“It’s fun every year,” says Lance Lu, data scientist at Mantech, about serving as a judge at the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition, held every June in Atlanta in conjunction with the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC).
Exhibitor participation in SME’s Bright Minds Student Summits, hosted alongside SME manufacturing conferences and events, not only helps students, it’s also beneficial to exhibitors.
One hundred students showed their passion for additive manufacturing while competing for prizes at the 2025 Additive Manufacturing Competition, held in Atlanta during the 61st annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in June.
Students, educators and attendees at RAPID + TCT, AeroDef Manufacturing and SME FUSION — held simultaneously in Detroit in April — got a glimpse into the future of advanced manufacturing technologies and industry-education collaboration.
Kai Collins, an 18-year-old student in the Pavlis Honors College at Michigan Technological University, joined the SME Bright Minds Student Mentorship Program — part of the SME Education Foundation’s Community of Scholars initiative — because he wanted to develop his networking skills.
Vanessa Ng and Mohammad Mohammad — students at Westmount Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario — saw manufacturing technology in action and learned from leading manufacturers at the Bright Minds Student Summit, held in late September at SME’s CMTS event in Toronto.