SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Contest Winners Design Device to Assist Veteran

Last week,  SME and Stratasys Ltd. announced the winners of this year’s additive manufacturing student competition held at the 54th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

During the past four years, SME and Stratasys have collaborated on the Additive Manufacturing Competition — a contest designed to stimulate student knowledge of additive manufacturing and 3D printing techniques. This year’s contest included 44 teams representing high schools, colleges/universities and career technical institutions — each competing for a chance to take home a gold, silver or bronze medal. Prizes include scholarships from the SME Education Foundation (for high school participants), a one-year Tooling U-SME subscription, RAPID + TCT conference passes, Solidworks’ 3D-CAD design software and a MakerBot Mini printer.

“The SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition allows students to explore and apply promising emerging additive technologies that are increasingly used in manufacturing operations,” said Jeff Krause, executive director and CEO of SME. “SME and Stratasys have built a competition that is inspiring and attracting tomorrow’s manufacturing workforce.”

This year’s challenge focused on solving a real-life medical problem for a veteran who endured a traumatic thumb amputation on his left hand. As part of the contest, students watched an introductory video to learn about the patient’s disability, assessed his current condition and determined how each could design an adaptive device enabling the veteran to continue using his PlayStation 3 gaming system. The winning devices consisted of 3D-printed parts designed to allow the veteran to comfortably use a PlayStation 3 controller, without his current silicone prosthetic.

“The SkillsUSA contest is designed to help students and educators realize the power of additive manufacturing to drive innovation,” said Gina Scala, director of marketing, global education at Stratasys. “This year’s competition was particularly meaningful as it directly resulted in enhancing a veteran’s life with a custom solution not possible without additive manufacturing.”

In addition to the design challenge, students had a chance to take Tooling U-SME’s Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals Certification exam to test their knowledge of additive manufacturing.

More than 18,000 people — including students, teachers and business partners — participated in events at the SkillsUSA National Conference, highlighting the capabilities of career and technical education students in their respective fields.

Check out the video from the 2018 Additive Manufacturing Competition

2018 winners of the SME/Stratasys SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition included:

SkillsUSA Overview

SkillsUSA is a national membership association serving high school, college and middle school students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical, and skilled service occupations, and for further education. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA helps each student excel.

More than 360,000 students and advisors join SkillsUSA each year, organized into more than 19,000 local chapters and 52 state and territorial associations. In 2016, 20,365 teachers served as professional members and SkillsUSA advisors. Combining alumni membership, the total number impacted annually is over 420,000. SkillsUSA has served more than 12.5 million members since its founding in 1965.

SkillsUSA seeks to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. SkillsUSA improves the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of Framework skills that include personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics.

More than 600 business, industry and labor organizations actively support SkillsUSA at the national level through financial aid, in-kind contributions, and involvement of their people in SkillsUSA activities. Many more work directly with state associations and local chapters. Commitment by industry to the annual national SkillsUSA Championships is valued at more than $36 million.

SkillsUSA offers local, state and national opportunities for students to learn and practice personal, workplace and technical skills. These three components comprise the SkillsUSA Framework, a blueprint for career readiness. Local chapters conduct a full program of work and many students also attend a district or state conference. At the SkillsUSA Championships, more than 6,000 students compete in 100 occupational and leadership skill areas each June. These national technical competitions help establish industry standards for job skill training and entry-level workers. SkillsUSA is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a successful model of employer-driven youth development training.

Our congratulations go out to all participants in the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition, as well as SME and Stratasys for co-sponsoring this important event for the future of manufacturing – a vital asset for the US to stay competitive.

Tags: SkillsUSA, SME, Society of Manufacturing Engineers

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