Wildcat Manufacturing provides real-world business experience for Oak Ridge High students
When the people attending the recent IACMI - The Composites Institute summer meeting left Knoxville, they took home a small example of what Wildcat Manufacturing can do.
What is Wildcat Manufacturing? A student-run enterprise started by Mark Buckner. He's the iSchool robotics innovation design and manufacturing teacher at Oak Ridge High School's Center for Career and Technology Education. The keychains the conference attendees took home - which were made in the shape of Knoxville's iconic Sunsphere - were designed and manufactured by students, conferring with their customer, the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI).
As IACMI reported in a story on its website, the students decided to put the IACMI logo inside the Sunsphere ball, which they etched in colorful acrylic. They made the keychains' carbon fiber bases using a recycled composite filament with 3D printing, enabling the keychains to stand up, as well as hold keys.
Other things the students have made Buckner listed include parts for Clinton company Remotec, as well as awards for UCOR, the main cleanup contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, and for ORHS' Masquers drama club. Signs at the Boys and Girls Club of Oak Ridge and the local AMVETS are in the works.
Students get real-world business experience in obtaining work projects, as well as designing and making the products on the state-of-the-art manufacturing and engineering equipment at school. Buckner said they can also share in the profits, as well as earn college credit at Roane State Community College.
Funding for much of the iSchool equipment came from a $1.24 million Tennessee Department of Education Innovative High School (iSchool) grant in 2021, as reported in The Oak Ridger.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Wildcat Manufacturing: Real-world experience for Oak Ridge students
