Students offer real-world solutions for companies
Local high schools team up for tasks
When local steel-fabricating company EAFab Corp. was looking to design an app to help its business, it didn’t turn to the typical consulting firms.
Instead, the manufacturer turned to a group of students from Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair high schools, who partnered to work on projects for the Oakdale company owned by Pedro and Claudia Quiroga.
“Our students are using real-world problem-solving practices” to help find solutions, said Fred Pesorski, a technology education teacher at Upper St. Clair High. For the past three years, the school’s STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics — innovation and consulting course have teamed up with other local schools to help provide solutions to technical or engineering problems that companiesmayface.
The Upper St. Clair students have previously worked with South Fayette High School students, and next year, the school plans to partner with Peters Township High School.
Issues tackled by the Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair students for EAFab include developing an app to visualize data; designing a test to give to job applicants; researching and developing a plan to optimize work flow for the manufacturing process; and developing a procedure to help expedite the development of products.
Last week, about 28 students from the two schools who had been working on the EAFab project for about two months gathered at California University of Pennsylvania’s Southpointe Center to present their solutions.
Bethel Park students JessicaViehman,TomKennedy, Justin Sackett and Eric Wenger — members of teacher Brad Kszastowski’s computer integrated manufacturing course — worked on a work-flow plan for EAFab that concentrated on shortening the distance workers had to travel throughout the plant while completing the fabrication process.
“Distance does matter,” Jessica said.
She noted that the team sent surveys to EAFab employees and they indicated that they get fatigued easily.
The team came up with one plan that shortened the distance workers had to walk from 530 feet to 310 feet and another that shortened it to 294 feet. The students made a 3-D model to show how the facility could be configured to shorten the distance.
Mr. Quiroga said he was impressed with the solutions but noted that some of the changes could hinder production.
“I felt like we learned a lot about problem solving,” Tom said after his team’s presentation.
“Real-world problem solving is better than solving problems” in a classroom, Jessica aid.
Justin appreciated learning that there can be more than one solution to a problem. “The biggest thing is never stop trying,” Justin said.