Q&A // Wi3DP
Emily Levin
Women in 3D Printing member and 3D print application engineer advocates for making additive manufacturing the first choice in manufacturing.
Written by Cathy Cecere
EMILY LEVIN WORKS FOR HP in San Diego. As a materials specialist (she holds a doctorate in material science and a bachelor’s in material science and engineering), she developed novel multi-jet fusion (MJF) polymers and agents tailored to customer applications, as well as pioneered next-gen printing processes.
In her current role as 3D print application engineer, she works to make customer ideas a reality across industries such as healthcare, unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles, consumer products, and industrial manufacturing.
Levin is one of 13,000 members of Women in 3D Printing (Wi3DP). ASME acquired Wi3DP in June 2025. Since 2014, the group has been “promoting, supporting and inspiring women using additive manufacturing technologies” across a variety of industries and applications.
ME: What does a 3D print application engineer do?
Levin: As a 3D print application engineer, I work with customers to integrate 3D printing—specifically HP’s MJF process—effectively into the workflow. That means understanding customers’ challenges, evaluating whether 3D printing is the right fit from both a technical and a business perspective, cost modeling, and production planning.
[I’ll give you a couple of examples] with two projects. The first, one of the most inspiring projects I’ve been involved with, is with a company called The Eye Above. They’re building an anti-poaching drone in South Africa that monitors wildlife populations. It is able to detect traps set by poachers. By giving them the right tools, the local communities are better able to become custodians of the wildlife.
We work really closely with their CEO, Robert Miller. He tried all kinds of off-the-shelf drones. None of them could really handle the harsh conditions of South Africa. For example, they had a foam drone that got eaten by ants, which is not exactly your typical set of conditions and constraints. Other additive methods didn’t work for that application either, and he landed on HP’s MJF, which could deliver something both strong and consistent enough for that environment.
The other project is one with the [United States Department of Veteran Affairs]. The [VA is] one of the largest providers of prosthetic sockets for veterans. But one of the big barriers is that we have these clinicians, [who are] very highly trained medical professionals, but they’re not trained in 3D modeling and CAD. So, we’re collaborating with the VA and a couple different companies here to automate that body fitment process.
ME: Can you elaborate a bit about your recent training—HP Growth Mindset—and how it has helped you with projects?
Levin: HP really emphasizes the growth mindset, which is all about staying curious and embracing challenges and embracing [those] challenges with the confidence that you can learn. This is a part of the HP Way, which are guidelines and learnings from the founders of HP, that have been widely adopted by Silicon Valley.
Sometimes the very thought of thinking that you won’t be able to do something or learn something is what keeps it from being possible. And it can take a lot of self-reflection to even recognize when you’re limiting yourself, let alone overwriting those beliefs. It takes effort and mindfulness to train your brain to generate and reinforce positive self-beliefs.
In my role as an application engineer, I’m constantly faced with new problems in unfamiliar fields, learning something completely new, and you really have to know that you’re capable of learning those things to be ready to tackle them. You can break everything down into manageable pieces, trust your team, and be able to rely on those coworkers, and that growth mindset really creates this culture where innovation can thrive.
ME: How does the Wi3DP community help?
Levin: Communities like Women in 3D Printing provide a supportive network for people to share experiences, advice, and understand challenges in a way that outsiders often just can’t. There were people who were there for me and picked up the phone when I had questions, and I will always try and pay that forward to people who come after me or have questions for me.
I’ll always try and pick up the phone. It’s actually been happening a lot recently. And then within 3D printing as well, it’s a very small world, so making those connections matters. Seeing those people over and over again throughout your career matters.
ME: Can you tell us a bit about where the industry is headed? And what does it need to do to get there?
Levin: Additive is starting to become a first-choice solution. We see that in some spaces they’ve stopped treating additive as an alternative and started treating it as the standard. And that’s huge, but we’re not fully there yet. There are still some changes that need to come with the mindset.
One challenge is expertise. To get the most out of additive, products need to be designed for it from the start, not just take an injection molded product and print it. While you can certainly do that, you’re not going to go as far as you otherwise could. That requires more education and more people who understand DFAM, which is Design for Additive Manufacturing.
The second hurdle is mindset. Many people still think 3D printing is just for prototyping. Even people who are using it regularly. It’s not necessarily something that they think of first when they want to design for a final product. We like to emphasize the term additive manufacturing, not just as interchangeable language with 3D printing, but using that terminology to reflect the reality that the technology is ready for production.
Cathy Cecere is membership content program manager.
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