Collaborative Research: A Series of Workshops for Developing Shared, Adaptable Teaching Materials for Advanced Manufacturing

增材制造，通常被称为3D打印，允许从基于计算机的模型制造三维产品。这些技术使得以可承受的价格制造复杂的定制产品成为可能。它们也有可能生产出仅仅十年前还被认为无法生产的新产品。例如，使用金属的3D打印现在允许工程师创建基于网格的物品，其重量比相同的固体物品轻。北卡罗莱纳州立大学与爱荷华州立大学合作，旨在改善工程师和技术人员学习增材制造原理和技能的方式。该项目将举办一系列研讨会，以促进建立最先进课程材料的中央存储库，以促进先进制造教育材料的编写、评估和传播。其目的是开发教材，教师可以定制，以满足他们的具体课程和学生群体的需要。预计这类材料的储存库可以通过限制对教科书的需求而大大降低学生的费用。此外，这些材料可以通过结合特定的实验室硬件和插图来提高学生的学习成果，从而使培训更符合当地环境。研究人员此前已经开发出可定制的材料，用于教授增材制造，并与同事分享。这些材料将用作存储库的基础。每个研讨会将召集工程师、技术人员和参与制造和/或制造教育的教师小组，讨论这些材料的使用和采用。讲习班旨在：1)批评这些材料作为用户适应性资源的拟议概念；2)从制造社区获得对存储库的支持；3)确定早期采用者和开发人员，以创建构建存储库的计划。每个工作坊将持续约四个小时。其中三个讲习班将在现有会议上举行，其中两个在工程专业学会会议上举行，一个在技术教育工作者会议上举行。最后一次会议将在北卡罗莱纳州立大学举行，旨在巩固从以前的讲习班中学到的东西。期望这一努力的结果将有助于提高先进制造业教育的质量和效率。该项目专注于开发最先进的课程材料，与美国国家科学基金会改善本科STEM教育计划，参与学生学习轨道的目标一致。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Additive manufacturing, often called 3D printing, allows fabrication of three-dimensional products from computer-based models. These technologies make it possible to fabricate even complex, customized products at affordable prices. They also it possible to produce new products that only a decade ago were considered unproducible. For example, 3D printing with metals now allows engineers to create mesh-based items that weigh less than the same solid item. North Carolina State University, in collaboration with Iowa State University, aims to improve how engineers and technicians learn the principles and skills of additive manufacturing. This project will host a series of workshops to catalyze the creation of a central repository for state-of-the-art curricular materials to facilitate authoring, evaluating, and disseminating materials for advanced manufacturing education. The intention is to develop teaching materials that instructors can customize to meet the needs of their specific course and student population. It is expected that a repository of such materials could significantly reduce costs to students by limiting the need for text books. In addition, these materials may improve student learning outcomes by incorporating specific laboratory hardware and illustrations so that the training is more relevant to the local setting.The investigators have previously developed customizable materials for teaching additive manufacturing and shared them with colleagues. These materials will be used as the foundation for the repository. Each workshop will assemble groups of engineers, technologists, and faculty involved in manufacturing and/or manufacturing education to discuss the use and adoption of these materials. The workshops are intended to: 1) critique the proposed concept of these materials as user adaptable resources; 2) obtain buy-in for a repository from the manufacturing community; and 3) identify early adopters and developers to create a plan to build the repository. Each workshop will last about four hours. Three of the workshops will be held at existing meetings, including two at engineering professional society meetings and one at a technical educators meeting. The final meeting will be held at North Carolina State University and serve to consolidate what was learned from the previous workshops. The expectation is that results of this effort will contribute to increasing the quality and efficiency of advanced manufacturing education. The project focus on development of state-of-the-art curricular materials aligns with the goals of the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program, Engaged Student Learning track.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.