SME, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing new manufacturing technologies and building talent and skills in North America, and Stratasys, announced the winners of the co-hosted 2023 Additive Manufacturing Competition, held at the 59th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta.
The competition, supported by Autodesk, aims to provide students with hands-on experience with additive manufacturing technologies and design.
“It’s no secret that additive technologies have disrupted the manufacturing industry, and through SME’s partnership with Stratasys we’re giving tomorrow’s talent an opportunity to feel, first-hand, its application on the job,” said Robert “Bob” Willig, executive director and CEO of SME. “One of the things students enjoy most about working through these challenges is experiencing the process of iterating, testing and adjusting their design, which is exactly why additive manufacturing is being embraced globally, across all sectors.”
The winners received gold, silver and bronze medals from SkillsUSA, as well as scholarships from the SME Education Foundation. They also received a one-year subscription to Tooling U-SME courses and a one-year SME membership.
High School Winners
- Gold Team: Johann Rafanan & Sabal Schuster, Nova High School (Davie, FL).
- Silver Team: Reggie May & Kyra Sandahl, Payette River Technical Academy (Emmett, ID)
- Bronze Team: Alejandro Colon & Daniel Hulse, West-MEC Northwest Campus (Surprise, AZ)
Post-Secondary Winners
- Gold Team: Dallin Hansen & Tom Swindler, Utah Valley University (Orem, UT)
- Silver team: Armand Carlo Agbulos & Cody Buchanan, Madison Area Technical College (Madison, WI)
- Bronze Team: David Atess & James McBride, Meridian Technology Center (Stillwater, OK)
“Stratasys is again honored to be a major sponsor of this competition with SME. This year we saw phenomenal participants that learned how to design and 3D Print moving/working assemblies,” said Jesse Roitenberg, Americas education manager at Stratasys. “Many of these competitors had never done that before and their growth in understanding the process and how to design for that type of 3D Print was truly impressive. Again, these students reinforce that the next generation has the skills and work ethic to lead the next generation of manufacturing.”
In addition to the competition, all 76 participants completed a certification. Of these, 44 passed the exam, which confirms knowledge of industry-standard additive manufacturing concepts.
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