Tech Directions - January 2008 - (Page 16)

Every year, Freeman chooses a theme for his Advanced Manufacturing Technology class in the hope of interesting a broader cross-section of students. He noted the high school has an excellent music department, with many students involved. Next year, the course’s theme will be musical instruments and students will design and manufacture prototypes of electric guitar bodies. Techno routers used in the course are in front of a window that many students pass each day. Freeman noted that the visibility of uniquely styled guitar bodies being automatically manufactured should create a lot of interest in the program. Students at work on the body his capstone course, a full-year program of Engineering and Product Design. During that year, students create, manufacture, and ultimately race an electric vehicle about the size of a go-cart in the Connecticut Electrathon Challenge. This culminating event is held at the pristine Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, one of the Off to the Races The two introductory courses lead into what Freeman considers premiere road-racing facilities in North America. Contestants come from Connecticut and many other nearby states. The Connecticut Electrathon Challenge is not a competition to see who can go fastest but, rather, who can go farthest on the power produced by two 12 V batteries that can weigh no more than 67 pounds. One of the goals of the competition is to raise participant awareness of the challenges involved in building the energy-efficient cars of the future. In June 2006, Freeman’s class took first place in the composite vehicle class with a run of 113 quarter-mile laps in about an hour’s time. What does it take to be a winner? Freeman starts about a year ahead of the next competition getting his best CAD/CAM students familiar 16 techdirections ◆ JANUARY 2008 http://www.sunequipco.com http://www.techedcnc.com http://www.techedcnc.com http://www.sunequipco.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Directions - January 2008

Tech Directions - January 2008 Technically Speaking Contents Direct from Washington The News Report Technology's Past Technology Today Mastering Computers Transportation/CAD/CAM Communication Manufacturing Pre-engineering Special Feature: Annual Media Review Free for the Asking More than Fun

Tech Directions - January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.