Education is where lasting change begins.
If we want to build a more resilient, productive, and competitive economy, we need to start where change is created: in the classroom.
Allow me to explain.
A Decade of Change
When I was studying mechanical engineering at Queen’s University in 2010, additive manufacturing was barely a footnote. 3D printing got a mention in one slide of one course. There was one printer on campus—and getting access to it was nearly impossible. Fast forward to today, and the shift is undeniable.
At Mosaic, we see it every time we interview a recent grad. These students are graduating with hands-on experience using advanced CAD tools, digital twins, IoT systems—and most notably, 3D printers. Many even own printers at home. They’ve designed for additive, iterated on prototypes, and used digital workflows to bring ideas to life.This is more than a trend. It’s a transformation.
Additive-First Thinking
What’s powerful about these new grads isn’t just their technical skills—it’s how they think.
They come into manufacturing roles questioning the status quo: “Why are we waiting two months and cutting tooling? Can we print this instead?” And often, before the legacy team has even sent an RFQ, these grads have modelled the part, printed a prototype, and proven a better way.
This mindset is accelerating the adoption of factory 4.0 solutions. It’s making onshore manufacturing viable—and competitive.
Because these grads aren’t just fixing problems; they’re getting involved earlier in the lifecycle. They’re designing products with additive in mind and asking upfront which parts can be sourced from an additive supply chain.
This shift is driving real change—and nowhere is that clearer than at UT Dallas.
UT Dallas: A Case Study in the Future of Engineering Education
At the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, UT Dallas is pioneering what modern technical education can look like. Their UTDesign® program gives senior students real-world, corporate-sponsored projects—and 3D printing is core to their process.
But when student demand for prototyping exploded, their legacy printing setup couldn’t keep up. Manual workflows, expensive materials, and bottlenecks held them back.
That’s when they turned to Mosaic.
With the installation of Mosaic’s Array — an automated, multi-printer system integrated with our Canvas software — UTDesign® quadrupled its output capacity. Students can now queue jobs remotely, print in multiple materials and colors, and build larger, more complex prototypes. In 2024 alone, print jobs grew from 90 to over 700.
It’s more than a new tool — it’s a new capability. One student recently printed a fully articulated, two-foot mannequin with intricate muscle structures in a fraction of the time it would have taken before. And no staff had to come in over the weekend to make it happen.
UTDesign® is no longer catching up—they’re leading the charge.
Why We Believe in Education
This is why we believe education is a strategic vertical. Because when you give students access to the right tools, they don’t just learn—they build, innovate, and they graduate ready to reshape how our economy works.
These students bring additive-first thinking to the companies they join. They bring speed, flexibility, and creativity. And they make reshoring not just possible—but profitable.
We think investing in education is an important thing to do to level up the workforce and pave a path for faster adoption of additive to reshare supply chains where revitalized local production powers resilient economies.