Dr. Nathan Patterson, an assistant professor at B´ÎÔª School of Engineering has been awarded the Randy Stevens Scholarship by the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG). With this recognition, Patterson will attend and participate in the AMUG Conference to be held in St. Louis, April 3– 7, 2016.

The AMUG Board selected Patterson for the integration of his additive manufacturing (AM) experience and research in his engineering curricula. According to Dr. Joe Musto, professor at B´ÎÔª and director of the university’s Rapid Prototyping Consortium, “His industrial experience as a research associate with the Morgridge Institute and as president of the additive manufacturing start-up Radiant Fabrication provided him with both an outstanding technical background and knowledge of the additive manufacturing industry. He has leveraged this expertise to have an immediate impact on additive manufacturing education.”

Patterson has been using, designing, building, inventing, and teaching others about AM technology for just over twelve years. Examples of his integration of past experience in engineering studies include lab activities that use fused deposition modeling extruders to illustrate engineering principles, such as conservation of linear momentum and Bernoulli’s equation, and a first-hand account of the design of a three-year-old boy’s prosthetic to inspire students to not give up when a design approach fails.

In his application, Patterson said, “The Randy Stevens Scholarship will allow me to better translate the current state and challenges of AM and its users to the classroom, providing students with a richer AM learning experience.”

The Randy Stevens Scholarship, founded by Randy’s employer, In’Tech Industries, is awarded annually to one educator that emphasizes or focuses on additive manufacturing.