FVCC machinist team grabs first in national competition

A team of six students from Flathead Valley Community College earned first place in the first-ever Phillips Machinist Cutting Edge Parts Competition: Student Edition.

FVCC Industrial Machine Technology students Isaac Neumann, Joseph Montoya, James DeTienne, Aaron Frazee, Joshua Wortman and Ivy Alexander submitted their entry into the national competition last semester and learned on Feb. 1 they won first place.

The team designed and produced a conceptual foot-shifter for a manual automobile transmission under the guidance of instructors Dan Leatzow and Harry Smith.

The national machining competition was launched by the Maryland-based Phillips Corp. last fall through the Phillips Machinist app.

“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 won an expense-paid trip to the Haas Automation Inc. headquarters in Oxnard, California, 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.