Contributed NEW SKILLS — Indian Creek High School seniors Joey Hewitt and Jade Casey practice working with one of two FANUC robotic arms the school obtained through an estimated $150,000 Career Technical Education Equipment Grant funded through the Ohio Biennial Budget.

WINTERSVILLE — Indian Creek High School students have more tools to train them for the future with the implementation of FANUC robotic arms.

Students in David Moffat and Barbara Turner’s programming and engineering design classes are learning about the equipment which was added this summer. Moffat, who serves as the school’s career-technical education department head, said his pupils are learning how to program the apparatus while Turner has a group of upperclassmen are honing their skills by operating their machine. The robotic arms mimic those used in today’s industry and students can become credentialed in high school to give them an advantage in the workplace.

“It came from a CTE equipment grant and the main purpose is to get early experience for students in high-demand tech jobs,” Moffat explained. “We have these FANUC arms because they are industry leaders in manufacturing robots and we’re starting to see what the industry’s going to look like in the future.”

Officials said FANUC Robotics has 70 percent of the market share of industrial robots in the U.S. and students can benefit from the program. Moffat added that his class, which includes primarily sophomores, is learning object-based programs such as JAVA to prepare for the basic steps of using the equipment but he expects upperclassmen to eventually reteach them how to do new things.

Senior Joey Hewitt uses a Samsung Tablet to program the equipment and the arm, which can hold up to 10 pounds of weight, essentially memorizes moves and carries out the actions of the game. Hewitt plans to have a career in the field after graduation and said the robotic arms are found in myriad industries.

“Ford, Tesla and Wal-Mart Distribution use FANUC robotics and that’s where all this experience comes in handy,” Hewitt said. “A lot of companies need people to be certified, and if you can get certified while in high school, then you can get a job straight out of high school.”

Classmate Jade Casey said she enjoys seeing the equipment in action.

“I like observing and getting to implement it,” she said, adding that she may consider working in a related field.

Turner said the goal is to offer certification in operating the robotic arms so students may venture out into the working world as prepared employees. But more short-term plans are to showcase the equipment at a future athletic event so visitors from other schools could see it in progress.

Moffat concluded that having the equipment on hand gives students options for future careers.

“Hopefully, they will go into these fields because these are the future of our state and country,” he said. “This robot can weld, do surgery and all kinds of trades you didn’t think of. We also hope to work with drones in the spring, so that goes hand in hand.”