GTCC duo big winners at national manufacturing conference
Published on: July 11, 2024
When Shackti Martinez and Muhammad Abu Khass stepped into the spotlight for their Manufacturing Core Exercise (MCE) presentation at the national Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) USA conference in Fort Worth, Texas, recently, their expectations were measured.
“For the competition, we didn’t know what to expect, after all we were the first chapter (to present),” Martinez said of the end of semester presentations where students showcased their acquired learnings from their second MCE, which focused on Workplace Organization/5S, organizing the workplace to increase efficiency.
As it turned out, Martinez and Abu Khass were the stars of the competition which was held in front of the entire conference. The voting audience deemed the pair of Guilford Technical Community College students as the overall winners of the competition. Both Martinez and Abu Khass are in their first year of the college’s inaugural year of the FAME program.
“Winning for me was more about a proud moment,” said Martinez, who is also in the U.S. Army National Guard. “It was where all our efforts within the program have shown. It showed my improvement in public speaking.
“I was so nervous I even asked Muhammad to do pushups with me before they gathered us all together for presenting so I could calm my nerves.”
“Winning was an incredible experience,” said Abu Khass, a native of Jordan, who added he and Martinez were awarded $250 each for the victory. “Despite being the first chapter and having limited time to work on our presentation, winning first place was an outstanding achievement.”
GTCC is a member of the NC Fame – The First In Flight chapter, the first chapter in the state, which works with the college to educate students in a postsecondary education setting while also providing on the job training.
The GTCC duo didn’t learn about the competition until three days before the deadline to submit a video of their presentation. Only the top three videos were to be chosen to compete at the event in Fort Worth.
“We tried our best to create the best presentation possible, then presented in front of our class who provided feedback,” said Abu Khass. “After making some adjustments, we submitted it. We didn’t study further while waiting to hear if we made it to the top three. Once we were informed that we would be presenting, we went over it twice, once the day before we left for Texas and then a final run-through in Texas.”
Abu Khass said despite the short notice and hurried preparation, he was confident headed to Texas.
“I was confident that we would win first place,” said Abu Khass. “My teammate, Shackti, was incredibly helpful, and I’m very glad to have partnered with her on this project.”
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