First Purdue France Maymester on Art and Additive Manufacturing - Purdue Additive Research and Technology (PART) - Purdue University

In May 2025, the inaugural Additive Manufacturing and Art in France Maymester brought 30 Purdue Engineering students to France for a study abroad experience built around an unusual question: What can engineers learn from Impressionist artists?

The three-credit program connects two innovations separated by more than a century. Impressionist painters such as Monet and Renoir transformed art by using light, color, and individual brushstrokes to create visual meaning. Additive manufacturing similarly builds objects layer by layer, using material placement to create functional form. The program asks students to explore that parallel—moving from “painting with light” to “engineering with layers.”

Students began in Paris, where they experienced the artistic and cultural setting of Impressionism through museums and landmarks before traveling to Normandy. There, classroom instruction in additive manufacturing was paired with visits to French universities and laboratories, including INSA Rouen Normandie, Université de Rouen Normandie,  and Groupe de Physique des Matériaux (GPM), as well as cultural and historical sites connected to the artists they had studied. The course combines technical instruction in additive manufacturing processes, design for AM, process selection, and quality assessment with art excursions and a hands-on additive manufacturing project.

At the center of the experience was the 3D-printed lithophane project. Each student selected an Impressionist work and transformed the two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional object whose varying material thicknesses reproduce light and dark when illuminated from behind. Students used CAD tools to convert their chosen artwork into printable geometry and fabricated their lithophanes using fused-filament fabrication. The result was a tangible demonstration of the course theme: using engineered layers to recreate the effects of light that defined Impressionist painting. The 2025 students printed their lithophanes at Purdue partner institution INSA Rouen Normandie.

Beyond the classroom, students encountered the places that inspired the art firsthand - from Paris museums to Monet’s landscapes in Normandy. The experience connected museum study, engineering lectures, laboratory visits, and cultural immersion, giving students an opportunity to see manufacturing and art not as separate disciplines, but as different ways of thinking about materials, creativity, and making.

The success of the first 2025 cohort established the foundation for the program to continue. The next Maymester expands the same hybrid art + engineering model, with technical study at INSA Rouen, the University of Rouen Normandy, and Safran alongside experiences at locations including Giverny, Rouen, Étretat, the Loire Valley, and Mont Saint-Michel.

Ultimately, Additive Manufacturing and Art in France gives students more than exposure to another country or another manufacturing technology. They return with new technical knowledge, a broader perspective on creativity and engineering, and an artwork they have studied, interpreted, engineered, and manufactured themselves.

Thank you to our local hosts Benoit Vieille, Laurent Delbreilh, Fabrice Barbe, Kossi Loic Avegnon, and Ronan Henry for making the 2025 cohort a great success. Also, thanks to Scott Fernander and Siva Chandramouli for help with the student project. 

For more information, contact Michael Sealy at msealy@purdue.edu
See video link!