PROVO, Utah — In celebration of Brigham Young University’s 150th anniversary, BYU electrical engineering professor Greg Nordin and student Callum Galloway created 150 microscopic, 3D-printed replicas of existing temples.
These temples were all completed on July 31, 2024, in anticipation for the anniversary. The 150 temples were laid on a 12-by-19-millimeter microchip in a 10-by-15 grid. Each temple had measurements of about 1 by 0.5 by 0.3 millimeters, about the size of a poppy seed.
“When we heard about the sesquicentennial ‘Beacons of Light’ celebration, we thought, ‘Can we use this superhigh-resolution 3D-printing capability that we’ve developed to create something special?’” said Nordin in a BYU news release.
With 382 temples announced, under construction or dedicated, these engineers chose 150 different floor plans, including temples such as St. George, Washington D.C., San Diego, Provo City Center, and Salt Lake.
“There are a lot of temples that have very, very similar floor plans,” Galloway said. “So I went through and did research finding the first 150 chronological temples that had unique floor plans, and that gives the most variety to the chip.”
According to the news release, Galloway was in Nordin’s lab when the project was first proposed. He then developed the project further and was at the heart of the final product.
Each temple is carefully designed on a carbon-backbone-based material for 3D printing, using ultraviolet projections to build different layers.
Through a process called photo polymerization, the molecules in the materials link in chains and result in recognizable tiny polymer temples.
“It’s rewarding how we can enjoy this technology that we’re using in both an artistic and a spiritual way,” Galloway said. “Engineering is inherently art, and the best art and the best engineering are born out of passion. That’s something I see very much in this lab.”
