Awards will exceed the $100,000 mark in scholarships since the contest’s inception

FRANKFURT - 19th March 2012 - (NASDAQ: SSYS) Stratasys Inc. today announced the finalists for its Dimension brand’s eighth annual Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge. The global contest encourages students to submit an innovative product design, a redesign of an existing product, or an original work of art or architecture.

Dimension 3D Printing will award each of 3 student winners $2,500 (approx. £1,600; €1,900) or $1000 (approx. £630; €760) scholarships in the categories of middle school and high school engineering, college engineering, and art & architecture. A list of the top 10 finalists and their school names can be found at: Dimension 2012 Finalists.

Designs are awarded based on creativity, usefulness, part integrity and aesthetics. Instructors of the three first-place student winners will receive an Apple iPad for use in the classroom. With this year’s awards, the contest will exceed the $100,000 (approx. £63,000; €76,000) mark in scholarships granted since the contest’s inception.

Each submission is required to:

- be a sound mechanical design (Engineering category)

- be realistic and achievable

- include a clear written description of the design

This year’s contest also features a bonus award category: Students who incorporated a school-spirit theme into their designs will have a chance to win a gift card worth $250 (approx. £260; €190).

From the 10 finalists in each category, a panel of independent judges from industry and the engineering media will select the winners this spring. This year's judges are David Mantey, Editor at Product Design & Development magazine, Ian Kovacevich, VP of Engineering at Enventys, LLC, Patrick Gannon, Engineering Manager at rp+m (a Thogus partner), and Todd Grimm, Editor at Engineering.com.

For video, photos, and descriptions of previous winning designs, visit Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge. For contest rules and regulations, visit ER Rules & Regulations.