Volunteer students from the Columbia High School Student Help Desk participated in a field trip to the Haas Advanced Manufacturing Center at HVCC on April 11.

The group of students, together with staff from the district, visited with Ron O’Dell, an instructor, who led a guided tour to the manufacturing, design and testing labs. Students were able to see milling equipment, lathes, grinders, bandsaws, drill presses and computer aided digital design equipment. There was also an opportunity to interact with the latest industrial robots (to see how they are programmed), see a large scale 3-D scanner and large format 3-D printers.

The group was also able to visit with an instructor in the architectural design area and the HVCC student help desk in Higbee Hall. A quick tour of the Bulmer Telecommunications Center, which houses the Cisco Networking program followed.

“This enjoyable experience and others like it will go a long way to broaden the student’s vision of possible outcomes and career paths in technology,” said Peter Goodwin, Director of Technology for the East Greenbush CSD. “This group of students has already demonstrated a high level of dedication and interest in the repair of Chromebooks and providing support to their fellow students at the high school.”

Special thanks to Brian Vlieg who facilitated the visit and to the EGCSD Transportation Department and to the staff at Columbia High School for making this experience possible!