FVCC Machining Students Win First Place in National Competition

A team of six students from Flathead Valley Community College has earned first place in the Phillips Machinist Cutting Edge Parts Competition: Student Edition. The national machining competition was launched by the Maryland-based Phillips Corporation last fall through the Phillips Machinist app.

FVCC Industrial Machine Technology students Isaac Neumann, Joseph Montoya, James DeTienne, Aaron Frazee, Joshua Wortman and Ivy Alexander designed and produced a conceptual foot shifter for a manual automobile transmission under the guidance of instructors Dan Leatzow and Harry Smith. They submitted the foot shifter to the Phillips competition last semester and learned on Feb. 1 that they had won first place.

“As the winner of the first annual student competition from Phillips Corporation, Flathead Valley Community College has set high standards for the winners of future competitions,” Contest Coordinator Katelyn Clary said.

In addition to bragging rights, the students have won an expense-paid trip to the Haas Automation, Inc. headquarters in Oxnard, Calif. where they will travel this spring to tour the company’s 1.1 million-square-foot manufacturing facility and connect with professionals in the machining industry.

FVCC offers degrees and certificates in various advanced manufacturing specialties, including Industrial Machine Technology, Electronics Technician, Firearms Technologies, and Industrial Maintenance. For more information, visit www.fvcc.edu/advanced-manufacturing or contact Will Richards at wrichards@fvcc.edu or (406)756-4862.