More than 200 students will submit projects for the fifth installment of the ocMaker Challenge, which is billed as one of the few school-based 3-D printing competitions in the world.
The May 12 and 13 event at Chapman University, which is open to students in the sixth grade through junior college, combines science, technology, engineering and math with art and design. Students identify a unique problem, document solutions and create a prototype.
Notable projects have included a portable radiation detector, a five-pronged fork for eating spaghetti and an insulin dispenser that activates when blood sugar levels are high for Type I diabetes sufferers.
“Students in OC are learning advanced manufacturing and programming on a very large scale, larger than any other workforce in the U.S.,” said Eva Wolf, co-founder of Costa Mesa-based 3-D printer maker Airwolf 3D. “In the next few years, Orange County businesses will begin to see the first wave of highly skilled manufacturing workers, inventors, engineers, and product designers.”
Airwolf, the main sponsor of the event and involved since its inception, has trained 20 teachers to design and 3-D print in the classroom.
The event is organized and promoted by the Orange County Department of Education, Career Technical Education of Orange County, and Tustin-based Vital Link, which aims to link business and education to prepare students for meaningful careers.
3-D printing was one of the hottest segments in tech only a few years ago, but has seen slow adoption in the private sector due to costs, training and production time, though it has carved a nice niche in several industries seeking advanced manufacturing, prototyping and design.
Battery Plant
Chatter is picking up again that Chinese real estate and clean tech mogul Winston Chung is scouting potential sites in California and other states to build as many as four battery plants.
That message was delivered last month by Mike Alexander and George Gaffoglio, co-owners of Fountain Valley-based Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Inc., which built a 42-foot electric bus at the behest of Chung’s Thunder Sky Winston Energy Group.
The concept vehicle, geared for the Chinese government and commercial fleets, utilizes 96 lithium-ion Winston batteries packed in 14, tight modules that weigh about 700 pounds each in the belly of the bus.
Thunder Sky intends to build plants in California and Alabama, followed by Texas and South Carolina, according to Metalcrafters.
“I don’t know exactly where they are going to be, but we’re working very hard to have at least one of them maybe in Orange County; you just never know,” Gaffoglio said during the bus unveiling event at the company’s headquarters.
A fitting final assessment since Chung touted similar plans in California in 2011 when he went on an investment spree, earned a Business Journal Person of the Year nod in the real estate sector for his proposed bid on the Balboa Bay Club and Resort and Newport Beach Country Club, which didn’t materialize, and then promptly vanished from the radar … until now.
Microsemi Predictions
Aliso Viejo-based chipmaker Microsemi Corp. projects sales and adjusted profits in the current quarter in line with Wall Street expectations.
The company predicts sales of $448 million to $468 million. Analysts on average forecast revenue of about $458 million. Adjusted profits are estimated at $108.4 million to $119.9 million; Wall Street is targeting them at $114.1 million.
Microsemi, OC’s largest locally based chipmaker, is coming off a solid March quarter, when it topped both Wall Street consensus targets, with sales of nearly $443 million and adjusted profits of $106.2 million.
