Room 705 is now equipped with four industrial 3D printers, a large laser cutter, new software, computer equipment upgrades and more fabrication machines such as scroll saws and drill presses thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Linked Learning Consortium.
The AMETLL Consortium first awarded the grant to Pasadena City College and Long Beach City College, who then provided the financial reimbursement for high school engineering courses, including those on campus. Engineering Design Technology and Advanced Computer Aided Design teacher Mr. David Dickie received funding for new equipment that would be sustainable and usable for students in EDT and ACAD.
“Even without the equipment, I’m super passionate about what I do and what I teach,” Mr. Dickie said. “But with this grant, we’ve been able to expand the program. We can do more 3D printing with the new machines, and we can do laser cutting, which we’ve never done before.”
Previously, Mr. Dickie’s classes had two older 3D printers. The new models are the same brand, but can print with higher detail and have dual extruders, which allows them to print in two colors, which was not possible before. They can use water soluble filaments to print geared devices all in one go as the filament dissolves, leaving only the device behind.
“It makes me feel happy that we got new equipment since we can maximize efficiency,” Senior Jeremy Lesmana said. “After being Mr. Dickie’s student for two years and now as his TA, I can conclude that this new equipment is a huge upgrade, allowing us to use techniques that we weren’t able to use before.”
EDT is designated for students who are interested in engineering, product design, or architecture. They design models through sketching with the concepts they studied in class, and research to develop the designs they will build. Using their sketches to make 3D models on the computer, students can visualize their product, and will proceed to build many of their models with the new equipment.
“The new equipment is awesome,” Junior Amanda Huang said. “They open up endless possibilities for us to turn our designs to life.”
In ACAD, students take the same skills from EDT and utilize them in regional competitions. This year, students made it to the JPL Invention Challenge finals with other high school students from Southern California, comparing their mechanisms to JPL engineering designs. Students use more advanced techniques for projects with 3D modeling, animations and printing.
“Our grant this year allowed us to get new tools that I’m so excited to use,” Senior Cindy Liu said. “All this equipment has allowed us to be more efficient in our designing and modeling. I’m very appreciative of all the hard work Mr. Dickie has done to make the EDT/ACAD classes better and am truly humbled by all the effort and improvements.”
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