Managing an outreach consortium for developing a pipeline of skilled workforce through advanced manufacturing

Abstract

At NCAT, we are conducting a summer workshop for early college and high-school students about advanced manufacturing and 3D printing. This outreach consortium is financed by the Department of Energy DOE, as well as the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration). With this summer program, our objective is to serve advanced manufacturing, as evolving technology and to improve STEM education and prepare future engineers for the new challenges related to this new technology. The main objective is to teach the students the use of professional design tools made for today's designers and engineers, such as Autodesk Inventor, as well as the use of 3D printers. In addition, science, and math are integrated to show relationships and solve challenges related to several projects. The progressive level of the projects related to producing better parts, assemblies, and drawings mostly focuses on critical thinking and the development of creative solutions (problem-solving, writing, visual art, communication skills, and open-mindedness) to problems. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the consortium management and the use of the summer program as example to describe the methodology implemented, based on active learning, perform experimentation, and the use of software, such as Autodesk Inventor. In particular, we will discuss several activities performed during this summer camp. A collaborative work between an NCAT faculty and high school instructors have been developed over the years served for the success of this program. The high-school instructors, as well as the counselors, helped with the process, as well as with the learning process. Their participation was very useful in terms of addressing the appropriate pedagogy, communicating with high-school students, and keeping them focused and task. We discuss the project design program from students' point of view, and the experience earned in design, integration, and also in written and oral communication skills. The methodology used to evaluate the effectiveness of this design program in terms of learning outcomes is also described.