Rapid Prototyping course offered

July 17, 2006

The college is offering a new occupational certificate in Design Model Making and Rapid Prototyping courses beginning this fall.

With 24 automotive transportation design studios in Southern California, the coursework has been created to meet a growing need for skilled automobile designers. The certificate also prepares modelers for work in a number of creative areas including medical instruments, aerospace, consumer product development, toy manufacturing, moviemaking, and the entertainment industries.

Bob Schuerman, who teaches the course, emphasizes that model making has applications in virtually every industry because most every manufactured product begins life as a model. The new curriculum is meant to give college students the skills they need to enter an industry that each year generates untold numbers of gadgets and manufactured goods. All require modeling and design to bring them from concept to finished product, and students only need rudimentary skills in art, sketching, or electronics to enter the field.

The college’s program is unique among community colleges as few have similar curricula or access to regional resources such as NASA/Edwards Airforce Base, CALTech, or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The certificate program also interfaces with several major automobile makers located within minutes of the campus to provide students career opportunities, networking and job placement. It also prepares students for design schools both in the U.S. and abroad, and offers study in nano technology, 3-D modeling and programming.

Obtaining a certificate may lead to a bachelor’s degree at a four-year university.

“We coordinate out curriculum with the industry and this technology. With all the resources we have here in Southern California, no place in the world has what we have in Orange County,” said Schuerman.

For information, contact Schuerman at 451-5450 mttbob@aol.com.