Students Participate in Project MFG’s Advanced Manufacturing National Championship at Stewart-Haas Racing
The top 4 teams from Project MFG’s Advanced Manufacturing competition series compete in the Championship “Clash of Trades” competition in Kannapolis, NC
There are many ways to serve your country, strengthening our manufacturing sector is one of them”
KANSAS CITY, MO, UNITED STATES, May 28, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Kannapolis, North Carolina— Starting on May 24th, 4 schools from across the country gathered at the Stuart-Haas Racing facility to compete in a national advanced manufacturing competition. This three-day event provided a platform for the top teams to showcase their expertise in a variety of areas such as CNC programming and machining, 3 and 5-axis milling, welding, metrology, and precision assembly.— Adele Ratcliff, Department of Defense
Project MFG’s Advanced Manufacturing Competition Series is a multi-round competition that began in October of 2023. This season, 320 competitors from 80 schools representing 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces, registered to compete. After the initial qualifying round was completed, all of the team’s projects were submitted and judged, and out of the 80 teams that started, 16 were invited to move on to the Regional Rounds.
The first regional competition was held at Texas A&M TEE’s facility in College Station, featuring six competing teams: Vincennes University, Autry Technology Center, Pickens Technical College, South Adams High School, Lowell High School, and Greenville Technical College. All the teams were faced with challenging tasks and obstacles to overcome and proved their expertise in various areas such as CNC programming, Tig Welding, mill and lathe operations, 3 and 5-axis milling, and much more. Each team brought their unique strengths and were eager to put their skills to the test and demonstrate their proficiency in various advanced manufacturing processes.
The second regional competition took place at Greenville Technical Colleges Center for Manufacturing and Innovation in Greenville, South Carolina. The event showcased six additional competing teams, including Kevin Dukes Career & Innovation Academy, Ulster Boces Career & Technical Center, Calhoun Community College, Minnesota State College Southeast, Central Alabama Community College, and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.
The third and final regional competition was held at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the three remaining teams, Yuba Community College, Fresno City College, and Everett Community College. After the completion of the regional rounds, all of the teams’ projects were submitted and judged as a whole.
In the end, the top 4 teams that received an invitation to advance to the National Clash of Trades Championship, this year at Stewart-Haas Racing were:
• Autry Technology center from Enid, OK
• Calhoun Community College from Tanner, AL
• Central Alabama Community College from Alexander City, AL
• Everett Community College from Everett, WA
This National Championship was filmed for the Project MFG YouTube Reality series “Clash of Trades” which is in the 4th season. These talented teams gave their all-in pursuit of glory and put on an impressive competition. Stewart-Haas Racing was a fantastic host site generously offering up their best-in-class manufacturing facility for the students to compete.
Adele Ratcliff, Director of Innovation & Modernization from the Department of Defense welcomed the students and encouraged them to dig deep and embrace the competition ahead of them. “There are many ways to serve your country, strengthening our manufacturing sector is one of them”, said Ratcliff before holding a moment of silence honoring those who died this Memorial Day weekend.
Stewart-Haas drivers Cole Custer & Ryan Preece made a special appearance to cheer the Advanced Manufacturing teams on and talk about how important precision manufacturing is in the performance racing world.
During the competition teams were given a toolbox challenge where they were challenged to put tools back in their toolboxes according to exact specs the fastest. Central Alabama’s team completed the task first and won a VIP infield experience at the Coca Cola 600 race as well as each team member winning a toolbox from the challenge to take home as their own.
Winning teams were donated tools from our many sponsors and had the opportunity to win $100,000 for the first-place team, $50,000 for the second-place team, and $25,000 for the third-place team.
Who emerged victorious and claimed the 100,000 grand prize? Tune in to the Clash of Trades National Championship on YouTube July 12th to find out!
Amy.Moyer@projectmfg.com | (913) 634-5404
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Founded in 2021, Project MFG is a catalyst that helps elevate the next generation of highly skilled trade professionals by changing mindsets, fostering community preparedness, and challenging how the critical skills needed to succeed in modern advanced manufacturing are taught.
We want to improve the lives of young people and America’s future. When schools, industry, and government work together, we all win. Students gain skills to succeed, schools increase capacity to teach more students, industry has more qualified job candidates and U.S. manufacturing becomes more competitive as we level up the industrial workforce.
Amy Moyer
Project MFG
+1 913-634-5404
email us here
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