Nearly 100 students competed in the 2024 Additive Manufacturing Competition cosponsored by SME and Stratasys. The event, which featured teams from high schools and post-secondary schools from 36 states, was held in Atlanta (June 24-28) in conjunction with the 60th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.
First held in 2013, the contest educates students about AM technologies and design, while providing them with real-world, hands-on experience that they can apply to a commercial product. This year, a mini competition for middle school students was piloted.
Nearly 500 parts were printed during the three-day competition, all on Stratasys 3D printers. Students were challenged to choose between two basic models and make a presentable customer product prototype by altering the physical design, adding colors, applying textures and/or splitting or adding parts to make multi-body/material assemblies.
“These students reinforce that the next generation has brainpower and work ethic to lead the next generation of design and manufacturing,” says Jesse Roitenberg, Americas education manager at Stratasys.
In addition to gold, silver and bronze medals, winners received scholarships ranging from $500 to $1,500 from the SME Education Foundation, as well as a one-year subscription to Tooling U-SME online learning classes. The competition was supported this year by Autodesk, SolidWorks, Future of Jewelry, UltiMaker, Printed Solid and Allegheny Educational Systems.
Introducing students to additive manufacturing at a young age inspires them to consider an education or career in a manufacturing or STEAM-related field.
The winning “gold” teams were:
Middle School—Irene Chen, Jackson Fisher and Suri Ha from Sleepy Hill Middle School (Lakeland, Fla.)
High School—Joshua Ridley and Matthew Queen from White Knoll High School (Lexington, S.C.)
Post-Secondary—Armand Carlo Agbulos and Cody Buchanan from Madison Area Technical College (Madison, Wisc.)
In addition to the AM competition, 92 students participated in the Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals Certification Exam, which was administered to all students for free and was included as a percentage of the total points for each competing team. Two-thirds of the students passed the exam, which is the highest rate since 2013. The SME Education Foundation prepared every student with a bundle of 20 Tooling U-SME classes.
