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Making History Live Again With 3D Technology

Making History Live Again With 3D Technology

Ping Fu

By Ping Fu

Ping Fu

VP & Chief Entrepreneur Officer, 3D Systems

Honored in 2005 by Inc. Magazine as Entrepreneur of the Year, Ping Fu describes herself as an artist and scientist whose chosen expression is business. In 1997, Ping co-founded Geomagic, a 3D imaging software company, which was acquired by 3D Systems in February 2013. Before co-founding Geomagic, Ping was involved in the NCSA Mosaic software that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. Ping serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Commerce and on the board of directors at the Long Now Foundation. Ping’s book “Bend, Not Break” was published by Portfolio Penguin in January 2013.

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One of the essential qualities of 3D technology that I most love is its versatility. We’ve already found a multitude of uses for it. And with all the creative people on the planet, we will continue to find more unique, whimsical, pioneering ways to exercise it. 3D technology really is a blank sheet, a flashpoint from which we can conceive of projects as spectacular as the tools themselves. Best of all, just as paint and canvas have not met their limit, I don’t think 3D will either. That’s a status that many new, openly available technologies and toys can’t claim, as so many are meant for specific uses. But 3D is meant simply to inspire.

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