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The Center for Agile and Adpative Additive Manufacturing at the University of North Texas plays a crucial role in inspiring and educating future engineers. Through CAAAM’s Institute for Transformative Education in Additive Manufacturing (ITEAM) summer outreach program, high school and junior college students in the North Texas region as well as faculty and students from other universities get a crash course in additive manufacturing.

Beginning in 2020, the first program had 10 to 12 students. For summer 2024, CAAAM accepted 50 participants from nearly 100 applicants. “This program is important because it gives people exposure to state-of-the-art technology that’s currently not on a shop floor,” says Regents Professor Narendra Dahotre, who serves as CAAAM associate vice president and founder.

The two-week program includes one focused on theories surrounding additive manufacturing, such as logistics and supply chain, machine learning and data analytics, process diagnosis, and advanced materials and their uses in additive manufacturing. The other week is when participants get to run interactive printing exercises with metals, polymers and ceramics.

CAAAM also works with different companies throughout the year to brief their workers on additive manufacturing and how to use the machinery. “These companies know that conventional manufacturing technology is going to gradually phase out to become obsolete,” Dahotre says. “They are training themselves now so they can be prepared for the future.”

Recognizing the importance of early engagement, CAAAM welcomed even younger students this past year to explore additive manufacturing technology. Twenty campers from North Texas-area middle schools who were participating in UNT’s Elm Fork Education Center summer camp visited CAAAM for a day to learn more about engineering.

“We want to make sure people of all ages understand and feel confident about additive manufacturing. This way of engineering is the future and CAAAM is happy to welcome others into it.”

- Narendra Dahotre, Regents Professor, CAAAM associate vice president and founder

“We want to make these students familiar with basic concepts of materials science and let them see state-of-the-art technology in action to get excited about engineering,” Dahotre says.

The campers got a brief lesson on the history of engineering and on how the atomic structure affects a processed product’s properties. The highlight of the day came when they had the opportunity to 3D print their own objects such as blocks, dice and gears.

“We want to make sure people of all ages understand and feel confident about additive manufacturing,” Dahotre says. “This way of engineering is the future and CAAAM is happy to welcome others into it.”