A team of students from the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, took first place in the inaugural SEC Machining Competition, held November 18 at UT’s Manufacturing and Design Enterprise in Hardin Valley, Tennessee (Figure 1).
The event challenged teams of undergraduate and graduate students studying advanced manufacturing and advanced materials to use computer numerical control (CNC) machines to create a quadrant of the SEC logo.
At the heart of the competition was a goal to better prepare students for competitive careers by merging engineering theory and design work from the classroom with production experience using industry-relevant machine tools.
Student-led teams from UT, Texas A&M University, Auburn University and Mississippi State University competed two at a time on Haas VF-4SS three-axis CNC machines.
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Teams were scored based on time, cost and accuracy (Figure 2). Audience members included invited middle- and high-school students from around eastern Tennessee, as well as Greene Technology Center.
Lead competition judge Scott Smith, acting section head for precision manufacturing and machining at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, explained the collegiate spirit of the competition.
“At first we planned to have each team machine a common part, a true point-to-point comparison,” said Smith. “But the more we thought about the spirit of competition, we realized that the SEC logo, broken into quadrants, had equitable complexity. It seemed like a better idea to have each team machine one quadrant of the logo and have all four teams form the SEC logo together. In the end, we are all working together.”