Nebraska Opens $8M 3D Printing Center for Prosthetics and Surgery

Why Nebraska Wants a 3D Printing Hub for Healthcare

The University of Nebraska at Omaha is building a statewide research hub called the Nebraska Center for 3D Innovation, or NE3D. It comes with an $8 million award from the National Science Foundation's E-RISE program, which is designed to help states strengthen research infrastructure and grow scientific talent in strategically important STEM fields.

NE3D is based at UNO's Biomechanics Research Building, but it is deliberately not a single-campus effort. Partners include the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC iEXCEL, the Mammel Innovation Center at Children's Nebraska, Clarkson College's 3D Printing and Training Center, Metropolitan Community College's Prototype Design Lab, School District 145, Autism Action Partnership, and industry partner Shabri LLC. The idea is to link researchers, students, clinicians, educators, and companies into one network rather than letting each institution work alone.

Three Research Tracks, All Aimed at Patients

The center will focus on three areas. The first is 3D-printed prosthetics and assistive devices, with the goal of making more human-like and responsive artificial limbs. The second is antimicrobial materials for 3D printing, which could reduce harmful microbes on printed medical parts. The third is patient-specific anatomical models and surgical planning, combining AI, medical imaging, and 3D printing to give surgeons better preoperative tools.

Jorge Zuniga, the UNO biomechanics researcher who started NE3D in 2016 as a small informal group, is now leading the formal center. 'What makes NE3D particularly important is that it combines these research areas with education, workforce development, and industry partnerships,' he said. 'The long-term goal is not simply to produce individual technologies. It is to build research capacity in Nebraska.'

Students Get Hands-On Access

NE3D will offer mentored interdisciplinary research to graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. Areas include biomechanics and soft robotics, computer-aided design and prototyping, prosthetic and assistive-device development, medical imaging, and AI-enhanced medical technologies. That structure is meant to train the next generation of researchers while the center works on real clinical problems.

The NSF grant runs for four years. Zuniga's team has already been working with local families, including helping a young girl named Rue Gillespie test a pink prosthetic hand in 2020. The new funding turns that kind of community work into a sustained, statewide program.