Applications are open
We’re opening the doors to the lab on 21 September.
Iron Cross is a gap year in the mechanical arts, eight months of it, two evenings a week in the lab on East Main Street in Waynesboro. Students have their hands on hardware the first night and are programming a robot by the end of the first week, and by the following May they will have wired a full robot e-panel, worked through motors, transmissions, and drivetrains, cut a chassis from a drawing, and unpacked, tested, and commissioned an industrial system.
The curriculum belongs to the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy, five modules of six weeks each, closing with a sprint on a project the student chooses. Whoever completes all five earns the SMART Certification, a certified pre-apprenticeship credential built with the advanced manufacturing industry, endorsed by the ARM Institute and awarded by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy.
Instruction costs nothing, supplies and the exam run $300 a module paid as the student goes, and the laptop, the kits, the tools, and the book come with the seat.
The program is for young men and women out of high school who want to work with their hands. What we ask for is commitment, hard work, and two evenings a week for eight months. Students who successfully complete the program leave in May certified by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy, with skills that employers are hiring for now and will need more of in the years ahead. The first cohort is small, and the next one is six months away. Applications close 27 August, and the selected students will commence on 21 September.