Central Maine Community College (CMCC), in collaboration with partners across New England and the United States, is developing a virtual ideation platform (VIP). The virtual ideation platform enables faculty and students to share product concepts, resources, and expertise across the internet to resolve complex design and manufacturing problems. CMCC has formed partnerships with regional community colleges, universities, industries, government agencies, and other ATE centers to create a synergistic group of experts to participate in the creation of the VIP. CMCC is engaging faculty members around New England and across the country who have expertise in key areas such as design, finite element analysis, process modeling and optimization, rapid prototyping, and machine tooling. The CMCC VIP model views tension between design and manufacturing as a socio-technical problem and fosters an environment to address both aspects of product development. VIP functions as a user-friendly virtual infrastructure where faculty and students undertake increasingly complex product concepts within a virtual product design and manufacturing framework. The ultimate goal is empowerment of students with skill sets to effectively compete in the global marketplace.
. The VIP functions as a user-friendly virtual infrastructure where faculty and students share product concepts, resources, and expertise across the internet in order to resolve complex design and manufacturing problems. The ultimate goal is the empowerment of students with skill sets to effectively compete in the global marketplace. Major results from the VIP project evolved from the three major goals: (1) building a collaborative infrastructure both virtually and face-to-face; (2) faculty and curriculum development; and (3) recruiting and retaining underrepresented students. Intellectual Merits: CMCC’s VIP model replicates global product development. As designs evolve they are evaluated in real time by precision machining faculty and students to eliminate design ambiguity and ensure design intent by verifying manufacturability. These designs simultaneously undergo engineering analysis by university partners to ensure robust design, product performance, process verification and optimization. The CMCC VIP model views tension between design and manufacturing as a socio-technical problem and fosters an environment to address both. The result is a user-friendly virtual infrastructure where faculty and students undertake complex product concepts within a virtual product design and manufacturing framework. Formal teambuilding training has assisted in providing open communication across campuses. Logistical support has required coordination of lecture and lab schedules, common meeting times, and the implementation of project selection and project management tools across campuses. The VIP model replicates digital design and manufacturing; within this context, the technical and cultural divide that exists between design and manufacturing as it relates to precision machining is addressed through teamwork and communication between VIP campuses. Educators, industry experts, and personnel from professional organizations bring technical expertise and facilities to support a pedagogical and communication network. Faculty members around New England and across the country who have expertise in key areas such as design, finite element analysis, process modeling and optimization, and rapid prototyping, balance CMCC’s precision machining expertise. Students and faculty assisted inventors, businesses and students to design, build and move forward thirteen projects. Projects included firefighter safety equipment, fixtures for industry, specialty ergonomic designs, redesigned class projects and specialty parts. Broader Impact: Recent VIP graduates are forming the workforce that is essential for local manufacturers by helping them compete locally and globally. Six new student business ventures have grown out of the VIP effort, with a total employment of eight. The range of projects undertaken by the VIP has allowed the faculty to engage the interests of many nontraditional students at each of their respective campuses. Formal diversity training of faculty members has shown impressive results with increased enrollment and retention of underrepresented students. The increase of these populations has created a critical mass on some campuses, helping to reduce the feeling of isolation and providing the basis for a supportive community. The increased enrollments and the increase in underrepresented students help assure long term program sustainability. Exit interviews support the establishment of a supportive environment for the persistence of females in a male-dominated discipline. Enrollment and student job placement across the VIP remain very stable, with an increasing number of employers from all over New England recruiting graduates from the CMCC Precision Machining Technology program. Curricular changes developed through the VIP project have positioned the college to receive a grant from the Great Bay foundation to increase enrollment for an additional cohort of students beginning fall, 2013.
