September 8, 2022 – “What I most like about machining is how you can take a blank piece of material and basically turn it into anything you want; it’s endless possibilities,” says Noah Smith, one of the first ACE bootcamp participants outside Tennessee.
He and 19 others are among the first to take the in-person Computer Numerical Control (CNC) training for American’s Cutting Edge (ACE) with the Robert C. Byrd Institute (RCBI) at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. Students have come from Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The curriculum is provided free of charge and is designed for a range of participants, from those with no prior experience to current machinists looking for new or advanced skills. RCBI instructor Steve Nelson explains the importance of this training: “Manufacturing in the U.S. is key to our national strength, and CNC is the cornerstone of manufacturing. We need to keep the workforce strong to fill those roles.”
Rick Smoot is another RCBI instructor who traveled to the ACE testbed in Knoxville, TN, this summer to help ACE scale up nationwide. “A machinist is to metal, what a carpenter is to wood,” says Rick. “There is nothing that we see and use daily that’s not affected by a machinist. From the soda bottles we drink from to the clothing we wear, machinists make and repair parts needed to make things.”
That pride and excitement in making things is what has drawn William Smith to the first RCBI ACE training. William shares, “I really enjoyed watching the pieces get made right in front of me. When the machine finished, I could hold it and say, ‘I made this!’” William is looking forward to getting a job in a fabrication shop, just like another participant, Andy Grogan. Andy is thinking maybe he’ll become a gunsmith, and this puts him on a good path. “None of us knew anything about CAM software, and now we have a lot of G-code practice,” explains Andy. “ACE is the whole process, from designing a prototype to seeing it come to life fast and efficiently.”
A step-by-step process of designing, machining, and then assembling parts of an air engine that really works is what instructor Wes Dietrich is convinced will continue to draw more students to ACE. “The nature of CNC will be enough to get them excited,” says Wes. “I believe that once they see the machines in action, they’ll be motivated.” Wes will also be teaching the ACE curriculum to high school students at the Swiss Hills Vocational School in Ohio.
The ACE training could be particularly attractive to those who haven’t traditionally considered manufacturing as a career, including women, minorities, and veterans. Noah Smith wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he left the Army in 2020. Despite the pandemic, CNC training was still an option and now he envisions it as his career. “I’d like to be a CNC programmer, maybe manage a whole shop eventually.” Thanks to ACE and RCBI, Noah is on his way.
There is an urgent and growing need in the U.S. machining and machine tool industry for skilled individuals – operators, engineers, designers and more – for 30,000 machining companies across the country. America’s Cutting Edge (ACE) is a national initiative to restore the prominence of the U.S. machine tools sector. The ACE training focuses on Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining fundamentals but is geared towards anyone interested in manufacturing, from high school students to experienced machinists looking to expand their skills. Both the 6-hour online course and the 32-hour in-person training requires no prior experience and is offered at no cost. ACE is supported by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program from the Office of Industrial Policy. ACE brings together the scientific expertise of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), advanced training tools and techniques developed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and the workforce development leadership of IACMI – The Composites Institute. More than 2,800 people from all 50 states are engaged in the online training that began in December 2020, and in-person training is expanding from Tennessee to hubs in North Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia. Machining and machine tools are at the foundation of America’s manufacturing capability and its global competitiveness.