SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition

SkillsUSA is a leading workforce development organization for students, empowering them to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders, and responsible community members.

In 2013, SME partnered with Stratasys to develop the SkillsUSA additive manufacturing competition. The competition introduces the next generation of manufacturers to emerging additive manufacturing technologies, while providing them with hands-on, real-world experience they can apply to commercial products. Student teams complete activities that range from designing and printing objects that help streamline factory processes to solving real-life problems. Since 2013, 600 high school and postsecondary students have participated.

Members of the winning teams are awarded scholarships, 3D printers, and other valuable resources.

Most Recent & Past Challenges

2025 Driving the Future: AM for Electric Vehicles

Contestants were challenged to explore how innovative design principles, combined with the flexibility of 3D printing, can redefine the way EVs are conceptualized, manufactured, and optimized for performance.

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2024 Color, Material, Finish

Contestants were challenged to design a new product that their company will soon be releasing.

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2023 SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition

2023 Gripper Assembly

Contestants were required to design a 3D printed rotating gripper assembly that grabbed and moved three different size objects from one location to another.

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2022 3D-Printed Enclosure

Students were required to design a 3D-printed enclosure that housed three different components while illustrating best practices for “design for additive manufacturing (DFAM)”.

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2021 Smart Speaker

Students were required to design a smart speaker, called a “pebble,” using a set geometry that then was printed by Stratasys on one of its commercial Stratasys J55 Prime 3D polymeric printers.

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2020 Competition Canceled

Due to the ongoing uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, the SkillsUSA organization has canceled all in-person events at its 2020 National Leadership and Skills Conference; this cancellation includes the Additive Manufacturing Competition.

2019 Robotic EOAT

SME and Stratasys partnered with FANUC for the 2019 challenge, which involved the design, fabrication, and application an end of arm tool (EOAT) in a simulated real-life manufacturing robotics scenario.

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2018 Adaptive Device

For the 2018 Additive Manufacturing Competition, students were challenged to solve a real-life medical problem for a veteran who endured a traumatic thumb amputation on his left hand.

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