This National Science Foundation project grant of $150,000 will fund research at Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station to upskill craftspeople for future manufacturing roles. Under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), the award will establish a multidisciplinary team to study challenges craftspeople face in participating in the emerging workforce for end-user driven manufacturing. The team will characterize craft end-users and identify customization needs through surveys. Partnering with a local crafts center, the research will engage professional craftspeople to understand ideal workflows and critical design parameters for customizable 3D printing tools. Preliminary work will explore material response and processing parameters to computationally optimize 3D printed composite polymers using accessible machines and materials. This planning grant aims to reshape the manufacturing pipeline by developing novel techniques and end-user support tools enabling customized product specification and manufacturing.
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