Rapid prototyping concepts and skills are being taught to undergraduate manufacturing
engineering students at Texas State University-San Marcos, not as an independent course, but as a part of
the broad concept of product and process development. In such approach, students get a hands-on
experience in a variety of rapid prototyping processes such as FDM, LOM, Zcorp 3DP, and 3D system’s
InVision and they apply them in their industry-sponsored or research-based senior capstone design
projects. In such approach students get a good understanding about the specifications, cost, and quality of
the parts fabricated by each rapid prototyping machine. They also learn how to select the optimum
process for each component of their product. In this paper, teaching and assessment methods for such
learning experience are explained and a few samples of the previous projects are presented.Mechanical Engineerin
