At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, Jennifer Lewis, a biological engineering professor at Harvard with 10 patents to her name, unveiled a potentially revolutionary new technology: the world’s first 3-D printer capable of spitting out fully functional electronics. While most current models print plastic-based filament—which is fitting for trinkets and prototypes—Voxel8’s uses a conductive silver ink that can be printed right into a USB drive or quadcopter drone, for example, and that can be filled in around microchips inserted by hand. The first generation of Voxel8 printers will arrive at universities and industrial labs for research purposes by the end of the year, but Lewis envisions a future in which anyone involved in the DIY movement can print his or her own computer parts or robotic toys at home. "We ultimately want to mass-customize electronics," she says.

Lewis holds a BS in Ceramic Sciences and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as a Doctor of Science in Materials Science from M.I.T.

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