Higher Education

As a result of 3D printing being wildly accessible to the student body, students more frequently print designs or prototypes, test them, and make improvements. That design-test-iterate process helps students fundamentally understand how their designs are made versus examining them in CAD software. Cultivating this understanding is crucial for students. In other schools, exposure to 3D printing might not happen until post-graduate studies. In terms of sheer numbers, in 2018, the university's MakerBot 3D printers were able to help 2,600 students complete over 5,500 jobs, representing over 36,000 hours of print time.