Technology Showcase 'resounding success'

Oct. 25—If you walked through the Center for Rural Development Wednesday, you would think you were seeing a miniature World's Fair. Technology from every sector was on full display, and though the event was primarily marketed to Pulaski school kids, people from the entire region were present, and people of all ages saw a sparking of curiosity.

The Technology Showcase came with the tagline "Imagine the Possibilities." Organizers hoped the showcase would awaken ingenuity in the community which would affect progress, growth, and diversification in the local economy as well as grow "technological literacy."

One display for the Pulaski County Area Technology Center showed "additive manufacturing" (3D printing) and other gizmos that Industrial Maintenance Technology Teacher Aaron Irvine helped his students use.

"(The class covers) everything from basic electricity, motor controls to PLC, to robotics and animation, and now we've added 3D printing," said Irvine. Though he added, "I know very little. I've only really scratched the surface. I can learn anything in time, but I don't know a lot. It's growing with me, and I'm growing with it."

Irvine said he had his students do "literally everything you can think of." He did, however, stress that he did not teach 3D printing, per se, but instead preferred the more accurate term "additive manufacturing."

"We take a raw product... and it lays down layer after layer, so it adds one layer to the next. Additive manufacturing," said Irvine. "We also do some subtractive manufacturing. Laser etching with a blowtorch, but again we're new with that as well."

Irvine said the products the students make range from basic things like hinges and padlocks to electronic devices.

Student Shawn Bolze said that they had even made an "Aztec Death Whistle."

"It's something the Aztecs made with bone," he said. "They had it carved inside so that when you blow on it, it sounds like a woman dying. We made one of those."

Another student named Ethan Stephens said they'd 3D printed Spotify sound codes which can be scanned with a cell phone and immediately pull up a song.

Captain Michael Phelps of the Somerset Fire Department along with other firefighters had a display out front of the Center. A real crowd pleaser, the display had a steel "car" hooked up to a propane tank and set on fire to demonstrate how quickly the firefighters could put it out.

"It's realistic heat, and the fuel reacts realistically to what would an actual car would be," said Captain Phelps.

Phelps said that the display also showed off what kind of tech was available to training firefighters. Phelps had an onboard computer that controlled the blaze.

Phelps showed how firefighters go about approaching the prop.

"We never approach it from the front," he said. "There's mechanics in the car that could allow the vehicle to roll forward or start. We always approach from a 45 degree angle. We knock the fire down. Then we go into the interior of the car and knock the fire out... There's always a worry (the gas tank will explode) that's the reason we always spray water at the ground first and push any burning fuel back away from the car."

The Solar Jumpers had brought their "Duchess" electric solar-powered car and wore their matching Hawaiian shirts that the team had opted to wear to the post-race banquet when they raced Duchess in 2022 in Texas. Making the car totally on extracurricular time, the Somerset Independent High School students altogether spent 2,000 hours building the vehicle.

The Duchess will get two sisters next year. These cars will have some improved technology and will be respectively a one-seater and a four-seater rather than a two-seater like the Duchess.

The Duchess is a bit slow (topping out at about 44 miles per hour), but the students think they can achieve a lot faster with the one-seater.

"We're going to build it super light, super small, and as efficiently as we can," said Student Matt Satterly. "We're also going to build a four-seater cruiser... It will be heavier. That one's not going to go super fast... That is a brand new division, a few years old... people are still trying to figure out how to go about it, and we hope to set the bar for that."

Greg Wilson of Wilson Farms has been planting seeds and fertilizing his crops with agricultural spray drones for about three years. The DJI T20's were much, much larger than most drones people have flown for recreational use, and weigh more than 100 lbs.

Wilson estimated one of the drones could lift about 50 lbs.

"Everybody was anxious to see it," said Wilson about how other farmers reacted to his investment in the drones. "It takes the place of a helicopter."

The drone has the benefit of being a lot safer than a helicopter and cheaper to keep up.

Administrative Assistant for Pulaski County Government Cloyd Bumgardner, a key organizer for the event, called the event a "resounding success" and estimated about 700 people in attendance at the event. This is compared to 300 attendees in last year's Technology Showcase.

Bumgardner was pleased to have global companies UPS and Rajant come to the event, and Bumgardner said the company representatives were pleased with what they saw as well.

"I saw a lot of (people) fully engaged in what they were doing," said Bumgardner. "It was a bunch of future engineers and technicians and farmers and welders... and I'm telling you it was a lot there."

Bumgardner was extremely appreciative to city and county governments, including Burnside, as well as sponsorship from the Center for Rural Development.

County Executive Assistant John Alexander nabbed a picture that Bumgardner felt was emblematic of the showcase.

"He took a photograph of an older gentleman... on a cane, and he's wearing VR goggles, and a teenager showing him how to use it," said Bumgardner.