The National Science Foundation has awarded CMCC a major grant of almost $900,000 to fund the Regional Advanced Machining Partnership, or RAMP. The funding will enable the college to develop a Certificate in Advanced Machining to address the pressing needs for a highly skilled, advanced machining workforce.

“The goal of this this Advanced Technological Education project is to develop the curriculum to address industry needs in high-end skills that are directly applicable to the precision manufacturing environment,” said Diane Dostie, dean of corporate and community services at CMCC who is leading the grant.

“Having future employees come to us with the advanced knowledge and skills to operate machines such as five-axis computer numeric control machines, electronic discharge machines, water jets and coordinate measuring machines will help us maintain a competitive edge,” said Chuck Bates, staff development manager at General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems in Saco. “We fully support the Advanced Machining Certificate Program initiative and are proud to be in a partnership with CMCC.”

Dostie explained that the RAMP initiative serves as a logical evolution to the ATE funded Virtual Ideation Platform project, for which the College received $1.3 million in NSF funding in 2008.

“The goal of that project was to create an environment in which both design and precision machining students work in concurrent or ‘virtual’ product design and development,” noted Dostie

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the fields of science and engineering. In addition to funding research in the traditional academic areas, the NSF also supports “high-risk, high pay-off” ideas, innovative collaborations, and research that are fully integrated with education in order to train scientists and engineers of the future.

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