In the wake of coronavirus, school closings and “stay-at-home” mandates have upended the educational experience for students across the country. This singular moment reinforces the opportunities that exist for innovation in education via technology adoption. As it relates to the SME Education Foundation, online education is certainly relevant to the work we do with our SME PRIME program.
Anna Hiszpanski has made a name for herself as a research scientist in the materials science division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, but she’s never forgotten the help she got along the way — including the SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship, which she used for her undergraduate studies at Caltech.
Career and technical education students at SME PRIME® high schools in Michigan, Illinois, and New York have experienced firsthand the importance of manufacturing to our nation and the world — and how their classroom studies and hands-on lab work relate to real-world challenges, and can even save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
Diversity in Action magazine featured the SME Education Foundation’s efforts to reach more students from underrepresented groups and provide them with opportunities to pursue careers in the manufacturing industry.
Manufacturers, communities, educators, students and parents can all benefit from participating in Manufacturing Day: Last year, more than 80% of students said they became more convinced that manufacturing provides interesting and rewarding careers after attending these events.
SME PRIME students at Hawthorne High School near Los Angeles, CA recently graduated from South Bay Workforce Investment Board’s (SBWIB) Aero-Flex Pre-Apprenticeship program. The 23 students from the schools manufacturing and engineering program will leave high school better prepared to directly enter the workforce upon graduation.
Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to transform the nature of manufacturing and engineering work. While low-skill, lower-wage jobs could be phased out, newer technologies will create new high-skill, higher-wage jobs.
Greg Smith earned the 2019 SME Directors Scholarship based on accomplishments that included decades of welding experience and a solid skill set build around his passion for engineering. Today, Greg is a graduate of Utah’s Weber State University and in the beginning stages of his career at the Ogden, Utah division of Barnes Aerospace as a Special Process Engineer.
Julian Rogers earned a 2014 E. Wayne Kay Scholarship with his determination and drive to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree. Today, he’s applying his engineering skills to his work with drone company Insitu.
This is the second in a series of two blogs focused on manufacturing misperceptions, Industry 4.0 and the next generation of manufacturers.