At the High Tech Exploration Fair hosted by Montana State University last Monday, Bob quickly swung his red arm to pick up each metal piece and place it into a grid, eliciting laughs from visitors for how lifelike and methodical he was.
A “cobot,” or collaborative robot, Bob was introduced to more than 150 high school students from around the state who attended the event hosted by Gallatin College MSU to give them a glimpse of the Bozeman area's opportunities in photonics, avionics, manufacturing and other high-tech sectors. The cobot is managed by another MSU entity, the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center. Gallatin College MSU and MMEC collaborate regularly to help the state’s manufacturing economy.
“It’s been fun to see how people react,” said MMEC’s associate director, Jenni West, who was demonstrating Bob — taking his name from MMEC’s founder, former MSU professor Bob Taylor — alongside 15 other booths stationed by local companies including Penta Machine, Xtant Medical and Resonon.
West, who has taken Bob to more than 20 outreach events and manufacturing facilities around the state in recent months, said the goal was to help people see how varied manufacturing jobs can be. "Manufacturing can include computer programming, learning how to operate robotic systems and a whole range of other skills."
Abubakr Nazriev, a sophomore visiting from Missoula's Sentinel High School, stuck around the MMEC booth to guide Bob through learning to pick up and place the metal pieces, much the way repetitive tasks such as sorting parts would be done on a manufacturing floor.
“I like the computer interface, it’s easy to use,” Nazriev said. “It’s amazing to see all these companies, I wasn't aware of them.”
In response to requests from the local manufacturing industry and their heightened need to include robotic automation into production lines, Gallatin College MSU recently acquired a robot to enhance its teaching in its CNC Machine Technology program and is working to add a certificate in technical studies in robotics. It’s just one of many programs designed to give students the skills they need to become sought-after employees of companies like those at Exploration Fair, according to Sarah Maki, associate dean of Gallatin College MSU.
“These are high-tech careers in the Gallatin Valley and across the state. We’re showing students how they can have such a career through Gallatin College MSU,” Maki said. “A lot of these companies need people who aren’t engineers but who are interested in technical, skilled work. These are high-paying jobs with lots of opportunity for advancement.”
The many high-tech companies at Monday's event exemplified Montana’scontinued growth in the sector and the demand for graduates of Gallatin College MSU, Maki said. Montana companies are eager to hire technically trained graduates of their programs such as photonics and laser technology, aviation electronics technology, CNC machine technology, welding technology, cybersecurity and network technology, and drafting and CAD technology.
Bridger McGimpsey from Billings, who said he was drawn to the event to explore different technical fields he might pursue after high school, came to MMEC's booth to see Bob in action. “It was cool that it did the task once you taught it,” he said.
According to West, several local manufacturers are currently using cobots, and she is seeing increased interest, especially as companies face rising demand for their goods amid workforce shortages. MMEC, which is housed in MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and works one-on-one with Montana manufacturers to improve their operations, has been demonstrating Bob around the state. Cobots can be fitted with pneumatic devices and a variety of other tools and can be programmed to perform highly precise tasks, she said.
"They’re meant to do things that are repetitive and not very interesting or safe, which frees up workers to do more complex tasks," West said. “With increasing automation comes demand for workers who have manufacturing skills.”
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up