Interview with Elissa Ross: Mathematics Behind Metafold 3D

Elissa Ross is a mathematician and the CEO of Toronto-based startup Metafold 3D. Metafold makes an engineering design platform for additive manufacturing, with an emphasis on supporting engineers using metamaterials, lattices, and microstructures at industrial scales. Elissa holds a PhD in discrete geometry (2011) and worked as an industrial geometry consultant for eight years before cofounding Metafold. Metafold is the result of observations made in the consulting context about the challenges and opportunities of 3D printing. Elissa spoke at our recent virtual event focusing on Design for Medical 3D Printing.

When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing?

Elissa: My first encounter with 3D printing was printing some shapes that resulted from some mathematical research. It was interesting because they were shapes I had described in algorithms and equations but never visualized physically. I sent the files to a nearby 3D printing shop, and they printed them using FDM. The results were relatively poor, and I mostly dismissed them. 

I first engaged with 3D printing in 2014 during a mathematics research project related to architecture. Working on a problem defining three-dimensional solids algorithmically, I realized creating a physical model would be impossible with traditional media, so I turned to 3D printing. Even though the results weren’t astounding, the potential of materializing abstract mathematical concepts was compelling. This appreciation for digital manufacturing continues to inspire my work in metamaterials and additive manufacturing today.

Filter Cartridges (Copyright: Metafold 3D)

What inspired you to start your journey?

Elissa: After my PhD in mathematics, I worked as a geometry consultant, solving complex geometry issues for engineering, architecture, and manufacturing. My co-founder Daniel and I were hired by a sportswear manufacturer aiming to employ 3D printing and lattice geometry to achieve high-performance materials for athletes. However, there was no effective software for their needs. This led us to two core concepts that inspired us to start Metafold 3D:

1. Current CAD software doesn’t work for additive manufacturing.

2. Specialized companies often need custom digital tooling for manufacturing, which usually involves a lot of geometry.

We recognized these as broader challenges in additive manufacturing, where software lags behind hardware development. We believed we had the resources to create software to address this gap. This was substantiated through numerous discussions, with a standout quote from a 3D printer manufacturer, “We can print things we can’t design.” At Metafold, we’re aiming to change that. 

Who inspired you the most along this journey in 3D printing?

Elissa: I’m motivated by our customers, who do remarkable things using 3D printing. Whether bioreactors, chromatography devices, filters, carbon capture devices, orthotics, or heat exchangers, I’ve encountered many people pushing the boundaries of manufacturing innovation using 3D printing. They are persistent because they are driven by the benefits they see in the outcome — more efficient, optimized application parts. Additionally, my co-founder Tom’s ability to effortlessly design, print, and manage the complete manufacturing process, despite its complexities, is deeply inspiring.

Bioreactors (Copyright: Metafold 3D)

What motivates you the most for your work? 

Elissa: Conversations with people realizing the transformative potential of 3D printing to unlock new, better, more efficient, and more sustainable ways to manufacture things motivate me immensely. One of the critical capabilities of 3D printing is the ability to pack surface area into small volumes, usually through a triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS). These are great because they provide increased surface area, especially for biotech applications—for example, cell growth, filtration, or tissue adhesion. And I think we are only scratching the surface (pun intended!) of the possibilities of the methodology.

What is/are the biggest obstacle(s) in your line of work? If you have conquered them, what were your solutions? 

Elissa: Well, I’m four years into cofounding and being the CEO of a startup, which is all kinds of challenging! It truly makes the math PhD look like a piece of cake! Operating under an incredible amount of uncertainty is the defining feature. 

At the same time, it is fascinating. I don’t have any ‘solutions,’ but I can say that working with incredible people keeps me going every day. Building a team to work on complex problems has been amazing; it is all about those relationships.

Simulation (Copyright: Metafold 3D)

What do you think is (are) the biggest challenge(s) in 3D Printing/bio-printing? What do you think the potential solution(s) is (are)?

Elissa:

As everyone knows, there are plenty of challenges in 3D printing and bio-printing. A focus for me, of course, is on the mathematical and geometric challenges. At Metafold we’ve seen this come in two flavours:

  1. You have data, and you need shapes.
    Usually, this starts with a performance target—for example, optimized structures for the osseointegration of an orthopedic implant. Your chosen printing method imposes certain design constraints (overhangs, supports, etc.). Finally, there is some physics that you care about—mechanical loading and fluid flow for our example. The question is: What SHAPE will satisfy all these requirements (targets, constraints, physics)?
    This is not an easy problem, and the answer is geometry.
  2. You have shapes, and you want data.
    The other flavour begins with geometry, and asks for insight about the shape. For example, if you hand me a CAD file, what can I tell you about it? What manufacturing process should we use to make it (this goes beyond additive)? Where are the holes? What are the notable or defining geometric features? This kind of analysis is surprisingly hard to do with classical CAD which is why we have a different approach.

​Metafold‘s delivers geometric capabilities via API to solve tough design, simulation, automation and commercialization challenges with our customers. We really focus on the ways that geometry gets in the way of engineers being innovative, and use our technology to clear the path.

If a higher being granted you three wishes, what would they be? 

Elissa: Right now, I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day. It’s not really that I want more hours, though, just that I’d somehow like the ability to slow down or stretch out time. I wish I could do that pinching motion you do on a tablet to zoom in and out, but on all of life.

I know the clever thing to do here is to ask for infinite wishes, but I’m just going to call it that one wish about time.

Metamaterials (Copyright: Metafold 3D)

What advice would you give to an intelligent, driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advice have you heard that they should ignore? 

Elissa: A piece of obvious but essential advice I got when I struggled in graduate school was just: get the degree, because then you have it, and it becomes a rubber stamp for you going forward. This is especially important if you have unusual interests (I studied math and visual art). 

Beyond that, you can’t go wrong with math. It’s an incredible thing to study, and math professors are comically hopeless at knowing what you can do with a math degree. The world needs problem solvers; nothing trains you for this better than math. 

Finally, there is one piece of advice that doesn’t get talked about enough: No one in the world will have as significant an impact on your professional career as your choice of life partner (the impact on your personal life is evident). But I think this is probably impossible advice to hear when you are in your twenties. 

What to ignore? Any recommendations to FOCUS should probably be discarded. A breadth of experience leads to richer insights and the ability to make connections. I have passionately pursued interdisciplinarity and collaboration throughout my career, and it’s never steered me wrong!

What’s your favorite book you read this year and why? Alternatively, what’s your favorite book of all times you read and why?

Elissa:

This one is easy and I also love this question! I read “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” last March, which is when winter begins to feel truly endless in Toronto. It was written by Alfred Lansing, published in 1959, and details the 1914 journey led by Sir Ernest Shackleton in an attempt to cross Antarctica. This story is absolutely wild, and beautifully written. I cannot recommend it highly enough for a few reasons:

First the project itself is so unbelievable: the spirit of exploration and inquiry that drove this voyage into the unknown and the terrible, it boggles my mind. Especially when compared with the known-ness, the stability and the comforts of my world in 2024. I recognize this is not evenly distributed, but seriously: no one lives in Antarctica. And then the details of the experience itself — what these men endured both physically and mentally is hard to fathom. Just when you think it can’t possibly get worse, it does. I mean, startups are hard, but we’ve got nothing on Shackleton.

We can be inspired though! A startup-relevant passage highlighted by Davide Marini (CEO of InkBit) was this: “From studying the outcome of past expeditions, he believed that those that burdened themselves with equipment to meet every contingency had fared much worse than those that had sacrificed total preparedness for speed.”

Related Links:

Metamaterial and 3D Printing

Interview with Jade Myers: Designing 3D Printed Prosthetic

Design for 3D Printed Medical Devices (On Demand Video)

Designing and Equipping 3D Bioprinting Facilities

Robert Pugliese: Design for Healthcare with 3DPrinting (Podcast)

Virtual Reality Software For Molecular Modeling and Structure-Based Drug Design

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