Ellie Weinstein '15

  • SCH Academy
Ellie Weinstein '15

While attending SCH Academy, Ellie developed an interest in 3D printers and chocolate—specifically the idea of liberating bespoke chocolates from the confines of the bar and the mold. She went on to pursue his interest as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering. She is the winner of the Miller Innovation Fellowship at Penn and was accepted into the Pennovation Accelerator Program. In July of 2019, he filed a patent and expects to hear back in November 2020.

While accepted as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ellie took a leave of absence to work on Cocoa Press full-time at the Pennovation Center. Ellie has designed the Cocoa Press to 3D print chocolate in all forms and shapes. (Read more below, March 2023)


What happens when your teacher challenges you to create something that doesn't exist? You think outside the box (of chocolates)! That's what Ellie Weinstein '15 did at SCH under the tutelage of Peter Randall, Engineering and Robotics Department chair. In response to Mr. Randall's challenge, she designed a 3-D chocolate printer here at SCH and continued her work as a mechanical engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania. Now, five years later, she's ready to patent and sell the Cocoa Press 3-D printer, which uses food-grade stainless steel, has a climate-controlled enclosure, and includes chocolate cartridges to print your own chocolates, with logos if you so choose!

"It's pretty exciting. The world of engineering is just allowing you to figure out how to solve problems so it translates into so many different fields, even if you don't stick to engineering in the long term," said Weinstein who is still involved at SCH as a mentor to the robotics team.

Read the story in The Chestnut Hill Local, here.

  • 2015
  • CEL
  • Engineering

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