CMU shows high school students the future of manufacturing in the present
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Carnegie Mellon University allowed dozens of high schoolers to learn about manufacturing Wednesday.
The goal was to make the case that manufacturing jobs may be cooler than they may think.
Where these vestiges of old manufacturing once stood at Mill 19 in Hazelwood, bring a new age.
"It's really high-tech now," Sandra DeVincent Wolf, Executive Director for Carnegie Mellon University's Manufacturing Futures Institute, said.
Really high-tech – from self-driving cars to more robots than you've ever seen.
"My energy is through the roof right now – like 0-100… I'm at 102," Nathan, an 11th grader who attended today's event, said.
Nathan and his buddy, Matthew, were psyched to see some of these new tools on Wednesday.
"When I was younger, I always thought this stuff was cool," Matthew, a 10th grader, said. "I was a big nerd, still am."
From Lego exhibits, robot arms, and even a robotic ping pong dispenser -- it is all to teach kids about the future of manufacturing.
"They don't realize that most of them are already manufacturing – they're already making stuff," DeVincent Wolf said. "They're already doing crafts. They're already building projects."
DeVincent Wolf says there's a role for everyone in this new age – and many of the high schoolers coming to the Manufacturing Day celebration realize that.
"We used to not get a lot of opportunities to do things – but now that everything is open for us, we have more of a chance to get into that," Markayla, a 9th grader, said. "As long as we get good grades in school and work hard…"
And that motivation – the amazement? It satisfies those trying to mold those minds, too.
"I think the kids really liked toying around with that stuff – so that was pretty neat today," Mike Osiecki, a teacher, said.
The official celebration of Manufacturing Day nationwide will happen this Friday, October 4.
