The program's graduates are often regarded as their employer's resident computer expert and have been migrating into CAD systems management jobs within companies. The former covers the entire design cycle from start to finish. Students are assigned a project, usually based on the Society of Automotive Engineers' design competition. They do not actually enter the competition because of the timing, but they use the design challenge for their hands-on project. The advanced manufacturing elective involves a Motoman welding robot.
Students reverse engineer a fabricated product and come up with the blank.
The blanks get laser cut, students build their own jigs and fixtures, do the programming of the robot, set parameters for the welds, and then make a welded part at the end of the course. Students also create mold halves on the CNC machine, produce a prototype part and learn the various operations they can do with the rapid prototyping machine. A Quality Assurance course is also included. The training momentum peaks at the end of the second year. We turn the entire last five weeks into project areas.