Shapeways offers discount to students and educators

April 20, 2013 Education

In a kindhearted move, Shapeways announced a 10% discount for anyone with a .edu email account, so students. That encompasses quite a bit of their clients, as many engineers, architects, and general 3D modelers are in college, or are professors. It’s an effective way to encourage more university participation in 3D printing, because college students aren’t usually rolling in piles of cash. And 3D printing is a wonderful tool in education.

The Shapeways Blog reads, “This is our first step at helping students and educators have better access to high quality 3D printing through Shapeways. We will be rolling out more features as part of the Shapeways Education Program so that everyone from elementary to post graduate students can use 3D printing to help them learn, understand and communicate their ideas whether they be technical, artistic or conceptual.”

More features! Maybe another discount for printing specific educational items? Or discounts on educational projects that are submitted/approved? Whatever they are, we’ll let you know.

About Cameron Naramore

Cameron, Senior Staff Writer, is a technology enthusiast that can better write about 3D printing than he can ride a bike. His interest in 3D printing is mostly driven by his desire to become a cyborg. He enjoys philosophical conversation and is also fond of poetry and Star Trek. Connect with him on Google+.
  • https://3dprinter.net Mark Fleming

    I do think it’s smart that they offer a student discount, but I think they should have done it in another way, like many of the software companies do — they require proof of being a student, rather than simply registering with a .edu email address. The .edu test brings in millions of people who are not students and teachers, such as university non-educator staff, and millions of alumni that have a .edu email. Heck my 84-year old father went to MIT back in the 40’s and he has a .edu email address.

    Hey, it’s up to them how they do it, but they are going to find that a lot of their customers getting discounts will not be students or educators.

  • Cameron

    Quite. And there are students without .edu addresses. It’s probably a staff/workload issue.