On Friday, October 7, Skyline College, in partnership with Base 11, hosted Manufacturing Day (#MFGDAY), a nationally recognized day of celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. Over one hundred students from neighboring high schools attended, in addition to students, faculty, and staff from Skyline College, including the Middle College program. Morning and afternoon sessions were held that included workshops on entrepreneurism and hands-on breakout activities for students to engage with manufacturing tools and techniques.
The event opened with welcome remarks from Skyline College MESA director Stephen Fredricks and Base 11 Senior Vice President Ingrid Ellerbe. Ms. Ellerbe announced Base 11 paid fellowship opportunities and invited Base 11 fellow and Skyline College student Daniel Powers to share highlights from his Base 11 fellowship at CalTech this past summer. Skyline College’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations Cherie Colin introduced BAEC faculty member and keynote speaker Terri Wade who gave a sneak preview on the Process of Innovation and Entrepreneurism in STEM. Ms. Wade also announced Skyline College’s new STEM Entrepreneurial Accelerator program, a 16-week hands-on course in Entrepreneurism, Innovation, and Advanced Manufacturing held in the Fabrication Laboratory.
Following the keynote speech and closing remarks, event participants were led in groups to a variety of breakout sessions with hands-on maker activities developed by Base 11 Fellows, the students of the Skyline College Engineering and Robotics Club (ERC), and Fab Lab technician Marco Wehrfritz and Engineering professor Nicholas Langhoff. One of the breakouts was a robotics session in which students could fly micro drones and navigate them through a set of obstacles. There was also an electronic music making session, where students got to make music on drum machines, samplers, keyboard synthesizers, and use an electronic circuit developed by the ERC to control the pitch and sound of keyboard synthesizers by waiving their hands in front of distance sensors. Other sessions included an honors project showcase led by engineering student Daniel Powers and a tour of the exciting new manufacturing and rapid prototyping tools in the Fabrication Laboratory.
Manufacturing Day was a big success due to the dedication and hard work of Skyline College students, faculty, and staff, and Base 11 staff. A big thank you to Base 11 Senior Vice President, Ingrid Ellerbe and Marketing Director, Cindy Santos-Mendoza, Skyline College Director of Marketing and Public Relations Cherie Colin, Marketing office assistant Brittney Sneed, BAEC faculty member Terri Wade, SMT program services coordinator Alana Utsumi, MESA director Stephen Fredricks, Engineering and Computer Science professor Nicholas Langhoff, Engineering lab technician Marco Wehrfritz, and the students of the Engineering and Robotics Club at Skyline College. Pictures of the event can be found here.
Article by Nicholas Langhoff | Photo by William Nacouzi
