On July 14, Ellicott hosted a field trip for Baltimore City middle school students in conjunction with Morgan State University’s summer program, which introduces young students to computer aided design (CAD).
Associate Professor J. Kemi Ladeji-Osias, Ph.D., Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and her colleague LaDawn Partlow, visited Ellicott along with student mentors as part of the Verizon Innovative Learning Program for Minority Males.
Paul Quinn, VP Sales, introduced the students to dredges, explaining what they do and how they operate. The presentation and brief video enabled the students to later identify parts of the dredge, such as the cutter, as they toured the manufacturing yard.
After a group photo (in front of an Ellicott 670 dredge prepped for shipment), the students broke into small groups and rotated through six stations: Manufacturing Yard, Main Shop, Office Tour – Historical, Dredge Simulator, Solidworks 3D-Drafting Techniques, and FEMAP/Structural Analysis.
The tour and demos were instrumental in engaging the students to see the correlation between 3D modeling and fabrication. Dr. Ladeji-Osias noted the field trip gave the students an opportunity to learn more about potential careers in engineering and drafting.