hoods better to tell their stories than - Allegheny West Magazine

18 Allegheny West Magazine September/October 2012
Nowadays, every action movie trailer features or
involves some sort of robot, machine, or advanced
technology. Technology has quickly become an
important part of everyday life. Now, local students
can learn all about the technology used to build and
operate such machines and robots.
Parkway West Career and Technology Center will
offer a new program this fall to help build careers in
fields such as machining, industrial maintenance,
advanced manufacturing, and robotics. Simply called
Robotics and Precision Machining, this program is
available to students from the school’s 12 sending
districts interested in these areas of work.
“The Robotics and Precision Machining program is
designed to blend numerous engineering occupations
together around the construction of robots,” said Jack
Highfield, director at Parkway West.
This is an advanced manufacturing program that
requires students to use many different kinds of
academics: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and
physics, to solve “real-world” problems.
“These are huge world problems they solve,” said
Liz Lanshcak, the public relations coordinator at
Parkway.
The school was approached by several local
employers who said that there is a critical need for,
and a critical shortage of, workers in these fields. The
imbalance between the number of people going to
college and those being properly trained for the
manufacturing field is exacerbated by the stereotypes
of a “dirty” workplace, said Liz.
Local manufacturers, as well as Parkway, are
emphasizing the high wage positions in this type of
field. Entry-level wages are approximately $26,000 to
$29,000 per year; and $55,000 is the average
manufacturing salary, a family-sustaining wage, said
BY EMILY BASTAROLI
Jack. Since the local career and technology centers
(CTC’s) provide free training, “It’s a good move for
the economy for [students] to take the program,”
said Jack.
Parkway West offers students the opportunity for
immediate employment after graduation or
preparation for post-secondary study, often with
advanced standing. Students come from school
districts in the area, including Carlynton, Chartiers
Valley, Cornell, Keystone Oaks, Montour, Moon
Area, Mount Lebanon, Quaker Valley, South
Fayette, Sto-Rox, Upper St. Clair, and West
Allegheny. Parkway accepts students starting in
grade 10, with the exceptions of Chartiers Valley,
Keystone Oaks, and Quaker Valley, which all send
students in 9th grade. The Robotics and Precision
Machining Program is a three or four-year program
offered to all students as a full-time curriculum
starting this fall, said Liz.
The Robotics and Precision Machining program
will offer a wide spectrum of manufacturing training.
Students will learn how to measure and shape metal,
plastics, and other substances to manufacture
different products, including several different types
of robots, as stated in the course description on
Parkway’s Web site. Students will learn how to
work with machines, lay out their work, read
blueprints, and choose proper feeds and speeds for
machining, depending on shapes, sizes, and
materials.
Lathes, milling machines, drill presses, grinders,
and electro-discharge machines (EDM) are all
machines taught and used in the curriculum.
Students will also learn about robotic systems by
using hands-on experiments in the latest robotic
technology. They will also build robots for the Bots
IQ competition. The more advanced students will
learn computer-aided drafting (Auto CAD) and how
to use computer-numeric controlled (CNC) lathes
and milling machines.
Overall, the course offers training in all aspects of
electro-mechanical engineering, from planning and
design to assembly, programming, testing, and
improvement.
“[Students will learn] to build bigger, better, faster
robots,” said Jack.