Trick I learned while running a company full of smart people... Look at what they do with the irritating portion of grunt work ::looks all happy with himself:: Get an intern and make themn do it. Ob a more serious note, you can hiut up engineering students and offer them some cash and ROP time (school can help with that) If you don't have a degree in the same general ballpark often they can get a prof to join in to lend a credential (and get a publishing credit) and it is *not* taking advantage. In the engineering world your degree is a "oh that's nice" item, then you are asked what you have actually done, that always has a *LOT* more weight given to it.
Besides, that is not something you can easily do with a 3d printer, that is better suited to MatLab, and even renting access to the software was hundreds of dollars a month. Actually getting to install your own server..... that starts at last I looked 3500 + license per user in multi-user realms and that usually was only discounted if you were splitting it up between dozens of projects.No clue how to get cheap matlab work done, most students and wize folks steer away lest they bore you with thier talkings...