Board 41: Using 3-D Printing in a Laboratory Setting to Teach Design Principles

The 3D printing of polymers is an evolving manufacturing process with applicability for teaching design in engineering education at the college level. There is scant research into how to use 3D printing as a novel approach in teaching engineering design. The literature indicates that teaching design is often challenging because students often learn design through experience, rather than traditional lectures alone. The major benefits of using a 3D printer are that it provides students with complete design freedom to create a variety of models on computer software in one afternoon, select the best designs, and create physical models for live testing. Over a period of three years, undergraduate engineering students in a structural materials laboratory class, designed and 3D printed simple connections, lateral beams, and trusses; and they conducted stress analyses. As part of the class assignment, students reflected on their experiences. Based on students' final written portfolios for the class, the majority indicated that designing with computer software, combined with 3D printing, increased their creativity and design confidence, and enhanced their self-efficacy and identity as engineers who solve problems. The findings may be of interest to design teachers and students in order to proliferate fresh and unconventional solutions to engineering problems, while boosting retention of engineering majors.