Throughout the past decade, the micro electromechanical systems lab at Lorain County Community College‘s Desich Business and Entrepreneurship Center, 141 Innovation Drive in Elyria, has become one of the school’s pride and joys.
On Dec. 18, U.S. Congressman Bob Latta, who represents parts of Lorain and Huron counties, saw the college’s crown jewel for himself.
Latta, a Bowling Green Republican, spent the morning on a tour of the lab, led by a few of the program’s students and staff.
“It’s incredible,” he said of the lab. “It’s absolutely amazing to see it being done, but the great thing about it is, we’re doing it right here in our own neighborhood.”
Latta’s tour included a trip through an air lock to the program’s “cleanroom,” currently graded a Class 10,000.
At that level of cleanliness, the air inside the room is 10 times cleaner than the air in a hospital operating room, according to college officials.
Latta spoke on the program’s importance to the state of Ohio and its wider economy, especially with the new Intel plant coming to nearly 1,000 acres in Licking County, just outside of Columbus.
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"I have 85,000 manufacturing jobs (in my district)," Latta noted. "All the time, I hear from the employers, 'We need people out here who know what they're doing, and that we can give these jobs.' Here at the school, they know what their training is."
Professor Johnny Vanderford, program director for the MEMS program at LCCC, echoed Latta's sentiment of creating engineers for the future.
Even a decade in, the college has a 100 percent hiring rate for students who graduate from the MEMS program, Vanderford said.
"One hundred percent of all of our graduates since 2013, have been hired in at our current 89 industry partners," he said. "It's a natural, almost symbiotic relationship.
"The companies need the workforce. They drive our content. They send us the job descriptions; we send them students."
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One of those students, Emily Williams, said she largely comes from an artistic background.
Initially unsure the program would be for her, Williams said the science does have an art to it, for those with the eye to see it.
"I fell in love with the computer-aided design (class), the 3D design and modeling," she said. "I really enjoyed learning about the schematic that gets drawn out for the circuit board.
"I was surprised by the amount of creative freedom you get in a lot of these design roles. This was a great combination of science and my appreciation of art."
Williams said that when she graduates following this spring semester, she will be one of the first two women to finish the MEMS program with a bachelor's degree.
Fellow student Nadia Orlov is not far behind.
Orlov said that ever since she can remember, she has had a passion for tinkering with things.
"I've always loved destroying my phones and just seeing what's inside them," she said. "I always fix my own electronics at home whenever they break.
"I cannot count the amount of Nintendo Switches I've gone through. I just picked (the program) up very naturally."
Rather than destroying, Orlov said the program is much more about creation.
Usually working with thread wiring just a fraction of the width of a human hair, setting up the lab takes a very steady hand, she said.
"I just picked it up very naturally," Orlov said. "I love sewing; I love working with electronics in general.
"When it got to rethreading (the wiring), it took me a few tries, a little bit of frustration, but by the end of it, I think I was the first in my class to pick it up fully."
Latta called the lab "incredible," and said the same of the students.
Raising the next generation of engineers and keeping them in Ohio is vital for the future, he said.
"Ohio's been my home my entire life," Latta said. "It's the greatest place, not only to live, but to be able to say that you're from.
"I want to make sure that people have the opportunity to say, 'I had that experience to be able to grow and do what I want to do, here in Ohio.'"
