An Arduino is a single-board computer that was originally designed as an open-source prototyping platform, but has evolved into being a powerful unit capable of controlling a number of different devices, robotics systems, art creations, and everything in between. Just do a Google search for Arduino projects, and you'll see the overwhelming capabilities of this little PCB. "What does that have to do with machining?" You might ask.

Letting students take control of the CNC machine for the first time each semester can be terrifying enough if they were paying attention to your wise words of caution, but we all know some of them weren’t taking studious notes. An easy way to save your machine and nerves is to give your students forgiving workpieces, like machinist wax, wood, or plastic, but that’s not always the best solution.

There were Tormach employees all over the country last week, from Autodesk University in Las Vegas to talking makerspaces at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some spent last week in the glitz and glam of Las Vegas… but really, we only saw the inside of the Sands Convention Center where Tormach Brand Ambassador, John Saunders, spent the week teaching CAM and machining.

Experiential education started to emerge in the 1980s, but it seems like technical education teachers knew this long before all the research was published. Keeping content fresh and finding projects students are interested in is a hurdle that seems to get consistently harder to overcome. Tormach just released its project library to help you do just that.

More than 100 middle school students eagerly watched machines run, listened to technical explanations of how things worked, applied their math skills to engineering demonstrations, and got to meet with engineers, machinists, and other leaders.  What made this group is unique is their gender – they were all female.

The world of manufacturing and engineering is constantly changing and progressing, and so does the education to get quality workers in those industries. The Madison College Robotics and Automation program concentrates on preparing students for industry by giving them hands-on experience with a variety of tools and machines, including a Tormach PCNC 440.