Grant helps academic division grow
“Our students will be able to learn the latest techniques and be exposed to equipment that they’ll see in industry.”
Washtenaw Community College’s Division of Advanced Technologies and Public Service
Careers just got even more advanced. Thanks to a $4.
4 million grant from the State of Michigan’s Community College Skilled Trades Equipment
program and a match approved by the Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees,
the division’s programs and offerings have been drastically transformed.
The grant program, announced by Governor Rick Snyder in October 2015, was created to provide funding that enables Michigan community colleges to purchase equipment required for educational programs in high-wage, high-skill and high-demand occupations.
“Program faculty have been working hard to update, and in some cases reinvent, the curriculum to align with the state-of-the-art equipment that we are receiving,” said Brandon Tucker, dean of advanced technologies and public services careers at the college. “This is a win-win for everybody: students, faculty and the business community.”
New programs with cutting-edge technologies
The Auto Service, Advanced Manufacturing and Welding and Fabrication programs will all be receiving state-of-the- art technologies and, in some cases, brand-new space.
Highlights include:
Auto Service
- Two new programs
- Twelve new course credit hours developed with local employers’ input regarding job demands
- New equipment: four engine stands, a chassis dynamometer and an engine mapping stand
Advanced Manufacturing
- New certificate program
- Over 8,000-square feet of newly renovated space
- New equipment: five robots, seven automated machining cells and a 3-D printing lab
- Collaboration between the Advanced Manufacturing and the Welding and Fabrication departments to develop new curriculum centered around automated manufacturing
Welding and Fabrication
- Three new certificates
- Sixteen new credit courses
- Newly renovated welding laboratory with 12 new fully functional welding stations and electrical and gas piping upgrades to 20 welding stations
- New equipment: a laser cutting and welding cell, a plasma arc shape-cutting table, 20 advanced all-process welding machines, a computed tomography (x-ray) machine for welding and component inspection, and a metal analyzer
“Our students will be able to learn the latest techniques and be exposed to equipment that they’ll see in industry,” Tucker said. “Our faculty will receive world-class training and the business community will have a pipeline of employees for years to come.”