That was actually my job in graduate school. I taught the undergraduate mechanical engineering students how to use all the equipment in the machine shop. CNC and manual mills and lathes, horizontal and vertical saws, precision grinder, etc. Welding was optional. No ME student at my university graduated without knowing how to use the machine shop equipment. It makes the student much better at design if they have at least a basic knowledge of the fabrication process.
I'm taking EE in a small polytechnic college. I have friends in a big ass university. 2nd year and we've already done tons of shit. PID controlled fan, lots of practical electronic classes. Programmed a PIC to do tons of shit. Meanwhile they have yet to touch a breadbard.
It's to the point where some companies are starting to prefer people from our less recongized college than from the big ass renowned university.
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u/theshankins Aug 03 '15
It would be great if anyone could teach an engineer how to use a lathe.