- 14 March 2008 -
GM to Sponsor SME’s
Brightest Young Minds Mentor Initiative

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) announced that General Motors will sponsor its fifth annual Bright Minds Mentor Program. As a part of the program, 50 Orlando School Districts' high school students will participate in the customized program while attending the SME RAPID 2008 Conference & Exposition at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort on May 21, 2008. Since 2003, the SME program's ongoing mission has been to give promising technology-oriented high school students opportunities to learn about additive manufacturing and rapid development technologies from industry-expert mentors.

The Bright Minds Mentor Program originated from SME's Rapid Technologies & Additive Manufacturing Community in 2003 and is led by a distinguished panel of dedicated SME members and volunteers. One of these leaders is General Motors senior researcher, Patrick Spicer. "We see this as a great opportunity to get students interested in technical fields that are crucial to the automotive industry, such as engineering and manufacturing," he said. "That's one of the reasons why we're glad to be a part of this program. General Motors is always looking for talented people with strong backgrounds and expertise in technical areas."

Bright Minds alumnus Thomas Ballard can attest to the lasting impression the program had on him. Just two years ago, Ballard was admitted to the program as a high school senior and paired with Carl K. Dekker, SME Member, Bright Minds Mentor Program Leader, and president of MET-L-FLO. With Dekker's help, Ballard became well versed in ever-changing rapid prototyping technology in just one afternoon.

"I spent hours with Mr. Dekker and the other student assigned to him walking around the show floor and absorbing everything there," Ballard said. "Before coming to the conference I had no knowledge whatsoever of rapid prototyping. Afterwards, I felt that I was almost an expert on the subject."

The program made it possible for Ballard to not only see rapid prototyping in action at Walter Reed Army Hospital, but also parlay an internship with Dekker's full-service prototyping company, MET-L-FLO, Inc. Before beginning his internship with MET-L-FLO in Illinois, Ballard visited Washington, D.C.'s Walter Reed Hospital and learned how medical applications of 3D prototyping are helping our soldiers in combat. Using rapid prototyping processes, including an MRI scan, then CAD data, and finally a 3D printer, doctors were able to create a life-size model of a wounded veteran's leg.

Ballard secured admission to the ongoing program by writing an essay about his career interests and what he wanted to achieve—a tradition that continues for this year's Bright Minds Mentor Program. This year's application process is already underway, and interested students also have submitted completed surveys. Based on their essays and responses, the soon-to-be selected 50 students will be matched as closely as possible to their industry-expert mentors and be given a "padfolio" filled with industry-related materials and scholarship information on the day of the arrival.

This year's Bright Minds Mentor Program will kick off with an overview by industry consultant and analyst Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates, Inc. Over the course of the day, these students will attend conference sessions, tour exhibits featuring computer-aided drawing demonstrations, and learn rapid technology's influence on dental and medical applications as well as aerospace industry advancements. Several of the top prototyping equipment manufacturers also will loan equipment and provide materials to the schools for the next school year. This practice encourages the students to use the equipment, create models, and receive first-hand experience with the equipment that they learned about at RAPID 2008. (RAPID is North America's largest annual rapid manufacturing conference and exposition. The event brings buyers, sellers, and end-users of design, prototyping, tooling, and direct manufacturing technologies together in an environment that facilitates networking and business interaction.)

Although the non-profit SME developed and manages the Bright Minds Program, it acknowledges that its continuation would not be possible without support from global manufacturers like General Motors. "We are grateful to GM for its generosity and interest in supporting this year's Bright Minds Mentor Program and SME's foremost mission: developing the next generation of manufacturing innovators," said Mark Tomlinson, executive director and general manager.

For more information on Bright Minds, please visit www.sme.org/brightminds. For details on SME or the RAPID show, please visit www.sme.org/rapid.