SWEETWATER When it was time for three Texas State Technical College Electromechanical Technology students to make a final design decision for a 3D printing project, they hoped it would not hold water.
First-semester students Rachelle Arthur, Gerardo Carrillo and Shawn Couet chose to make a small-scale boat, complete with mechanical features to make it operational. Its maiden voyage will be later this semester in a fountain located on campus.
“This project shows that we are pushing our students in the right direction and that they have the drive to get big projects done,” Toby Styron, an Electromechanical Technology instructor, said in a news release.
Arthur, of Robert Lee, works mainly on the coding for the electronic components; Couet, of Kerrville, works on the mechanical aspects; and Carrillo, of Los Angeles, California, handles technical aspects and troubleshooting.
“We each have unique skills that help with the different tasks,” Couet said in the release. “We have each put in an equal amount of work.”
That work includes fixing broken pieces. The helipad cracked during the painting phase, and Carrillo worked on it until the crack was unnoticeable.
The students’ first thought was to develop a functional car. But after Carrillo showed his classmates a video of a 3D-printed boat, plans drifted into a nautical theme.
“I thought that was one of the coolest things I have ever seen,” Arthur said of the boat. “That is why we decided to change.”
The next question was about size.
“I asked them how big they wanted to make it,” Styron said. “They told me that they wanted to go big.”
Carrillo said the first design included one mechanical rudder, but the group continued to think big and added a second rudder unit.
Carrillo is making sure that design details are correct — even if it means working on the boat outside of class.
“Sometimes we are in the lab working on it every day of the week,” he said. “Except Sunday.”
“We would be here every day if we could,” Couet added. “The first couple of weeks we were hoping to make sure it floated. Now we cannot wait to see what happens.”
Carrillo and his classmates issued a challenge for future first-semester Electromechanical Technology students.
“We want to see who can top our project when the spring semester begins,” he said. “We will be watching to see what Toby’s students bring to the computer to develop.”
According to onetonline.org, the need for electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians in Texas was forecast to increase 14% between 2020 and 2030. The website stated that the median salary for these technicians in the state is $64,220.
TSTC offers an Associate of Applied Science degree and certificates of completion in Electromechanical Technology exclusively at the Sweetwater campus.
Registration for TSTC’s spring semester begins Oct. 28. To learn more, visit tstc.edu.
