Freetech Plastics in conjunction with IDSA Materials and Processes Section announces the Fourth Annual Student Thermoformed Part Competition.

Will Your Students Help “Form Our Future?”

$5,000 in scholarships will be awarded for the top three products created by college and university students using the thermoforming process.

CLEVELAND – Plastics News’ Plastics in Medical Devices 2012 conference will offer plenty for designers. The June 11-13 event in Cleveland will showcase some of the latest developments in materials, processing and tooling for medical applications, as well as topics such as additive manufacturing trends and considerations for the FDA approval process.

Sustainable materials practices for the building industry in one easy to use guide.

Click here to download The Stephen George & Partners Guide to Building Materials and the Environment. This guide is a 166 page comprehensive look at the building industries materials and includes many materials that are of interest to designers.

You can follow the IDSA M&P Section on Twitter. Just follow @idsamp. Sign up now!

[Via Design Sojourn]

As much as I like taking stuff apart, there's nothing cooler than building your very own gadget. The BigShot is a build-it-yourself digital camera kit that has adjustable lenses, gears and dynamo (the camera is powered with a hand crank), to teach kids about optics, mechanics and energy.

NPE 2009 Booth 129008

So now NPE has opened and IDSA is here. Many thanks to Larry, Leslie and everyone else at IDSA HQ for their help getting this put together. Also, thanks to Emily Gensheimer from the Chicago IDSA Chapter for helping to get the word out.

So take a look… Pretty cool, huh? The lounge area works really well…

(From NPE2009)

Okay, this one I already twittered about: These polo shirts made from 100% recycled green PETE soda bottles. The pictures don't do them justice – the pics on his web site give you a better idea...

Okay, this has nothing to do with NPE... But Rob, the 8 Bottles guy, had the bitchenest pair of bamboo eye glasses… I had to take some pics... He told me that were insanely expensive (not surprisingly).

Okay, here’s some teaser images for Tuesday… If you live in the Chicago area, you really need to come out here for a day… NPE only happens once every 3 years. If you are planning to come out, shoot me an e-mail: warrenginn at rcn dot com.

More later…