Students, educators and attendees at RAPID + TCT, AeroDef Manufacturing and SME FUSION — held simultaneously in Detroit in April — got a glimpse into the future of advanced manufacturing technologies and industry-education collaboration.
Nearly 200 students and 40 educators from 11 Michigan schools attended the Bright Minds Student Summit at RAPID+TCT and AeroDef, getting direct exposure to additive manufacturing and 3D-printing technologies as well as the ways they are applied to manufacturing sectors such as automotive, aerospace and defense. Of the participating schools, seven were part of the SME PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) network — a signature program of the SME Education Foundation.
Over three days, participants engaged with more than 30 student-friendly exhibitors across the show floor, exploring real-world applications of advanced technologies and learning directly from industry professionals. With the chance to win 3D printers, students teamed up to participate in a gamified competition.
“One of the most inspirational things today was that the students were able to see all these different vendors and make some different connections,” said Trent Trout, who teaches a Computer Integrated Manufacturing class at Saline High School, an SME PRIME school.
Richard Rowe, educator at Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti, echoed the enthusiasm and the Summit’s effect on his students. “None of them have been to a conference like this before to see groundbreaking technology that they can incorporate into their careers in the future,” he said.
Hugh Willett, a Saline High School student who attended the Summit as part of the school's Computer Integrated Manufacturing class, said he was most excited to see the Stratasys exhibit. “I've always wanted to be an engineer,” he said.
Students weren’t the only ones to have a great experience. Student-friendly exhibitors found inspiration in the students’ excitement and enthusiasm. “We were especially proud to host so many students who were coming through with the Bright Minds organization and to help them understand what the technology is all about — especially our world, 3D scanning, which allows us to put anything in the physical world into the computer in 3D,” said Michael Raphael, owner of Direct Dimensions in Baltimore, Maryland. “We actually scanned the students and put them in 3D into the computer.”
Down the road from where the SME Bright Minds Student Summit was taking place, the focus on education continued. Shelley Wooley, EdD, director of educational programs at the SME Education Foundation, led a panel discussion at the SME Fusion event. Highlighting successful partnerships in education, the panel brought together industry leaders and a local educator to discuss the need for collaborative relationships that help connect students with hands-on education and industry-aligned training.
“We have to be willing to share the leading-edge technology with education,” said one of the panelists, Paul Aiello, executive director of education for FANUC North America. “And education, I think, has the biggest role because they have to learn it, and they have to move at the speed of business because technology is changing rapidly. So without that partnership where we’re engaged and we’re sharing that information, programs can fall behind.”
Daniel Rodriguez, sales director for Festo Didactic North America, touched on the need in industry for people who can think, work as a team and communicate. “They need the fundamentals,” he said. “They need to understand basic electronics before they can understand what a robot does.”
Rob Baker, engineering teacher at Frankenmuth High School, an SME PRIME school, agreed about the importance of fundamentals to robotics. He also shared an inspirational story about his students and the impact partnerships have had. “Just this past year, I had three students build a desktop robot completely from scratch,” he said. “No plans, no models, nothing. They started sketching it, they researched all the axes of the robots, they did the CAD/CAM and they did the electrical wiring.
“Then along comes SME PRIME, and as part of PRIME, I got this wonderful FANUC cobot in the classroom. That is my excitement. That is what SME PRIME brings to us .”
Summing up the importance of the industry-education collaboration, Aiello said, “If we put new technology into the classroom we engage students, and we show them how this transcends math and science and problem-solving and critical thinking. These are real-world tools and skills that students can carry throughout their whole lives.”