EFSC Adds New Composites Center to Support Pentagon, High-Tech Innovation
July 29, 2021 – Eastern Florida State College is home to a new national Advanced Composites
Learning Center to train technicians in support of Pentagon and Space Coast high-tech
initiatives.
Led by the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), the
initiative is part of a Department of Defense program to prepare current and next-generation
manufacturing workers to produce military systems and components.
Students in EFSC’s Cocoa Campus Aerospace Technology lab are among those who will
benefit from the enhanced composite materials manufacturing initiative.
The goal is to help ensure that Pentagon and high-tech companies maintain global leadership
in fields where advanced composites play a key role in cutting-edge innovation, made
possible by combining materials in the manufacturing process to improve performance
and lower production costs.
EFSC was chosen because it’s located in an area “with a high concentration of defense,
space, aerospace and marine industries that support Pentagon projects vital to the
economy and national security,” said Joannie Harmon, Workforce Director for the Institute
for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation.
The EFSC center will greatly enhance the college’s existing composites program with
courses in Aerospace Technology, Engineering Technology and Advanced Manufacturing
taught on the Cocoa and Palm Bay campuses.
“The center further strengthens our leading role in training a new generation of highly
skilled workers for the Department of Defense, NASA and high-tech companies,” said
EFSC President Dr. Jim Richey.
“The sky is the limit on what we can accomplish through such programs with our valued
partners in the civilian and military sectors.”
Similar learning centers are underway at Enterprise State Community College in Alabama
and the Composites Prototyping Center in New York.
EFSC Mechatronics Instructor Jean Paul Aliaga, left, and SCCAP’s Bryan Kamm receive
hands-on composites technician training at Davis Tech in Utah on July 28, 2021 as
part of the IACMI’s Advanced Composites Career Pathways program.
As part of the new initiative, EFSC Engineering Technology Associate Professor Meer
Almeer, EFSC Aerospace and Engineering Instructor Ted Hartselle, EFSC Mechatronics
Instructor Jean Paul Aliaga, and Space Coast Consortium Apprenticeship Program (SCCAP)
founder Bryan Kamm are at Davis Technical College in Kaysville, Utah, participating
in a week-long train-the-trainer course to become more familiar with the benefits
of the enhanced composites curriculum.
The EFSC center is a perfect fit for its work with local high-tech and advanced manufacturing
companies to train workers and often provide apprenticeships through the SCCAP and
industry partnerships.
The companies include Knights Armament, Airbus One Web Satellites, Blue Origin, Vaya
Space, RUAG Space USA, Diamondback America, ITT/Matrix Composites, Structural Composites,
Compsys, Precision Shapes and Roswell Marine.
