Advancing pocket-sized 3D printing with light-based chips
At MIT, PhD candidate Sabrina Corsetti is developing breakthrough 3D printing technologies—on a chip
According to MIT, PhD candidate Sabrina Corsetti is pioneering a new frontier in additive manufacturing through integrated photonics—a field that uses light, not electricity, to power chip-based devices.
Corsetti, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, works in Professor Jelena Notaros’s Photonics and Electronics Research Group. Her team has developed a photonic chip that enables a miniature 3D printer, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. The printer emits a reconfigurable beam of light into resin, fabricating solid objects in real time.
Such a device could make it possible to rapidly produce customized, low-cost components on demand—without bulky hardware. It’s a glimpse into a future where additive manufacturing is compact, efficient, and portable.
While integrated photonics is still a relatively young field, its impact spans from communications to sensing to next-generation computing. Corsetti’s recent work includes projects in quantum computing and biological sensing, such as a chip-based “tractor beam” that can manipulate particles like DNA using light alone.
“Our team has a strong focus on designing devices and systems that interact with the environment,” Corsetti said. “The opportunity to join a new research group, led by a supportive and engaged advisor, that works on projects with a lot of real-world impacts, is primarily what drew me to MIT.”
Originally trained in physics and math, Corsetti shifted from particle physics to chip design during her undergraduate years at the University of Michigan, with research experiences at CERN and multiple labs shaping her hands-on approach.
Now, as she helps push integrated photonics toward practical applications in fields like quantum computing and high-performance systems, Corsetti remains focused on impact. “You really need accelerated computing for any modern research area,” she said. “It would be exciting and rewarding to contribute to high-performance computing that can enable a lot of other interesting research areas.”
