GE’s Additive Education Program Manufactures the Future Additive Manufacturing Workforce

GE announced a US$10 million investment in a new GE Additive Education Program whereby it buys 3D printers for primary and secondary schools, as well as universities. This will expose students to the technology at an early age and encourage research into advanced additive manufacturing (AM) technologies with hopes that this will indirectly help accelerate industrial adoption. It is sending about 400 elementary and high schools a desktop polymer printer package and eight colleges or universities a metal printing machine. The metal printing machines have an approximate US$250,000 market value. GE selected the following eight universities:

• Auburn University
• Boston University 
• Iowa State University
• North Carolina State University
• Ohio State University
• University of Cincinnati
• University of New South Wales
• U.S. Naval Academy

These donations demonstrate strategic corporate social responsibility by GE and will help train future employees and customers. By putting these machines in the hands of students, GE increases the number of AM experts in the future. More AM experts will result in further AM innovation. It will take years, but these students will graduate and take on roles as engineers, industrial managers, and consultants. In these roles, they will understand the applications, benefits, and use cases of AM better than their predecessors.

Transformative technology innovation often incubates in silos. Xerox PARC set the perfect example of this when it invented half of the key technological developments in modern personal computing, such as Ethernet and laser printing, but essentially gave much of the technology away because its traditional customers were not interested. Among the beneficiaries is Apple; the company took its graphical user interface (GUI) from PARC.

GE’s decision to donate 3D printers to educational institutions does not benefit the company directly, but it will eventually help grow the industry by growing and educating the target market. It also shows GE’s long-term commitment to AM. If GE plans to survive in AM, it needs to cultivate demand. GE Additive, which formed from the acquisitions of Concept Laser and Arcam, needs to grow by at least 10% every year in order to remain relevant. To do that, it needs to find new customers. Failing to grow near this rate recently cost GE CEO Jeff Immelt his job. Obviously, AM must get faster and more affordable to reach its full potential, but plenty of hospitals, dentists, and complex industrial manufacturers have already implemented and are benefitting from AM. Beyond that, additive specialists can offer computer-aided-design (CAD) and consulting engineering services for prototyping and casting. By educating engineers and industrial managers, GE creates these opportunities.