Category: AM Training

Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing & Technology (SiMT) Serves Entrepreneurs

In Florence, South Carolina, there is a strong emphasis on smart manufacturing. Based on the AM News post about how community colleges are innovating and incubating new ideas and companies (see end of post for link), it is clear that the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing & Technology (SiMT), a division of Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC), also knows how to build up entrepreneurs.

On March 19th, the SiMT is hosting Entrepreneurship Day 2019 (register by March 17). According to a SiMT newsletter, participants will “Understand how to start and build a company by working with professional service providers. Speakers will be presenting in this exciting day-long event at the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology. Resource partners and experienced entrepreneurs specializing in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets, Employment, Economic Security, Social Media Marketing and Finance.”

The event is open to anyone who is currently in business or thinking about starting a new service or developing a product, as well as established businesses wanting to stay current in their industries.

In addition to the entrepreneurial focus, the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing & Technology houses the most advanced additive manufacturing center and 3D virtual reality production studio in the region. It is comprised of six business units: Gould Business Incubator, Additive (aka 3D printing), Advanced Machining, Virtual Reality, The Listening Center, and Event Hosting and Conference center. The Institute’s staff engineers routinely work with FDTC to help conceive products, manufacture precision parts, and produce virtual training experiences for students and the community.

Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) has 6,000 curriculum students and FDTC has 22 programs that have at least a 75 percent student job placement rate upon graduation in a field related to their major. Its campus started with 10 acres in 1963 and has expanded to nearly 240 acres with a modern complex of eight major buildings totaling nearly 350,000 square feet, including the SiMT which is less than two miles away.

If you are interested in how community colleges are helping students to consider an entrepreneurial venture as a career option, check out this post: Community Colleges Are Innovating and Incubating New Ideas And Companies. It includes links to a new book published with the support of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE): Community Colleges as Incubators of Innovation: Unleashing Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Communities and Students by editors Rebecca Corbin, Ed.D. and Ron Thomas, Ph.D.

Community Colleges Are Innovating and Incubating New Ideas And Companies

As the world changes, education moves to change with it. A new book on the power of community colleges to serve as new business incubators and innovation centers is about to hit the marketplace. Community Colleges as Incubators of Innovation: Unleashing Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Communities and Students by editors Rebecca Corbin, Ed.D. and Ron Thomas, Ph.D. offer a collection of expert contributors’ thoughts.

With the support of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), they “start from the premise that community colleges are uniquely positioned to lead entrepreneurial initiatives through both internally-generated curriculum design and through collaboration with the local entrepreneurial community to build bridges between the classroom to the community which in turn can offer models of implementation and constitute a network or support system for students. Community colleges can become incubators of innovation, a magnet for talent, and provide the impetus for development strategies that their communities have not begun to realize.”

At AM News, we hear about a lot of projects helping students to complete their degrees or certificates and get into the workforce. Colleges within the Technician Education in Additive Manufacturing & Materials (TEAMM) project actively work to advance technician education, particularly in materials science (and the adaption of ASTM skills standards).

TEAMM Network member schools are actively building makerspaces, innovation hubs, and entrepreneur research experiences, just to name a few of the concepts. In fact, we have profiled a number of them from Tennessee Technological University (TTU), University of Louisville (its Rapid Prototyping Center), and The Facility makerspace at Edmonds Community College.

TTU is consistently active in developing unique projects to engage students in an entrepreneurial way. Dr. Ismail Fidan is the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on numerous NSF Grant awards to keep these college-age innovators on their toes. Check out two of the TTU entrepreneurial initiatives coming out of the College of Engineering:

Community colleges continue to adapt to the ever-changing job market. These entrepreneurial incubators and related coursework, as well as micro-credentials in the form of certificates, are providing students with more new startup ideas (and mentoring for those ventures) as well as work opportunities. If you wonder if today’s college programs are preparing students for the future of work and business, the answer appears to be a resounding yes.

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NOTE: The new book from NACCE is available on February 28, 2019. *Receive 20% off your preorder by using the code NACCE8 at checkout. Offer expires February 28, 2019.

Smart Manufacturing NSF Funding Demonstrates Collaboration Across College Programs

In late summer 2018, the Motlow State Community College (MSCC) in Tennessee and Mechatronics Professor Khalid Tantawi was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education project grant to advance Smart Manufacturing concepts. Joining that $545,000 grant project as a Co-Principal Investigator is Dr. Ismail Fidan, from Tennessee Tech University and a TEAMM Network member.

What is Smart Manufacturing?

In recent years, organizations, such as, The World Economic Forum has been studying the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” also known as Industry 4.0, or in the USA – “Smart Manufacturing.” It seeks to change how we currently manufacture by employing advanced sensors, computer controls, big data (and the modeling and analysis of it) and other automation technologies to make manufacturing more efficient.

According to a release from MSCC, “The project, titled “Smart Manufacturing for America’s Revolutionizing Technological Transformation” will feature Motlow as a national hub for training Smart Manufacturing for Mechatronics and Advanced Manufacturing educators across the nation.” You can learn more about it here.

Image Courtesy: Motlow State Community College

One of the successful aspects to many National Science Foundation grant projects is that the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program creates opportunities to collaborate across multiple educational institutions and disciplines as well as between professors at those schools.

The TEAMM Collaboration Network is a terrific example of this cross pollination with its diverse 30-plus network members across 2-year community colleges, 4-year colleges and universities, as well as other education, nonprofit, and corporate entities. The smart manufacturing project with Motlow is clearly an example as are programs like another Dr. Fidan project profile here on AM News: Additive Manufacturing – Workforce Advancement Training Coalition and Hub (AM-WATCH). Or head directly to Dr. Fidan’s profile which lists the many ways that he collaborates with and supports his colleagues at TTU, TEAMM Network Members and other institutions.

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To learn more about the larger ATE program, you can go here. But here is part of the summary of the program from the website:

With an emphasis on two-year Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation’s economy. The program involves partnerships between academic institutions (grades 7-12, IHEs) and industry to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary institution school levels. The ATE program supports curriculum development; professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers; career pathways; and other activities. The program invites research proposals that advance the knowledge base related to technician education. It is expected that projects will be faculty driven and that courses and programs credit bearing, although materials developed may also be used for incumbent worker education.

SMARTT or Smart2 project team includes:

  • Khalid Tantawi:  Assistant Professor of Mechatronics in Motlow State Community College, Smyrna, TN
  •  Ismail Fidan: Professor of Manufacturing Engineering at Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN
  • Karen Birch: Professor at Tunxis Community College and director of the NSF ATE funded Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing, Connecticut.

The goals of the project will be to:

  • Create educational modules and workforce development tools on Smart Manufacturing
  • Identify the skill sets and needs of Smart Manufacturing professionals
  • Develop a repository that serves as a knowledge base for industry and STEM educators
  • Increase awareness about Smart Manufacturing
  • Develop a knowledge base of best practices for Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) site visits

Workforce Development and Training at Edmonds Community College

As 2019 gets into full swing, it is good to recap a few of the many contributions that materials technology education brings to our community. Edmonds Community College is home to the The National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education (MatEdU), The Facility makerspace, and a host of other programs and initiatives. In addition, it is where the Technician Education in Additive Manufacturing & Materials project, also known as TEAMM, sponsor of this AM News site, is based.

Materials Technology Education is a big focus at Edmonds and the recipient of nearly $11 Million in grant awards from the National Science Foundation (since 2000). The two nationally known projects listed and linked above are also augmented by many other Workforce Development and Training efforts in the region (the Edmonds Community College Workforce page is a good resource). Not all of them are specifically about additive manufacturing and materials science, our focus at AM News, but all of them serve to help students reach their goals for education and a career.

Some of the focus areas:

  • The M-STEM national workshop takes place at a different location each year offering educators and students a way to learn about or teach materials science.
  • The Veterans Resource Center (VRC) located on the second floor of Lynnwood Hall in Room 215, offers a variety of benefits for veterans starting or returning to college. Executive Director, Chris Szarek, recently joined in the special Veterans Day Weekend Guitar Building Institute Workshop, helping current students and community veterans as they practiced material science as they built electric guitars.
  • The Facility, one of the first makerspaces to give access to both Edmonds Community College students and area residents who want to utilize this cutting-edge manufacturing lab. It includes a Rapid Prototyping lab (3D printers and laser cutters), Autoclave, CNC Mills and Router, Computer Design Lab, and a Composites Lab; just to name a few of the machines available to students and community members. More informal training occurs in many of the courses offered as part of the user experience.

As 2019 steams forward, remember that Monroe Hall and many other efforts at Edmonds Community College are creating or are part of larger Workforce Development and Training initiatives in a local and regional way as well as at the Washington State level. Check out your local community college for programs and projects that will help you in your career development.

New Book Addresses Skills Gap In Manufacturing Jobs

During a time when manufacturing is changing in massive ways, there is a predicted labor shortage with estimates as high as two million additional skilled workers needed by the year 2020.

Author Sarah Boisvert is co-founder of the commercial division of Potomac Photonics Inc. of Baltimore, Md., where she worked to commercialize a proprietary radio frequency (RF)-discharge excimer laser. She is no stranger to the need of manufacturers to find skilled workers. Her new book, published by Photonics Media Press, The New Collar Workforce, is turning the traditional workforce training model on its head.  Armed with 200 manufacturing industry executives’ interviews, Boisvert gets to the heart of the skills gap, and defines a path to engaging, well-paying jobs in the cool digital factory.

New Collar Workforce book by Sarah Boisvert

The “new collar” workers that manufacturers seek have the digital skills needed to “run automation and software, design in CAD, program sensors, maintain robots, repair 3D printers, and collect and analyze data,” according to the author. Educational systems must evolve to supply today’s changing digital manufacturers with new collar workers, and this book leads the reader to innovative organizations that are recreating training programs for a new age in manufacturing, also known as Industry 4.0.

Boisvert is also the founder of the Fab Lab Hub in Santa Fe, New Mexico and as part of her book research and work; she created a Digital Badge program for New Collar jobs. Digital Badges, in collaboration with IBM and Mozilla, is a secure platform to recognize achievement.  The program certifications include:

  • Design for 3D Printing
  • Introduction to CAD Design
  • Fundamentals of SLA 3D Printing
  • Troubleshooting FDM 3D Printers
  • Laser Safety in Manufacturing

Master Badges such as 3D Printing Operator or Laser Service Technician are part of training process that culminates in a stack of Digital Badges that certify a higher level of skill.

The author’s call to action is clear: “We live in a time of extraordinary opportunity to look to the future and fundamentally change manufacturing jobs.  We can show people the value in new collar jobs and how to create nontraditional pathways to engaging, fulfilling, living wage careers in the digital factory. If industry is to invigorate and revitalize manufacturing, it must start with the new collar workers who essentially make digital fabrication for Industry 4.0 possible.”

AM News frequently researches and publishes about workforce training programs (TTU runs the NSF-funded AM-WATCH program that hosted an Additive Manufacturing Studio). If you know of one or conducting one at your institution, we would like to hear from you. Contact information below.