, but for the voice.
https://elevenlabs.io/
image of voice generator from website