VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

DECEMBER 21, 2001

This year officially start on August 27. It did not take long to get into the swing of things. There were 73 first year students and 37 second year students. The bonds that were created the first year have carried over and have gotten stronger for the second year students.

We have to have 24 hours of community service to graduate. Some of us took part in highway cleanup, removing docks and fixing Theatre Le Homme Dieu. We also built 100 duck houses. This project was fun because of the taping and straw stuffing of an unsuspecting student's tool box who seemed to forget to lock it.

We have been working on many projects. One group built a hydraulic oil filter crusher for the ATC diesel mechanic program. The crusher works at 2000 psi and can crush 15 tons. A new four wheel drive ATV was built with direct four wheel drive and has a 20 hp V-twin Honda donated by Northern Hydraulics. The ATV that was built last year was redesigned for better clearance and direct four-wheel-drive was installed. Both of the ATV's oscillate and pivot for suspension. Northern Hydraulics also donated a 30 hp diesel tractor which a group of students drew hydraulic schematics for. This year we have been lucky to receive a pneumatic electronic test facility. We also got the FMS-200, from SMC which is great help in our PLC class. We are able to use the machine to aid our learning process on PLC's. We also had to write a logic program that would run a Clamp and circuit in our electronics class.

We are now finishing our semester and taking the dreaded finals. We ended the week with a barbecue which we won by collecting the most money for the local food shelf. This was a great way to end the semester and leave for Christmas break. We are looking forward to next semester and starting our new classes. We all know that we are getting closer to the end of the year and are very excited about our future.

The pressure is on as the students are closing this fall semester with final tests and projects. This is the third year using SolidWorks (solid modeling) for drawing. Each year, the students amaze me with their ability to pick up this program to produce realistic-looking parts. While actual detail drawings and always difficult for new students, most quickly learn to design and make assemblies using this solid modeling.

The second year Manufacturing Engineering Technician's (MET) are completing a successful semester of "Material Science and Processes." Besides learning about how carbon content affects the properties of steel, this year's class toured Alexandria Extrusion (aluminum extrusions plus valued added functions), Donnelly Custom Molding (injection mold plastics plus value added including a x-ray non-destructive test), and Dyecast Specialties (aluminum and zinc die-casting). A special thank you goes out to each of these industries, for each tour provides more "training" than any lecture that I have been associated with.

Several alumni have stopped in to see the latest changes. Hopefully, we are always improving enough to make them jealous. Stop by, I enjoy learning about your successes and be prepared to share your successes to a new class of eager learners--see the pressure is still on.