SkillsUSA Competition Enables Young Creators to Shine

It’s encouraging knowing these creative thinkers are the future of manufacturing.

The leaders of tomorrow can be found at SkillsUSA.

Created in 2013 by SME and Stratasys, the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition is intended to both educate high school and post-secondary students about additive manufacturing technologies and to provide the real-world, hands-on experience they can apply to a commercial product. SME and Stratasys, write and administer the state-level competitions where the winners come together for a national competition to crown a winner. Over the years, the Additive Manufacturing Competition has evolved into one of the more popular tracks within SkillsUSA. This year, conducted as part of the 58th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, and supported by partners nTopology Inc. and Allegheny Education Systems, the Additive Manufacturing Competition produced 70 individual finalists making up 35 teams assembled in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 300 parts were printed during the competition, all on Stratasys 3D-Printers.

Bob Willig, Executive Director and CEO of SME was in attendance at the national competition this year and observed some amazingly talented students performing at the highest level. “The partnership between SME and Stratasys makes perfect sense. With our collaborative efforts, we’re changing the world one student at a time through manufacturing,” said Bob, “the finalists competing in this year’s additive manufacturing competition blew me away. The sky is the limit for these young innovators.” The competition this year challenged students to design a 3D-printed enclosure that would house three key components including a circuit board, a small motor, and a fan. The diversity of creative designs was outstanding and the innovative problem solving was on full display throughout the three-day competition. It was truly impressive to watch these young competitors collaborate, problem-solve, and work their way through difficult situations to find an ultimate solution.  Additionally, there is a certification exam element to the competition in which all students participated. The Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals Certification Exam was administered to all students free of charge and was included as a percentage of the total points for each competing team. This exam is the first and only certification validating an individual’s knowledge of industry-standard concepts in additive manufacturing, based on revisions to the Additive Manufacturing Body of Knowledge by the Additive Manufacturing Leadership Initiative (AMLI) in 2016. As challenging as this portion of the competition was, an impressive 23 students of the 70 in attendance passed the Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals Certification Exam, and 12 students missed by only 1 point. This portion of the competition displayed the extraordinary knowledge that these students have (and continue to develop)  for additive manufacturing.

One of the most attractive features about SkillsUSA, throughout all career competition tracks, is that each championship event is judged by real-world industry professionals. This is a competition that allows emerging professionals to get close to an industry, in which they’re interested, and have meaningful experiences and conversations with industry experts. The competition is modeled off real-world workplace environments presenting competitors with challenging situations and allowing for creative problem-solving. Students are operating in simulated workplace environments and it’s amazing to see the ingenious solutions students produce during high-pressure competitions. This year teams of competitors came up with many different designs; it was inspiring to see the creativity of such bright minds. It’s encouraging knowing these creative thinkers are the future of manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing has grown in recent years and the demand for a knowledgeable and reliable workforce in this area is immense. Companies are looking for the skilled workers of tomorrow and SkillsUSA is the precursor. “The students are so excited to be here,” said Sandy Wilton, Program Manager of Student Engagement at SME Education Foundation, “they are learning about the intimate details of additive manufacturing and exactly what opportunities are available within manufacturing.” It’s programs like SkillsUSA and supportive associations like SME and Stratasys that are providing valuable experiences to the next generation of makers, exposing students to valuable career and technical workforce development opportunities. Thomas Whiting, Application Engineer at Stratasys reiterated the importance of educational programs like SkillsUSA stating, “It’s really important for Stratasys to attend challenges like SKillsUSA mainly because the young kids that attend are going to be the kids in 5 to 10 years who come work at Stratasys. And the more we can do now to prepare them the better off they’ll be and we’ll be in the future.” Preparation now will only benefit manufacturing in the future.

SkillsUSA's mission is to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders, and responsible American citizens and that was on clear display throughout this year’s competition. If one thing was clear from SkillsUSA 2022, it’s that these brilliant minds are preparing and ready to lead manufacturing in the near future. This is the next generation of makers and SME is proud to be a part of their development. SkillsUSA is all about opportunity and the opportunity for these young manufacturers looks bright.