ABOUT
Hello, I'm Thomas Knoepffler, a design technologist in Miami, Florida. I design physical objects and software tools that respond to the people and spaces around them, working with AI, sensors, and digital fabrication. My recent projects include a 3D-printed hydroponic planter, a desk lamp that senses posture, and a browser tool for building procedural 3D worlds.
I hold an MS in Design Technology from Cornell University and a BS in Integrated Design & Media from NYU, and before graduate school I worked in UI/UX design and product management at an early-stage startup. Outside of studio work I have mentored student designers and volunteered with local creative communities.
I'm currently looking for design technologist and prototyping roles in Miami, Florida, and I'm glad to hear from anyone about the work.
SKILLS
— Rhino 3D, Grasshopper, Blender
— Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma
— 3D Printing, Laser Cutting
— Arduino, Raspberry Pi
— HTML, CSS, JavaScript
— Python, C#
LINKS
Resume
LinkedIn
Instagram
GitHub
Email STACKAPONICS
STACKAPONICS
Cornell University, AAP
Design and Making II, Spring 2025
— DESIGN 6152
MY ROLE
Designer, Prototyper, Fabricator, Researcher
DESCRIPTION
A stackable, 3D-printed hydroponic kit for growing microgreens at home. It waters itself by capillary action, with no pump. A domestic product reimagined as a bio-hybrid design object.
LINKS
Extended Abstract
Methodology
PROBLEM
Hydroponics has a strong case for city apartments: compared with soil, it uses up to 95% less water and yields 30% to 50% more. The catch is that most home systems depend on pumps, sensors, and upkeep. Stackaponics removes all three by letting capillary action do the watering, so the kit has no moving parts to fail. What remains is a set of 3D-printed units whose geometry is shaped to move water and hold roots, sized for microgreens such as chia.
PROCESS
The brief came out of conversations with botanists and horticulturists, who kept returning to two requirements: low maintenance and a small footprint. Those two constraints drove the parametric work in Rhino and Grasshopper toward stackable forms. Four rounds of 3D-printed prototypes followed, each adding something the last one lacked: perforations, then more surface area for roots, then dedicated channels for the capillary wicks. Between rounds, chia seeds were planted in the printed units to check that the water actually reached them and that the plants survived.
HOW IT WORKS
Each unit is a lofted form generated from a few parameters, height, curvature, and tessellation among them, and tuned to print cleanly on a Creality Ender 3 SE in PETG. Before printing, Kangaroo2 and Blender simulations predicted how water would travel across the surfaces; after printing, physical tests checked whether the stacks held, whether the perforations worked, and how fast the wicks drew water. The nylon rope wicks reached full saturation in three to five minutes. Growth trials then compared germination, root integration, and plant health across the different geometries.
NEXT STEPS
Because the units are generated from parameters, the natural next step is to release the files so people can adapt the kit to other plants and scales. A later version would carry nutrients within the printed structure itself, still without a pump, and could accept simple monitoring without complicating the object. Production cost is low enough to compete in the home-gardening market. What makes the project more than a planter, though, is what happens over weeks: the roots grow into the lattice until the printed object and the living one are hard to separate.