Students Awed by Technology & Career Opportunities At IMTS 2002

CHICAGO, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- From junior high schools, middle schools and colleges across Chicago, Illinois, and the United States, students and teachers arrive in groups of as many as a hundred or more. They leave in awe of what they have seen and experienced.

From the spacious Student Union at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS 2002), they entered the cavernous halls and three buildings of McCormick Place. Nine pavilions house distinct categories of technology employed in manufacturing. In small groups they discover high-tech manufacturing processes, systems, and technology that they might never see in their classroom or hometown.

Exhibitors designated as "student-friendly" welcome teachers and students. They eagerly embrace the opportunity to showcase their industry and technology, and to explain to students the well-paying, rewarding, safe career opportunities in manufacturing.

"Coming to the show makes people hungry to see what's really out there," says Karl Gebert, University of Colorado student guide and retired U of C Instrument Shop Supervisor.

"There is technology at the show that has never been -- and may never be -- exposed to the public eye," Gebert notes, "water cutting metal like its butter; lasers turning rolls of steel into intricate designs; highly sophisticated machines run by computer numeric controls; robots gracefully moving through synchronized manufacturing processes; fuselage made of light, durable composite material for reduced construction costs. And that's just the beginning!"

"I come back with a dozen new inventions, new to the market," Gebert says. Many, if not most, of the technology showcased here is or will be used to provide consumers with virtually every material item they use or rely upon each and every day.

Nichole Bozarth and Lyndsie Fugate, juniors in pre-calculus and physics respectively at Midwest Central High School, Manito, Ill., found technology at IMTS that they never imagined existed. The CAD CAM, metal cutting and laser exhibits fascinated them with their precision and accuracy.

One CAD CAM exhibit especially caught their attention. "This woman was in a jumpsuit hooked to a computer," Fugate explains. "As she moves, the screen says how much force she is using and what percent of the population could do that motion without strain."

The highly acclaimed IMTS Student Summit has grown each year. Why? "The Student Summit takes students way beyond what they can learn or experience in the classroom," explains Dave Horn, Student Summit Coordinator and Continuous Improvement Director for AMT -- The Association For Manufacturing Technology. "It takes them to a whole new level of understanding of today's technology and how high-tech is being applied to manufacturing processes, systems and equipment to enable us to produce items faster, better and at lower cost."

Teachers are encouraged to bring students from with a wide range of backgrounds: from machine shop and applied arts to math, science, and beyond. Why? Because retirement will rob the ranks of those employed in manufacturing technology during the next decade. Rewarding, challenging and well-paying careers will exist for the taking.

Six high school students from Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah have a different take on IMTS. They are competing for the right to represent the U.S. in the 2003 WorldSkills Competitions in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Each student receives a blueprint and piece of stock material. They must write the computer numeric control (CNC) program for manufacturing the part and make the part in a given time. The competition is run by SkillsUSA-VICA, a national organization serving high school and college students and instructors who are enrolled in trace, technical and skilled service instructional programs.

Elsewhere students from the University of Michigan are introducing cutting edge technology on the exhibit floor. Their new concept, the reconfigurable machine tool, enables system-level design rather than parts design. As with Legos, reconfigurable machine tool modules can be changed to manufacture parts with different features.

IMTS

The International Manufacturing Technology Show is the largest marketplace for buyers of machine tools and related manufacturing technology in the Americas. The eight-day show, held in even-numbered years at Chicago's McCormick Place, draws tens of thousands of attendees and exhibitors from the U.S. and some 40 nations. 

http://www.imtsnet.org

 

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