When it comes to Computer Aided Design (CAD) and engineering drawing, Oxford High School students Jon Rogers, Jon Fifield and Mike Nacy know their stuff.
Rogers placed 1st while Fifield and Nacy took 3rd place in their respective categories at the CAD/Drafting contest at the Oakland Community College’s Auburn Hills campus on March 23.
A total of 17 students from David Okasinski’s Engineering Drawing class were selected to attend the competition based on their high quality work in class.
Other OHS students who attended the competition were Ryan Rockford, Alex Bergel, Brandon Robertson, Kevin Compau, Dan Arft, Kylee Snider, Jake Smuda, Steve Shalayko, Ross Ferguson, Tiara Tatarczuk, Andrew Stein, David Hurrish, James Elsarelli and Eric Anderson.
At the event students participated in Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced level competitions for manual engineering drawing, CAD, and prototype design.
Rogers, who is a senior, took 1st place for the intermediate level in CAD.
In 70 minutes, he had to draw something he’d never seen before using a computer program.
‘You can’t really prepare for it,? he said. ‘You gotta just know what you’re doing.?
Fifield, a junior, and Nacy, a sophomore, took 3rd place in the prototype, or ‘Art to Part,? category.
OCC sent the team a drawing of a jig for a drill press to which they had to create a drawing of it using the computer with dimensions of each individual piece.
The computer designs were then sent back to OCC where they were cut into pieces made of resin and glue.
At the competition, Fifield and Nacy had to put their pieces together on the spot to create the jig.
Students are judged by CAD designers and engineers from the industry who look for accuracy, neatness and adherence to certain standards.
Okasinski said this is the seventh year his students have participated in the competition, and that it’s a way to ‘gauge the quality of our program relative to the other CAD programs in Oakland.?
‘As the judges are engineers and designers from industry, the competition also serves to keep the skills aligned with the current practices in industry,? he said.
The competition is sponsored by the Tech Prep Consortium, a liaison group that connects career related high school CAD courses in Oakland County with Oakland Community College.