About the 16th RDPM Conference

16th Conference 

4th - 5th April 2019                     

The Rapid Design, Prototyping & Manufacturing (RDPM) Conference is aimed primarily at postgraduate researchers, research assistants and early career academics in the field of additive manufacturing / 3D printing, offering many of them (often for the first time) a platform where they are able to present their latest research in a supportive, constructive and encouraging environment, whilst networking with their peers from other institutions.

Historically run as a 1-day event (preceded by a social activity the night before!), the RDPM Conference now runs over the course of an afternoon (Day 1) and full day (Day 2). This year, the conference will run on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th April 2019.

The first conference was held in 1995, organised by the Centre for Rapid Design and Manufacture (CRDM) and hosted by Buckinghamshire College (now Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College), High Wycombe. In the following years, it alternated periodically between High Wycombe and Lancaster University, Lancaster, and more recently in 2015 at the Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University and in 2017 at Northumbria University. RDPM2019 sees the conference continuing to make its way around the United Kingdom by heading south, to be hosted by Brunel University in Uxbridge. 

Over the past 30+ years that the technology we now know as additive manufacturing has been around, researchers have developed the discipline to be very broad, as is witnessed by the array of presentations that are given every year at the conference. These 30+ years have shown constant innovation in every aspect of product development, engineering design and manufacturing technology. Sharing these developments is key to the ethos of the conference - a platform for like-minded people to meet, share ideas and even start collaborative research projects.