MakerBot is launching the MakerBot Offers Again Initiative, an bold pledge to donate $500,000 price of 3D printing assets to varsities, educators, and college students in 2025. The aim is to make sure that extra college students, particularly these in underserved communities, have entry to cutting-edge know-how that may put together them for careers in STEM, engineering, and manufacturing.
MakerBot funding initiative. Picture courtesy of MakerBot.
For years, MakerBot, now an UltiMaker subsidiary, has been a trusted title in academic 3D printing, with many lecture rooms utilizing their machines to carry classes to life. Now, by this initiative, the corporate is increasing its attain by providing extra than simply printers. The $500,000 in funding will cowl 3D printers and supplies for colleges and STEM applications; educator coaching and certification applications to make sure academics can successfully combine 3D printing into their curricula; classroom assets to assist college students acquire hands-on expertise with design considering and problem-solving; grants and scholarships to help each educators and college students pursuing STEM schooling.
Andrea Zermeño, Supervisor of MakerBot Training at UltiMaker, stated, “As we proceed to see new applied sciences emerge, future generations should develop abilities that can permit them to adapt to altering environments. We consider all college students ought to have equitable entry to applied sciences that can allow their success out and in of the classroom. For almost 15 years, we now have labored carefully with educators to form and refine our 3D printers and assets in order that they match the wants of the trainer and the classroom. By way of our new initiative, we’re increasing entry to 3D printing assets to extra educators and college students to assist them take classroom studying to the subsequent degree.”
Extra Than Simply Donations
The MakerBot Offers Again Initiative is way more than handing out free printers; it’s about long-term influence. All through 2025, MakerBot will launch a sequence of applications designed to combine 3D printing into lecture rooms meaningfully.
Lecturers seeking to begin or broaden a 3D printing program can have entry to new MakerBot Training Grants, which can assist fund classroom 3D printers, supplies, and coaching. The aim is to make sure college students can have interaction in hands-on studying whereas fostering creativity, analytical considering, resilience, empathy, and technological literacy. These are important abilities for the long run workforce.
MakerBot Sketch Dash. Picture courtesy of UltiMaker.
Past conventional colleges, MakerBot may also present assets to after-school applications, robotics groups, and STEM organizations by way of in-kind donations. This consists of not simply printers but additionally coaching and help.
SME Training Basis
Whereas grants will help educators, MakerBot can also be investing instantly in college students. In March 2025, the corporate formally launched the MakerBot Scholarship for Future Innovators in partnership with the SME Training Basis, aimed toward empowering college students from underrepresented and low-income communities to pursue levels in industrial engineering, manufacturing, and additive manufacturing.
The scholarship will award one scholar $20,000, distributed over 4 years at $5,000 per yr. By eradicating monetary boundaries to larger schooling, this system reinforces MakerBot’s dedication to rising entry to rising applied sciences and serving to college students construct the talents wanted for the long run workforce.
Rob Luce, vice chairman of the SME Training Basis, emphasised the significance of the partnership: “When know-how leaders like UltiMaker put money into the subsequent technology of the expert manufacturing workforce, the Basis is proud to be a trusted companion in supporting college students of all backgrounds on their path to a profession in manufacturing.”
Purposes for the scholarship might be submitted by the SME Training Basis’s web site. UltiMaker and the Basis may also be on-site at RAPID + TCT in Detroit, April 8–10, 2025, the place attendees can be taught extra about MakerBot’s education-focused applications.
Breaking Down Limitations to Know-how
The truth is that not all college students have equal entry to rising applied sciences like 3D printing. Many faculties, significantly low-income ones, battle with funding and assets. In reality, a 2024 research by ACT revealed that whereas 96% of highschool college students reported gaining access to a smartphone at residence, disparities persist in entry to different important gadgets. College students from higher-income households had been considerably extra seemingly than these from lower-income households to report having residence entry to desktop computer systems, laptop computer computer systems, and tablets.
Moreover, round 24 million People nonetheless don’t have dependable web entry, making it even more durable for college kids in rural or underserved areas to have interaction with trendy academic know-how. This initiative helps colleges and college students get the 3D printing assets they should sustain.
As UltiMaker’s VP of Gross sales America, Dottie Stewart, factors out, “At UltiMaker, we’re deeply dedicated to making sure that college students aren’t simply passive customers of know-how however lively creators of the long run. As a newly unified firm, our mission is to not solely present entry to know-how however to make sure it’s used successfully within the classroom. By investing in design considering and empowering educators, we’re laying the inspiration for college kids to change into the issue solvers, engineers, and innovators for the businesses of tomorrow.”
Educators and colleges all for making use of for grants and assets by the MakerBot Offers Again Initiative can submit functions beginning in Spring 2025. Particulars will probably be accessible on MakerBot’s web site, together with an up to date MakerBot Grant Information, which lists over 40 funding alternatives for STEM applications.
Subscribe to Our E mail E-newsletter
Keep up-to-date on all the most recent information from the 3D printing trade and obtain info and provides from third get together distributors.
Add your 3D Fashions and get them printed shortly and effectively.
