Ullrich, a high school educator for 30 years, with ten years as a PTC trainer, moves around the classroom, engaging students in friendly banter.

One class of Minnesota high school engineering students gets a head-start with Pro/ENGINEER.

At first glance, Steve Ullrich’s Engineering III class looks a little like organized chaos. As part of the Lakeville South High School’s Industrial Technology curriculum, 26 juniors and seniors are deep in Pro/ENGINEER, and buzzing with robotics discussions, as the Minnesota Regional FIRST Robotics Competition draws near.

Ullrich, a high school educator for 30 years, with ten years as a PTC trainer, moves around the classroom, engaging students in friendly banter. “Engineering is about problem-solving,” said Ullrich. This belief is embraced, and the class is structured into teams to encourage collaboration within Pro/ENGINEER for creating and analyzing 3D CAD models.

Lakeville South High School was the first school in Minnesota to receive Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire design software as part of PTC’s Education Program. With three semesters of experience, students appear as comfortable navigating Pro/ENGINEER as they would Facebook. Uniquely, however, there is a unified sense that the students know the skills they have gained are powerful as they look to the future.

“This is a real good class,” said Dustin Max, a junior. “Going into a job and knowing how to set up an assembly or make stuff like this is pretty advanced, and would be very useful in, I assume, a lot of job industries. So it’s a real valuable set of skills we’re learning.”

"What I try to do with all of the courses is really help the students align their aptitudes with their interests,” explained Ullrich. “[The students] learn how to do animation, complicated assemblies and analysis, and then drawing files for these assemblies projects.”

Blaine Prout, the Windchill mentor for Lakeville South’s FIRST team and a representative from EAC Product Development Solutions, said, “What Mr. Ullrich has done, and has to offer his students is a very contagious passion for engineering. Imagine the leg up these kids will have coming out of high school; some with three years of Pro/E experience. Some of these students will enter college with more engineering skills than an engineer who has already graduated.”

“I think that it’s important that engineers get into this stuff at a young age,” explained Melissa Sweere, a junior and the only female student in the class. “Our future is constantly evolving…and in order for the United States to stay ahead of everyone else we have to evolve with our technology.”

Notably, all 26 of the students in Ullrich’s Engineering III class indicated they plan to pursue engineering in secondary education. The reality for Sweere and her classmates is the stage for worldwide innovation will continue to be competitive. On March 18, 2009, PTC signed an agreement with the French National Ministry of Education, providing free Pro/ENGINEER licenses for all French college and university teachers. Fortunately for the aspiring engineers at Lakeville South, their Pro/ENGINEER exposure started at the ripe age of fifteen.

As Ullrich pointed out, “The students who take these classes are interested in engineering. They don’t really know what that means. So here they’re learning how to use the software—how to apply the design process.” 

Arguably, Ullrich’s students are learning much more than Pro/ENGINEER fundamentals. The course objective is to give students a taste of engineering technology. Just a few minutes with Engineering III, and it’s evident: not only are the course objectives met, but the students’ futures are bright.

For more information on PTC’s education initiatives visit http://www.ptc.com/company/community/education/

EAC Product Development Solutions is committed to inspiring young people to be technology leaders by engaging them in programs that build skills and foster self-confidence. EAC is a sponsor and mentor for the Lakeville South FIRST Robotics team. Visit http://twitter.com/eacpds to see a video about the FIRST program, and find out how you can get involved in your area.