Manufacturing Education for Society 5.0

Abstract

The last 20 years have brought significant developments to digital fabrication technology, known as additive manufacturing (3D printing), and it has finally started to shed its prototyping mantel in favor of an industrial one. Yet its innovations are in danger of being subsumed into existing commercial practices, as society arguably continues to underestimate its ability, in conjunction with data collection, analysis, and communication tools, to disrupt current systems and enable a more equitable distribution of manufacturing wealth, capability, and capacity. This chapter highlights the potential of emerging industrial technologies to support a shift towards a more human-centered, responsible society where social and environmental problems are addressed through systems that maximises cyberspace and physical space integration, through the reframing of higher education engineering curriculum and pedagogy for manufacturing in Society 5.0.