This Collaborative Research award supports the conduct of a workshop to engage participants from academia, industry, and government in discussions related to preparing and enhancing the Additive Manufacturing (AM) workforce through novel educational partnerships. While several workshops have been held to discuss advances in AM technology and research, there has not yet been a dedicated workshop to address the gaps in the workforce?s AM knowledgebase. The workforce?s limited knowledge of the capabilities of AM technologies is a critical barrier to widespread AM adoption. The intellectual merit of the workshop lies in developing novel educational partnerships to prepare and enhance the AM workforce. The workshop will identify synergies between existing AM efforts (e.g., America Makes, National Institute of Standards and Technology, American Society for Testing and Materials,) and funding opportunities to realize new educational partnerships to prepare and enhance the AM workforce.
Advancing the understanding, utilization, and adoption of Additive Manufacturing will require an interdisciplinary workforce that has the knowledgebase for synthesizing new materials, integrating advanced process controls, establishing quality control standards, and formulating new design and communication methodologies. The workshop will provide a strong foundation for preparing the workforce for the paradigm shift in design and production that is enabled through AM technology. By working with a variety of non-profit organizations and government agencies, the workshop will identify new ways to work effectively across a wide spectrum of educational needs--graduate, undergraduate, community colleges, technician training, industry practitioners--while harnessing the excitement of the Maker Movement and numerous K-12 outreach efforts involving 3D printing that are fueling the science, technology, engineering and mathematics career pipeline. The workshop organizers will leverage collaborations with America Makes (the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to disseminate workshop outcomes to students, faculty, and industry practitioners.
While enthusiasm for Additive Manufacturing (AM) has grown substantially recently, widespread use and industrial adoption of AM for production of end-use products has been tempered. Numerous workshops have been held to address AM’s technical challenges and research needs, but none have focused on the knowledge gaps and educational needs for developing an AM engineering workforce. Consequently, we held a 1.5-day workshop at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, VA on April 10-11, 2014 to discuss the educational needs and opportunities in AM. The 66 participants spanned a variety of industries, academic institutions, government labs, federal agencies, and non-profit organizations. The overall goal of the workshop was to identify (i) what should be taught to AM practitioners, (ii) the means by which it should be taught, and (iii) opportunities for novel partnerships for enhancing the AM workforce. To help identify what should be taught to AM students and practitioners, seven invited speakers from industry shared their thoughts on the "ideal AM engineer." Participants then engaged in small group discussions to identify topics and skillsets that are critical for educating the AM workforce. Five key themes emerged: (1) AM processes and process/material relationships, (2) engineering fundamentals with an emphasis on materials science and manufacturing, (3) professional skills for problem solving and critical thinking, (4) design practices and tools that leverage the design freedom enabled by AM, and (5) cross-functional teaming and ideation techniques to nurture creativity. Eight invited speakers from universities and community colleges shared their "best educational practices" for teaching and using AM in the classroom, and nine invited speakers discussed national efforts and funding opportunities for AM education and training. Participants were then divided into small workgroups and tasked with developing concepts for novel partnerships for AM education. The resulting concepts included: (1) a lifelong "AM training pyramid" spanning K-12 through R&D that combines AM skill and knowledge acquisition with AM incubators and design competitions to grow and nurture AM communities; (2) a national network for AM education that leverages and expands NSF’s successful ATE programs; (3) a MAKE-brary initiative that seeks to create maker spaces in every community, (4) open source educational resources for AM; (5) after-hours AM training programs for incumbent workers and awareness programs for their families; (6) AM courses and curricula for K-5, middle school, high school, community colleges, and universities with cross-linkages across all levels; and (7) a series of small grant initiatives for initiating new AM educational partnerships, "Engineering Experiences for Undergraduates" programs, and student exchanges. Based on these discussions, it is recommended to establish a National Network for Additive Manufacturing Education and Training (AM E&T) that, by leveraging existing "distributed" educational models and NSF’s ATE Programs, provides open source resources as well as packaged activities, courses, and curricula for all educational levels (K-Gray). This network could effectively "layer" national, regional, and local efforts for AM education and training, as shown in the accompanying Figure. Specifically, regional sites of AM expertise and resources provide educational initiatives at all levels and are nationally connected through such organizations as America Makes, ASME, SME, NIST, and others. The resulting network could address the challenge in connecting established AM educational initiatives into a coherent network - and therefore could address the pressing and growing need for AM Education and Training. The intellectual merit of the workshop lies in identifying novel partnerships to prepare and enhance the AM workforce. This workshop is the first to convene experts from industry, academia, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to discuss the specific educational needs and opportunities—and corresponding partnerships—for additive manufacturing. The resulting outcomes and recommendations provide a strong foundation for preparing students for the paradigm shift in design and production that is enabled through AM technology. AM is poised to have broad impact not only in how companies design and produce parts, but also in how we educate and train our students for design and manufacturing careers. By involving a variety of non-profit organizations and government agencies, the workshop participants identified new ways to work effectively across this wide spectrum of educational needs—graduate, undergraduate, community colleges, technician training, industry practitioners—while harnessing the excitement of the Maker Movement and leveraging the numerous K-12 outreach efforts using 3D printing that are fueling the STEM pipeline. The team has broadly disseminated the results via conference presentations and to industry via a collaboration with America Makes/NAMII. The final workshop report and speakers’ slides can be found on the workshop website: www.enge.vt.edu/nsfamed/.
