A competition between four area high school robotics clubs will be one highlight of Thursday’s Manufacturing Show at Chippewa Valley Technical College.
Students from Menomonie, Durand, Greenwood and Owen-Withee will take part in the Vex IQ Challenge, in which robots they build will complete a series of tasks on a pre-set field.
The contest will be just one of many features of the annual Manufacturing Show, which is free and open to the public. It will run from 3 to 7 p.m. at the CVTC Manufacturing Education Center, 2320 Alpine Rd.
Attendees will also be able to see student-built robotic machines, such as an entirely automated rock band; watch a five-axis unit that can cut a metal part at various angles without having to reset the part; and see an object designed on a computer become reality through a 3D printer.
The Manufacturing Show introduces the public to the world of modern manufacturing, which has gone far beyond outdated images of low-skilled workers doing simple repetitive work. The show serves as a showcase of developments in Chippewa Valley manufacturing, and will include participation from many local manufacturing companies.
“We have a great diversity of manufacturing companies in the Chippewa Valley, many of them using cutting-edge technology,” said CVTC President Bruce Barker. “Attendees can learn more about these companies and how CVTC prepares workers for lucrative careers in manufacturing.”
Also on display at the show will be a simulated manufacturing center with robotic equipment manufacturing USB flash drives inside the adjacent Applied Technology Center. Among the hot jobs in manufacturing today are designing, building, programming, troubleshooting and maintaining such equipment.
Attendees will be able to try their hand at welding in the CVTC welding lab, try out a flight simulator, and see equipment like a water jet that uses streams of water to cut metal in precise detail.
Area high school students will take part in the show’s annual Junkyard Battle welding competition, in which teams create sculptures out of scrap parts on a pre-selected theme. Before coming to the show, many area students will tour local manufacturing plants.
“Our goal is to provide kids with exposure to area manufacturers,” said Jeff Sullivan, CVTC dean of skilled trades and engineering. “Last year, we had 15 manufacturers offering tours.
Sullivan said the Vex IQ Challenge represents a new way that high school students will be involved.
“The students will create the robots from scratch, program them and operate them during the game,” he said.
A new CVTC program on display this year will be Mechanical Design.
“Students will be showcasing some computer-assisted design projects they’ve been working on,” Sullivan said. “We’ve already had employers calling asking for graduates of the program, but it just started in August.”
People attending the show will be provided with “passports” to visit each area of the show. By having their passports stamped from the various areas they will become eligible for a drawing for an Apple watch.
More information is available at www.cvtc.edu/mfgshow.
NOTE: the home page photo, furnished by CVTC, shows CVTC student Hunter Sullivan, left, explaining what a piece of equipment can do to Colfax High School junior Cole Hill, at the 2017 CVTC Manufacturing Show.