A Systematic Review of Additive Manufacturing Education: Toward Engineering Education Research in AM

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has garnered a lot of interest from industries, government agencies, and institutions around the globe. Manufacturers are relying on this technology to significantly re-invent product design and manufacturing cycles. The third industrial revolution has already begun, and as such, workforce development and education is essential. Additive Manufacturing technologies in particular offer significant technological development, but require agile specialists to embrace manufacturing technologies. Master’s degree-level education is therefore essential to developing this specialized workforce. Since Additive Manufacturing is inherently an interdisciplinary avenue, the AM workforce requires skillsets crossing all engineering backgrounds. Inculcating AM education at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels could be a thought catalyst for engineering majors from diverse backgrounds and enable collaboration within different engineering sciences. The purpose of this paper is to review literature surrounding of additive manufacturing education, with particular focus on graduate education as a venue to educate a specialized expert workforce. Further, we identify several key areas where foundational engineering education research can help to highlight and shape AM as an emergent field, including opportunities for learning science, online education, and workforce development; the development of interdisciplinary and agile expertise; and considering belongingness, diversity, and inclusion in Additive Manufacturing.