2019cnc4-5

22 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST April/May 2019 UC Davis is regarded as one of the top public universities in the nation, and their College of Engineering is a primary reason why. Students are demanding more and more technology and UC Davis is keeping up with that demand. At the heart of it all is the Engineering Student De- sign Center (ESDC) headed up by a staff of four and a student staff of 18. It is a 10,500 sq.ft. resource of learn- ing prowess and manufacturing awesomeness. Just some of the equipment in the ESDC are: FARO Arm Scan- ner, a DMG MORI DMC 1035V ecoline mill, a DMG MORI DMU 50 5-axis mill, DMG MORI ecoTurn 450 lathe, a Sodick AP350 wire EDM, CO2 laser, an Omax 55100 water jet, 10 Bridgeport mills with ACU-RITE G2 controllers, and 10 Harrison-Clausing lathes with ACU- RITE controls, welding, saws and all support equipment needed for the many disciplines at the College of Engi- neering. The ESDC is better equipped than many of the local area shops. “All the machine tools are part of the student’s mental tool box when it comes to designing ele- ments and producing them,” explains 25-year shop man- ager Mike Akahori. “We are very well equipped as a shop when it comes to machines and staff. The student that comes here to do graduate work is pleasantly surprised when they see the machine tools available to them. I am sure they didn’t have the same level of shop at their pre- vious school. Our students are a bit spoiled and think it is this good everywhere, but honestly, UC Davis offers a pretty well balanced program.” Some schools like UC Berkley are more analytically based, while the Maritime Academy is even more hands on and directed primar- ily at ships. UC Davis College of Engineering falls about in the middle and offers plenty of both. “The College of Engineering invests a lot of money to have a facility like this, and to be able to staff it properly,” continues Mike. “We are very fortunate to have a leadership team that supports us and the program. Student and parent expec- tations get higher and higher every year so we constantly are raising the bar. It is great for the students. Chevron is one of our program sponsors and they are looking for graduates who are work ready. They can’t afford to baby- sit new hires for a few years and love how prepared our graduates are.” Every year approximately 8000 students make their way into the ESDC for one project or another. Five hun- dred new students get introduced to the shop year after year, the majority of them coming from the mechani- cal engineering program. “Here at the ESDC we have courses scheduled throughout the week, both lecture and lab,” tells R & D engineer David Kehlet. “Students spend about 30 hours a quarter in the lab. They use that time learning the culture of the shop as well as the basics Article & Photos by Sean Buur ESDC FULL TIME STAFF AND SHOP TECHS Back Row - Shawn Malone & David Kehlet. Front Row - Shop tech Spencer Cheng, Sherry Batin, shop tech Deniz Akin and manager Mike Akahori COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING UC DAVIS S T U D E N T S I N C O N T R O L W I T H A C U - R I T E