MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—Earlier this month a team of students from the West Virginia University Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources earned first place and $10,000 at the inaugural Project MFG Additive Manufacturing National Championship.
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Kelsey Crawford, teaching instructor, engineering technology, said they are considering another similar event in the fall with a much larger payout. The Advanced Manufacturing Competition, also sponsored by MFG, was the focus of some of their recent preparation, and winning could be the next goal for the team.
“We did it at the beginning of this year on a very small time window to train students and get them the concepts they need,” Crawford said. “But we’d like to enter that in the fall, and it comes with a $100,000 first prize.”
The team of Seth Massey, Cole Newland, Heath Rye, and Kinsey Momeyer made up the winning WVU ETEC team. The team worked on a schedule of 3.5 hours in the morning, lunch, then a 3.5-hour session in the afternoon. Crawford said when the teams return from lunch, they could be met with change orders that force a redesign. The teams use new part information, engineering skills, and 3-D metal printers to manufacture the parts needed to meet the needs of the project.
“There are many different ways to solve the same problem, so these challenges and competitions are good for these students to be able to use the skills they’re taught and think about the problems,” Crawford said.
Robotics is truly a sport or activity that can involve students of varying ages and men or women. The teams truly have to work as a unit because the exercises are timed, so when changes or design problems arise, it takes the entire team to respond.
“Any time you’re talking robotics, you’re talking about manufacturing, engineering, and mechanics,” Crawford said. “Robotics really brings in all the disciplines of engineering and manufacturing.”
The competition was held at the ELS facility, where officials from the company and others are watching. Crawford said those companies were “scouting” the students during the competition, and the proof ended up in his email box.
“They have job openings,” Crawford said. “So, I got an email this morning from a guy at ELS with a link to job postings and jobs they are hiring for.”
The program at WVU is relatively new and growing, according to Crawford. The program is geared to support the growth of advanced manufacturing, where the jobs are much different from manufacturing jobs of generations ago.
“A lot of our students are interested in manufacturing—that is the core of what we teach,” Crawford said. “We teach a lot of hands-on things, so we focus a lot on hands-on in manufacturing, and hopefully that’s what our students are in the program for.”