AMUG awards Randy Stevens and Guy E. Bourdeau scholarships for 2026 conference

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) has named Dr. Li Yang, an associate professor at the University of Louisville, and Abby L. Stamper, a mechanical engineering undergraduate at Boise State University, as the recipients of its 2026 scholarships. Yang receives the Randy Stevens Scholarship for educators, while Stamper receives the Guy E. Bourdeau Scholarship for students. Both will attend the AMUG Conference in Reno, Nevada from March 15-19, 2026, and are scheduled to present their work on the main stage on March 17. The scholarships recognize demonstrated passion and vision for advancing additive manufacturing education and industry practice.

This award cycle reflects AMUG's continued role as the primary user-driven community in additive manufacturing, distinct from vendor-led conferences. Yang's research focus on lightweight structures and geometry-process-property integration addresses a persistent gap in the industry: translating design intent into production-ready parts, particularly for aerospace and automotive applications where mass reduction drives qualification decisions. The scholarship program, now in its second decade, serves as a talent pipeline for an industry where the median practitioner has fewer than five years of AM-specific experience. By funding both an established academic researcher and an undergraduate student, AMUG maintains its dual focus on advancing the technical frontier and broadening the entry-level workforce.

For the industry, these awards are a reminder that AM's talent bottleneck remains structural. Yang's work on multi-scale design frameworks directly supports the kind of process-physics understanding that metal LPBF and binder jetting users need to move beyond trial-and-error parameter development. Stamper's inclusion signals that universities are increasingly embedding AM into undergraduate mechanical engineering curricula rather than treating it as a graduate-level specialization. The practical takeaway for hiring managers: expect more graduates with hands-on AM project experience, but the deep metallurgical and process-science expertise will remain concentrated in research groups like Yang's for the foreseeable future.