WSCC Partners With The Career Center For Robotics Program – Patch.com

MARIETTA, OH Officials with Washington State Community College and the Career Center held an open house yesterday promoting their new robotics and advanced manufacturing pathway. They've formed a partnership to create a pipeline that aims to start high school students on a pathway that ends with them getting a high paid, in-demand job, likely in this area.

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George Bilokonsky is Washington State Community College's Dean of Engineering. He said they've had a robotics program for a while now. "This is automated manufacturing. We've done robotics, but we hadn't done the integrated piece where we're having several robotics working together, talking together. This is smart manufacturing."

High school students from around the county came to the open house yesterday with their parents to look at their robotics automation engineering program. WSCC and Career Center officials walked these students through their state-of-the-art labs and demonstrated how they could earn both high school, college credit, and receive industry credentials by working with robots.

They had four separate robots set up assembly-line style to machine a plain square of aluminum into a fancy-looking decorative plaque with a watch face set in. One robot even packaged it delicately into a small box. The first robot on the assembly line is the FANUC robodrill, and it actually has to be registered with The Department of Homeland Security. "This machine is so precise that homeland security requires it to be registered so they know where it's at in case weapons show up." Bilokonsky explained this machine has the precision required to make silencers or other components of guns or other weapons. "They know exactly the longitude and latitude points are of this machine."

Bilokonsky explained that the robot assembly line was to demonstrate where the industry is headed. "We've spent a lot of time talking to companies around here who are saying hey, we want to get there, we don't know how to get there. So we're training the personnel for companies in this area." He says the easy part is buying the robotics, but trying to get people to operate and maintain them is another thing altogether.

Amanda Herb is the Vice President of Institutional Advancement with Washington County. She said the catalyst for this advanced manufacturing pathway was the million-dollar robotics they displayed at the open house. There had been a discussion about a robotics program at the Career Center. "Instead of them trying to duplicate the equipment we had, we suggested that we partner and their students could come to our campus and use the equipment for their hands-on training." This isn't just a partnership for equipment use, but also a partnership in terms of what kinds of courses they can offer their students.

While the idea is of course to get students into this program, Bilokonsky said adults are calling him asking how they can get involved. "So they're working for a company that has robots. They want to learn how to program robots." He invites them to come down and enroll in one of his classes. "We're probably going to have some evening classes, some workshops. We are going to train the adults, we do want the adults to participate." He said they want to help the up-and-coming workers in the industry, as well as those already there.

Herb said this is a win-win for WSCC, the Career Center, and the students. "It gives us the opportunity to expose more students to the in-demand careers of robotics and advanced manufacturing." She said things like this really is the mission of Washington State. "To provide these hands-on opportunities for students. To really open up doors to new career possibilities." She believes students should be exposed to a wider range of career opportunities than they are now. "This partnership with the Career Center gives us the ability to introduce students to a career that they may have never thought of before."

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WSCC Partners With The Career Center For Robotics Program - Patch.com