Stratasys Kicks off 2017 Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge; Contest is Now Accepting Entries

Stratasys is officially kicking off the 13th Annual Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge with a formal call for entries. Building on the success of previous contests, this year’s challenge is fully supported by the power of GrabCAD – the market’s premier digital manufacturing hub, helping designers and engineers build products faster by linking people, content and technology.

Open to student innovators worldwide, the annual challenge invites scholars across the disciplines of engineering, design, and art, jewelry and architecture to create an original piece – or redesign an existing work – leveraging the power of 3D printing. All designs should prove mechanically sound, realistic and achievable. Submissions are analyzed and judged based on:

• Mechanical design
• Design creativity
• Product usefulness
• Aesthetics (art, jewelry and architecture category)
• Compelling description

Individuals or design teams are asked to create entries using 3D CAD software, sign up for a free GrabCAD Community account, and then submit files in STL format through the GrabCAD Challenge platform – along with a description highlighting the design’s value and benefit. Deadline to submit across the following categories is March 9, 2017:

• Engineering: Secondary Education (middle/high school)
• Engineering: Post-Secondary (university, college, or post-secondary)
• Art, Jewelry & Architecture (any grade level)

Since the contest’s inception, Stratasys has awarded more than $140,000 in scholarships during a 13-year period. For this year’s event, first-place winners in every category will receive $2,500 (USD) scholarships. Instructors of first-place students also benefit from a demo 3D printer in their classroom for a limited time. Second place winners receive $1,000 (USD) scholarships. The top 10 entries in each category earn a Stratasys apparel item (value up to $50 USD) and a 3D printed model of their design. All teams and individuals additionally will receive an official Extreme Redesign T-Shirt.

Critical to this year’s event is the support of GrabCAD – consistently making life easier for product designers, engineers, students, and manufacturing professionals. Since 2010, millions of engineers have made the GrabCAD Community their own by sharing CAD files and design tips, participating in design challenges, or downloading free CAD models to avoid starting from scratch. Over the years, GrabCAD has hosted 100s of engineering and design challenges with companies such as GE, NASA, and Microtechnologies, as well as Stratasys Education, Stratasys Medical and MakerBot.

For the second year running, the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers (NCATC) is also bestowing a $1,000 scholarship to a winning entry in the post-secondary engineering category for an NCATC member school. NCATC is a network of higher education resources promoting use of technology applications to enhance economic and workforce development programs and services.

For more information and contest rules – or to become part of this year’s exciting event – visit the Extreme Redesign Page on the Stratasys Website or go directly to GrabCAD to learn more and submit a design. Get in on all the action by following the Extreme Redesign Printing Challenge on Facebook – or join the Twitter conversation by incorporating #ExtremeRedesign into all posts.