HUNTSVILLE — Calhoun Community College students took on a real-world assignment designed by Huntsville-based Intuitive Research and Technology.
Through the school’s Systems Engineering Technology (SET) program, 12 students used model-based systems engineering skills to model a feature for the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter. They presented their process and models to Intuitive last week.
Almost two years ago, Calhoun Community College’s Huntsville campus became the pathfinder for the SET program developed by the Institute for Digital Enterprise Advancement.
IDEA, with funding from the Department of Defense, created SET to support workforce imperatives put forth by the DoD while offering a workforce pathway for community college students to earn high-wage, skills-based jobs.
The program is pioneering the preparation of community college students as systems engineering technicians and modelers.
“Intuitive recognizes the value of investing in the future workforce and collaborating with those who are building highly sought after skillsets,” said Jason Rogers, Intuitive deputy program manager.
He said demonstrating real-world customer and contractor interactions provides students tremendous insight on how to fulfill contractual obligations and maintain customer relationships.
“The whole project is a great learning opportunity for me, it pushes me to engage more with the team, ask questions, collect data, and present our product in front of our customers,” said student Tina Sorrells. “It enabled me to practice how to explain the model our team created.”
According to Chris Crumbly, executive director of IDEA, the organization has created a replicable, skills-based, work-learn program that supports imperatives outlined by the DoD and other federal agencies.
“Auburn University is one of our partners and together we targeted a high-tech niche and workforce gap,” said Crumbly. “Just as computer-aided design or CAD advanced manufacturing decades ago, model-based systems engineering affords the promise and delivery of a technical edge to support national security and a robust manufacturing ecosystem.”
Rogers said that is why Intuitive has chosen to work directly with IDEA through Calhoun Community College to train students on the elements of model-based systems engineering.
“Teaching that ‘Systems Should Be INTUITIVE’ as we move from a document-based to a model-based deployment at the community-college level,” he said. “”It results in an associate degree or a SET short certificate.”
Calhoun Community College will have its first graduating cohort this month.
The SET program will launch at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville this fall.
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