Winners of 2024 SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition Announced

SME and Stratasys announce the winners of their cosponsored 2024 Additive Manufacturing Competition, which took place as part of the 60th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, in Atlanta June 24-28.

The competition was supported in 2024 by partners Autodesk, SolidWorks, Future of Jewelry, UltiMaker, Printed Solid, and Allegheny Educational Systems.

First debuted in 2013 by SME and Stratasys, the contest educates high school and post-secondary students about additive manufacturing technologies and design, plus provides them with real-world, hands-on experience to apply to a commercial product.

This year, teams from one middle school, 35 high schools, and 12 post-secondary schools totaling 97 students from 36 states competed to win. Nearly 500 parts were printed during the three-day competition, all on Stratasys 3D printers.

“Through our partnership with Stratasys at SkillsUSA, we witness firsthand the future of innovation and skill that emerges when students utilize cutting-edge 3D printing technology,” says Rob Luce, vice president of the SME Education Foundation. “This competition not only highlights students’ technical capabilities but also underscores their potential to revolutionize manufacturing.”

This year’s competition challenged students to choose between two models and make a presentable customer product prototype by altering the physical design, adding colors, applying textures, and/or splitting or adding parts to make multi body/material assemblies. Color, material, and design finish were critical elements of the challenge.

Each team presented their process, engineering design notebook and printed designs to judges.

High school and post-secondary levels of the winning teams received gold, silver and bronze medals from SkillsUSA, scholarships of $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively, from the SME Education Foundation, and a one-year subscription for Tooling U-SME online learning classes. Gold and silver medal-winning high school and post-secondary teams also won professional-grade Prusa MK3S 3D printer kits, while bronze medal-winning high school and post-secondary teams won Prusa Mini 3D printer kits donated by Printed Solid. The gold medal-winning middle school team also won UltiMaker Sketch 3D printers.

All levels also received a one-year SME membership. Post-secondary winners also received RAPID + TCT 2025 full-conference conference passes. Every competing student received an Autodesk goody bag.

Post-Secondary Winners

Gold Team: Armand Carlo Agbulos & Cody Buchanan, Madison Area Technical College (Madison, WI)

Silver Team: Spencer Hachem & Darin Swagerty, Chattahoochee Technical College (Acworth, GA)

Bronze Team: Riley Mason & Landon Nelson, Central Community College-Hastings (Hastings, NE)

“Stratasys once again is so proud to be a major sponsor of this competition with SME. This year we challenged the competitors with using textures, colors and design skills which were taught to them at the competition!” says Jesse Roitenberg, Americas education manager at Stratasys. “Many of these competitors had never used color in their Additive Manufacturing designs before and their growth in understanding the process and how to design for that type of 3D print was impressive.”

In addition to the additive manufacturing competition, 92 students participated in a certification. 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 a 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.

SIxty-two students of the 92 in attendance passed the exam (67% pass rate, which is the best since 2013). The SME Education Foundation prepared every student with a bundle of 20 Tooling U-SME classes (valued at nearly $400 per student) before taking the exam.

“The talent of the student participants has become exponentially more impressive over the five years I have been administering the Additive Manufacturing Competition,” says Sandy Wilton, program manager of student engagement at the SME Education Foundation. “Thank you to our partners for their time and hard work to make this year’s competition a success.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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