The community visits ACES for IPRI Open Day

To celebrate National Science Week, the ACES labs were open yesterday for a number of tours, with many people from the community visiting for the 2018 IPRI Open Day.

ACES researchers were stationed throughout the labs to showcase their ground-breaking research. Almost 90 people toured the labs throughout the day, with the opportunity to see and ask questions about the work carried out at ACES, including the iFix Pen, the Biopen, 3D printing capabilities, Soft Robotic and the prosthetic hand, printing with cells, stem cell research and Bioinks.

Members of the community and general public attended as well as students from the University of Wollongong and those from The Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI), Wollongong Hospital, TAFE NSW and Keira High School. In addition to the many that visited yesterday, Lord Mayor of Wollongong, Gordon Bradbury, also made his way over earlier in the week for a tour and was presented with 3D-printed keys to the labs.

The IPRI Open Day gave the community an opportunity to see what exactly happens at ACES and within IPRI and the work being done by the many researchers and students involved. IPRI is the lead node for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) and materials node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).

To cap off what was an eventful day, the 2018 Bill Wheeler Award followed Open Day, celebrating its tenth year with Biofabrication PhD student, Luciana Yumiko Daikuara, presented with this year’s award.