The founder and CEO of Materialise, Wilfried Vancraen, made a presentation at the TEDxLeuven conference on March 29th, 2012, where he discussed ways in which 3D Printing is transforming our world for the better.

Materialise characterizes it’s CEO beliefs:

It is Wilfried’s strong belief that although 3D Printing technology can also be misused, when used well, it has the power to greatly improve our lives in terms of the products we use, the designs we create, and the medical care we receive. As proof of this, he will provide examples that demonstrate how 3D Printing is already touching the lives of individuals on a much larger scale that many people imagine.

The TEDx program was created in the spirit of TED‘s mission, which is “ideas worth spreading.” Unlike the big TED conferences, a TEDx is fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis, to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

This particular TEDx program was presented in Leuven, Belgium, headquarters of Materialise. Since 1990, Materialise has been playing an active role in the additive manufacturing field. They have the the largest capacity of rapid prototyping equipment in Europe, and are known for being a provider of innovative software solutions. They’ve created a better and healthier world through their involvement in rapid industrial and medical prototyping, and by providing bio-medical and clinical solutions such as medical image processing and surgical simulations.