Local Students Go To NGTC Camp

ASI ThanksThe Nuts, Bolts, and Thingamajigs Camp was back this year by popular demand and 18 campers from the Toccoa Boys and Girls Club spent an action packed week in June at North Georgia Technical College designing, building and producing from scratch an invention they could show with pride.

Aimed at introducing young persons in grades six through nine to new technologies and careers, these toured local manufacturing facilities including TI Automotive, King’s Hawaiian, and Global Partitions to learn what types of careers exist, what skills and training are required, and how those businesses developed.

Each morning of camp began with a safety meeting before students hit the lab. During the week, they learned how to use computers and machining equipment to build and program a robotic spider. The process was designed to let them learn and experiment with automated movement of machines and the programing language that tells the robot where and what to do.

This camp is part of a national manufacturing summer camp program designed and sponsored by Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs, through the Foundation of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association.

North Georgia Tech Vice President for Economic Development Dr. Mark Ivester said the school had great success last year with the first camp on the Clarkesville Campus and was determined to open it up to campers on the other campuses because this is a great opportunity for young people to experience a different kind of career option.

Ivester said that for the Boys and Girls Club, it wouldn’t have happened without ASI, which stepped forward and came through by not only providing speakers and touring the campers, but paying for the kids to come to camp.