AMERICA'S CUTTING EDGE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Developer
- Mechanical Engineering Professor at University of Tennessee, Knoxville ( UT ) and Developer of ACE Curriculum
Early in the pandemic, Dr. Schmitz was reimagining how to teach some of his engineering classes and developed what is now the online and in-person ACE curriculum for metal CNC machining. He continues to lead in-person training at UT for both participants and trainers planning to replicate ACE across the country.
Elliott has been a teacher for 18 years at a facility that teaches high school electives during the day and serves as a TCAT facility at night. He is looking forward to folding ACE into his curriculum that should appeal to a wide range of ages. He likes showing students how to apply math in real-world jobs.
Job Titles:
- Machining and Machine Tool Research R & D at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and ACE Train - the - Trainer Instructor
Emma has been involved with ACE from its development stages and now focuses on train-the-trainer instruction, where she shows educators how to teach the ACE curriculum. She's excited to see the program expand to so many states in such a short time.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of North Texas
Since the fall of 2022, Hector has been instrumental in spreading the ACE curriculum in North Texas. By both embedding it into his engineering classes at UNT and leading weekend bootcamps for machinists who want to gain new skills, Hector is connected with local industry and focused on meeting their workforce needs.
Job Titles:
- Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville, Instructor
John was in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and has been drawn to machining since he was young. He's now teaching to give back to an industry that he says has given him so much. As a self-proclaimed patriot, John sees ACE as a tool to bring American manufacturing back to the top.
Job Titles:
- Instructor for Train - the - Trainers and Guidance for All ACE Training Centers
- Lead ACE Instructor
Jose has taught the ACE curriculum to a wide range of participants, including students in high school, two-year programs, and universities as well as current machinists. He aims to give a broad introduction to machining and machine tool dynamics so that participants can find where they best fit in U.S. manufacturing.
Job Titles:
- Lab Manager at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University ( N.C. a & T ) and ACE Instructor
Phill was one of the first to be certified to teach the ACE curriculum beyond the initial testbed in Tennessee. He looks forward to seeing the impact it will have in his North Carolina community, from high school students to industry professionals.
Job Titles:
- Machinist Instructor at the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center and ACE Instructor
Rick has been a machinist for 40 years, and 35 of those have been on CNCs. He likes how the CAM programming has become more intuitive and hopes programs like ACE can bridge the gap between designers and machinists. He helped lead the first ACE bootcamps outside the state of Tennessee.
Formerly a student of ACE curriculum's developer Dr. Tony Schmitz, Sean is thrilled to expand ACE into Florida. He feels ACE sets a new standard for how we educate mechanical engineering students and machinists, and he likes how it highlights multiple career paths.
Job Titles:
- Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, Instructor
Thomas is excited to extend the Robert C. Byrd Institute's (RCBI) ACE training into Kentucky. He will be working directly with local businesses, many of which are tool and die manufacturers, to ensure Elizabethtown Community College is teaching the specific skills industry needs.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Mechatronics at Roane State Community College and ACE Instructor
Tom completed the ACE train-the-trainer course in July 2022 but has been in machining (both as a machinist and as a teacher) for many years. He's looking forward to bringing the ACE curriculum to Roane State Community College students.
Job Titles:
- Employee at Atlantic Track
As an employee at Atlantic Track, Vidal sees the main benefit of ACE to be: "Jobs! it'll open up so much." He will be the lead instructor at both his company, which provides manufacturing services for transit systems including railroads, and at Southwest Community College in Memphis, Tenn.
Walt is a welding instructor who's ramping up the CNC program IRSC. An hour south of Cape Canaveral, their area of Florida has a lot of contractors for the aeronautics industry. Walt hopes ACE will draw more people to manufacturing because people who like machining are makers at heart.