Student Support for International Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF 2026) Symposium; Austin, Texas; 2-5 August 2026

This grant supports student participation in the Thirty-Seventh Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) Symposium, to be held in Austin, Texas, 2-5 August 2026. The symposium is the longest-running academic conference dedicated to additive manufacturing, hybrid manufacturing, and freeform fabrication. Additive manufacturing is a critical enabling technology for US leadership in advanced manufacturing, with applications spanning healthcare, aerospace, energy, defense, and industrial production. The conference brings together students, faculty, researchers from national laboratories and government agencies, and industry leaders to exchange advances in manufacturing processes, materials, design, process monitoring, modeling, qualification, and emerging applications. This award will support participation by undergraduate and graduate students from US institutions. Supporting student participation advances the national interest by strengthening education and workforce development in advanced manufacturing and helping prepare the next generation of researchers and engineers. The project will provide full-conference registration fee waivers for approximately thirty-five undergraduate and graduate student presenters from US institutions. Student awardees will be selected through a competitive merit-review process that considers the technical quality of the submitted work, first-time participation, and the anticipated professional-development benefit. Selected students will present their research in oral or poster sessions and participate fully in the conference's technical and professional-development activities. The principal investigators will coordinate outreach, review student-support applications, and organize activities that strengthen mentoring and professional development for students and early-career researchers. These activities will include mentoring opportunities, career-development discussions, and interactions with researchers from universities, national laboratories, industry, and government. The project will use participant support to facilitate student participation in a premier research forum, strengthen technical exchange, foster professional development, and build the next generation of the US additive manufacturing research workforce. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.