Carter Smith, a junior sustainable product design & innovation major at Keene State, pictured in front of diamond turning instrumentation. (Courtesy of Americom)
Keene State College is tackling the manufacturing workforce crunch by developing a one-year certificate program in precision diamond turning, part of a partnership with the American Center for Optics Manufacturing (AmeriCOM), a workforce training initiative and defense precision optics consortium.
Within 100 miles of Keene State, more than a dozen manufacturers are involved with single-point diamond turning machining, thin films, specialty glass, and advanced optics, says Jim Kraly, Keene State’s associate dean for academic program innovation.
The proposed certificate program is expected to begin in fall of 2025. It received a boost earlier this year through funding from the Kingsbury Foundation in Keene, which supported the creation of a new instructional facility for the program that will be named the Kingsbury Center for Diamond Turning Excellence. Another $3 million in federal funding received this year will help with compensation for faculty and staff, curriculum development, and training for diamond turning. The lab will include diamond-turning and metrology equipment and will also support undergraduate classes and student internships.
The program’s goal, says Kraly, is to increase work-ready technicians. “AmeriCOM was attracted to Keene State because we’re in the center of our own ecosystem that specializes in precision optics,” Kraly says. “We wanted to create a pathway that doesn’t stand in the way of what two-year community colleges are doing with associate degrees but also something that delivered a skill set that could meet our local workforce needs,” Kraly continues. “We hope they either get a job right away, find an internship where they could get a job, or get a local internship and then continue on at Keene State for three more years.”
One of the companies that is part of this regional ecosystem is Moore Nanotechnologies in Swanzey, which needs more skilled employees. CEO Mark Boomgarden has worked closely with the college for several years on workforce development.
“Nanotech’s partnership with Keene State College has been extremely important for the community and the world of ultra-precision,” Boomgarden says. “This is most notably seen through training the next generation of engineers, skilled technicians, and operators in the use of the most advanced machine tools and CAM software available in the market.” For more information, visit keene.edu.