ProtoCAM: Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping.

ProtoCAM in the Community: Teaming Up w/ HMMS for the “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” Contest

February 26, 2020

“Manufacturing is really the base of a lot of environments and communities across the commonwealth, and we need to work to help them find future employees.”   – Deputy Secretary Carol Kilko

WSCAM 2019 pic 1

SteelStacks in Bethlehem

ProtoCAM teamed up with Harrison-Morton Middle School in the 2020 Dream It. Do It. PA student video contest, “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” Local manufacturers worked together with 30 middle school teams from Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties and the Diocese of Allentown to create videos demonstrating how manufacturing can be fun and interesting, as well as a viable career choice. Upon completion, the videos were then put to a public vote and judged on a number of categories. ProtoCAM also served as a Silver Sponsor of the event, and ProtoCAM’s Digital Marketing Director, Dale Bond, was showcased as a member of the Dream Team, a select group of the best and brightest young professionals in the industry who conduct classroom presentations that encourage students to explore manufacturing careers.

ProtoCAM worked with students from Harrison-Morton to create a video demonstrating the latest technologies and innovations at ProtoCAM. The goal of the video contest is to “excite students to explore cool manufacturing careers and produce profiles of companies throughout Pennsylvania.”

ProtoCAM’s table at the event

This is the seventh iteration of the popular event, and ProtoCAM’s fifth year participating. 30 schools and manufacturers participated for 2020 in the Lehigh Valley contest, with more than 250 students participating. Videos were created earlier this year, and over 225,000 votes rolled in from February 19th though the 21st at the “What’s So Cool” website for the coveted Viewers’ Choice award.

At the Lehigh Valley awards event held at ArtsQuest SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA, all of the videos and participants were showcased. The Lehigh Valley contest awards show was also broadcast live on WFMZ-TV. Awards in various categories were presented, including Outstanding Videography, Outstanding Creativity, and Outstanding Cool. In previous years, ProtoCAM & our middle school teams have been thrilled to win Outstanding Educational Value, Outstanding Team Spirit, Outstanding Editing, and 3rd in most overall public votes. Though our team did not take home a win in one of the categories this year, we were still so proud of our students and all the hard work they did on this project!

The Harrison-Morton team

We would like to thank everyone who voted for ProtoCAM and Harrison-Morton, and to recognize all the students and companies who contribute their ideas and innovations to this contest each year. ProtoCAM looks forward to participating again next year!

For more information about this awesome event and to view all the videos and award winners, visit https://www.whatssocool.org/contests/lehigh-valley/. To learn more about the history of the contest, check out our case study.

Check out ProtoCAM and Harrison-Morton’s video below!