Case Study: SUNY New Paltz achieves affordable product development and a 500-unit production run with MakerBot

Empowering Young Women Entrepreneurs in STEM to Achieve their Dreams

SUNY New Paltz supported student entrepreneur Danielle Aylmer as she worked to turn her idea, Syngies—a toy that conceals needles to calm children during shots—into a marketable product. Facing prohibitively expensive injection molding and no in‑house product design, she used the MakerBot Innovation Center at SUNY New Paltz, which offers access to thirty MakerBot 3D printers and hands‑on prototyping support.

At the MakerBot Innovation Center, Aylmer and a SUNY intern iterated the Syngies design four times to make it smaller, more animated and doctor‑friendly, then printed a first production run of 500 units—work that would have been much slower and costlier on a single printer. MakerBot’s resources delivered an affordable development path, real‑world experience for the intern, and positioned Aylmer to seek venture capital and expand her line.

SUNY New Paltz