Thaddeus Stevens College in Lancaster wins national competition

• Katie Knol
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  Katie Knol is WITF's General Assignment Reporter & Host.
  
  She graduated from Penn State University in 2024, earning bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science. She has also worked at WPSU, the News Lab at Penn State, The Daily Collegian and CommRadio.

A three-student team from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology captured first place at the Project MFG Advanced Manufacturing National Championship, earning a $100,000 grand prize after defeating top technical colleges from across the country. 

More than 70 schools participated in the three-day national competition, where students had to show hands-on applications of robotics, automation, machining and manufacturing skills. 

Coach Jared Keim, a Thaddeus Stevens College graduate who now teaches at the college,  also has coached the teams for several years. Keim said the national title shows the students are learning the skills they’ll need upon graduating.

“I think the success kind of says that we’re on the right track,” he said. “Hopefully, we’re teaching the things that they need to know to be successful in their careers as machinists.”

He said $50,000 — half of the prize money — will be split among the three competing students. The rest will go to the college to purchase a new piece of machinery he said the students had to use to compete that the college doesn’t currently own.

Teams had to create a good final product, work well as a group, and manage personnel and material costs to receive a high score. Three other teams competed in the championship competition in Alabama.

It was a community-supported effort, Keim said. Local businesses donated supplies the students used to practice building different machine parts.

“It can go back into their program and perhaps their shop funds if that’s one of the things that they want to do,” Morant Williams said. “No matter what, it goes right back into the student learning experience.”

The Thaddeus Stevens students beat Wallace State Community College in Alabama, Yuba College in California and Autry Technology Center in Oklahoma. Keim said final scores haven’t been released yet, but organizers told him it was a close competition, with the team’s low expenses putting them over the top.