  The importance of additive manufacturing (AM) to the future of product design
and manufacturing systems demands educational programs tailored to embrace its
fundamental principles and its innovative potential. Moreover, the breadth and
depth of AM spans several traditional disciplines, presenting a challenge to
instructors yet giving the opportunity to integrate knowledge via creative and
challenging projects. This paper presents our approach to teaching AM at the
graduate and advanced undergraduate level, in the form of a 15-week course
developed and taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The lectures
begin with in-depth technical analysis of the major AM processes. In lab
sessions, students operate and characterize desktop AM machines, and work in
teams to design and fabricate a bridge having maximum strength per unit weight
while conforming to geometric constraints. To conclude the semester, teams
created prototype machines for printing molten glass, soft serve ice cream,
biodegradable material, and carbon fiber composites, as well as for large area
parallel extrusion and for in situ optical scanning during printing. We
conclude that AM education, while arguably rooted in mechanical engineering, is
truly multidisciplinary, and that education programs must embrace this context.
