Headshot of Jackson Burnett
Author: Jackson Burnett | Major: Mechanical Engineering and German | Semester: Spring 2023
My name is Jackson Burnett and during the 2022-2023 academic year, I worked on the topic of 3D printed running shoe parts under the direction of Dr. Han Hu. I am a Mechanical Engineering and German undergraduate student, and Dr. Hu is an assistant professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering here at the University of Arkansas.
My research focused on the idea of 3D printing shoe parts so that they can be created more efficiently and more sustainably. The basic premise is that the current world of shoe production is often very wasteful and has a high carbon footprint. I looked into ways to help reduce the amount of material used to create shoes and to reduce the amount of transportation needed to transport supplies which would both cut down on the carbon footprint of the shoe market.
3D printed shoe parts allow shoes to be more customizable and tailor-made to the needs of customers instead of just producing large quantities of different varieties of shoes. This allows for the shoe market to be less wasteful as shoes can simply be created for the person who is purchasing them and not for a large audience where many of the shoes will go unpurchased and unused.
To find my research topic, I talked with my research mentor, Dr. Han Hu, who originally asked me to help another undergraduate student on a different research topic called the Freshlight Project which I worked on during the Spring 2022 semester. After the conclusion of the Spring 2022 semester, me and my mentor sat down and discussed different research topics I could investigate for the upcoming semester, and I eventually settled on the idea of 3D printed running shoe parts since I am an avid runner and was interested in the field of running apparel. It was a good way to combine my personal interest of running with my studies of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Hu helped me by guiding me towards research opportunities that I thought were valuable and catered to my interests, and made his lab, the Nano Energy and Data-Driven Discovery Laboratory, available to me for use. Dr. Hu was very helpful for me in finding research opportunities that I could see the value and usefulness of, and I’m thankful for his help.
What I’ve learned about my research topic is that running shoes are much more complex than I had thought. There are way more pieces to it than I had imagined, and there are a wide variety of different materials that can be used to create a single pair of shoes. I also learned how wasteful the sports apparel industry can be, since they create a lot of different products to ensure they meet the market demand, but they often can be wasteful by creating an overabundance of products that go unsold and unused.
One challenge I have faced in my research is creating my own midsole and shank design using Solidworks (a 3D-modeling software). There is a lot of complex geometry that goes into the human foot and thus that complex geometry spills over into the world of shoe design. The way I overcame this problem is to continue working on the design and reiterating ideas until you eventually find something that works.
One of the next steps for me is this summer, where I have already begun my Mechanical Engineering Internship with Garver. My internship will continue through the end of August, and then when that is over, I will then be flying off to study at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Darmstadt, Germany! After my year in Germany, I will return to Fayetteville to finish up my degrees and see what my next steps are, such as if I want to continue to graduate school or if I want to look for an industry engineering job.