Machine Utah expands outreach efforts, including Rage in The Cage bot competition for high school students

15 March 2017 Published in Press and News

As part of its second-year activities emphasizing more grassroots networking efforts with local manufacturing companies and post-secondary colleges, Machine Utah has launched a competition that recently featured 13 teams of high school students who designed, fabricated and operated 15-pound bots for a gladiator-style cage battle.

The teams competed March 14 at Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College in the Rocky Mountain Battlebot League’s (RMBL) Rage in The Cage 2017, a project-based initiative emphasizing STEM learning concepts coordinated by the Northern Utah National Tooling & Machining Association (NUNTMA) and the National Tooling & Machining Foundation (NTMF). The top placed teams in the inaugural competition included the following: Overall Champion Division, 1st place, Dixie Applied Technology College, Samurai; Battle Division, 1st place, Dixie Applied Technology College, Samurai, and Sumo Division, Fremont High School, Foxtrot.

“Events such as Rage in the Cage along with various STEM fests and expos can help to change the public perception about the skills and work environments for machinists in today’s high-tech manufacturing environment,” Maddie Dahl, NUNTMA chapter executive, explains. “Nationally, there is a critical skills gap in manufacturing. It is essential for young people entering the manufacturing workforce to get a technical education. Local school districts will pay the tuition of their high school students, so they can walk into a career with no debt.”

Launched in 2016 as an accessible option to close the growing skills gaps among younger workers, Machine Utah is a program for apprentices who can earn pay and benefits while simultaneously completing their education and on-the-job training. The program recently received a $50,000 grant from the Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership (UCAP) program. Eligible participants, who have completed high school and are at least 18 years old, will receive 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and 576 hours in technical education over a four-year period.

Dahl says every NUNTMA activity for Machine Utah is focused on “getting kids in the shop,” and six local manufacturers assisted the student teams in applying classroom skills to building their bots. For the 2018 competition, student teams will start working next month on their projects with manufacturing partners as well as representatives from some of the state’s applied technology colleges so they can experience the actual phases of a complete project lifecycle.

While its current efforts are concentrated primarily in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area stretching north to Cache Valley and to the northern edges of the Utah Valley region, NUNTMA is looking to expand its participating manufacturing members (nine have been recently added, bringing the total to 26). Dahl believes that local manufacturers are willing to take on new apprentices and many are open to reimbursing tuition costs for students.

Thirteen teams recently competed in the first Rage in The Cage, a bot building competition of the Rocky Mountain Battlebot League. The high school students, working with local manufacturers and representatives from various applied technology schools, designed, fabricated and operated 15-pound bots for a gladiator-style cage battle.

The winning teams were:

Overall Champion Division

  • 1st place: Dixie Applied Technology College, Samurai
  • 2nd place: Team Davis Applied Technology College
  • 3rd place: Ogden High School, Demon Tiger

Battle Division

  • 1st place: Dixie Applied Technology College, Samurai
  • 2nd place: Ogden High School, Demon Tiger
  • 3rd place: Team Davis Applied Technology College

Sumo Division

  • 1st place: Fremont High School, Foxtrot
  • 2nd place: Freemont High School, Echo
  • 3rd place: St. Joseph High School, Jayhawk

The teams which participated included:

  • Blades of Glory - Bonneville/Roy
  • Bruce - Weber
  • Demon Tiger - Ogden
  • Jayhawks - St. Joe's
  • Murphy's Law - Bonneville
  • Nebuchadnezzar (Sumo) - Weber
  • Robot Echo - Fremont
  • Robot Foxtrot - Fremont
  • Samurai - Dixie ATC
  • Stingray - Bonneville
  • Team DATC - Davis ATC
  • The Ripper - Bonneville
  • Viking - Dixie ATC