A Collaborative Capstone Industry Project for Community College Students.

The Community College, located in Wellesley, MA offers two certificates in Advanced Manufacturing: Manufacturing Technology and Manufacturing Innovation. Each certificate can be completed within a year. The final semester is dedicated to a paid industry internship where students are supervised by both company and faculty advisors while learning on the job skills at a partnering company. The internship is mandatory for the students to graduate. Students may work up to 40 hours a week and are paid up to $15/hour. These internships can often lead to full-time employment. Sometimes it is difficult for students to secure paid internships. This paper describes an innovative model where a partnering company can provide a project for the students to work on in-house at the college campus. In turn, the Community College compensates the students for 80 hours @ $15/hour, the minimum number of hours to fulfill the internship requirement for the certificate. The Community College faculty advisor of the project, acts as a liaison between the company and the students. Moreover, as part of the NSF funded project, the Community College works collaboratively with a local major University. Thus, the Community College faculty advisor is aided by a Ph.D. graduate student from the University. As a result of these collaborations, the team consists of three or four Community College students, a Community College faculty advisor, an industry advisor from the sponsoring company that provides the project, and a Ph.D. graduate student. All stakeholders work together during the semester to complete an industry project. The partnering company initially provided multiple projects and after careful consideration, the students ultimately selected one of them. The project goal was to design robot safety cages around some manufacturing equipment to safeguard the machine operator from moving robotic equipment traveling at above-head level. The company provided the project specs. The students set to design and simulate cages design using SolidWorks CAD/CAM software. Students, the faculty advisor, and the graduate student visited the company during the project execution and had regular contact with the company advisor, during the semester, to seek feedback and test their designs. By the end of the project, the students were able to successfully design new cages to meet the company requirements. This paper describes the project in more detail, how team members worked together, the company's feedback, guidance to students, and the company's plans to implement the final design and build the cages. The paper also describes the lessons learned and the benefits to students, Community College faculty, and the company. Finally, the paper discusses future collaboration with the company and broader impact on programs at the college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]