Technical Development Committee Report
April 2026 – by Al Mangels
The NESMA Technical Development Committee (TDC) meeting was held virtually on April 8th, 2026.
The season for career choices is in full swing now, with several events still yet to occur.
On April 23rd, the Manufacturer ConneCTion Fair 2026 was held at the Capital Building in Hartford, where many high school students attended in the morning, followed by college students in the afternoon, all seeking internships, employment, or simply guidance on career choices in in manufacturing and springmaking. It was good to see some students there from Tunxis, as Jordan Dombroski explains that his students are reaching out to various manufacturers for internships and expansion of industry partnerships. For example, Tunxis students recently toured the Connecticut Spring and Stamping facility, and would like to tour some others.
We also saw students from a few Goodwin magnet schools. Kyle Zachary, Coordinator for Incumbent Worker Programs at Goodwin, addressed our committee at the last meeting explaining their offerings of courses for Introduction to Manufacturing, with over 100+ workshops per year, and reminding us that 50% reimbursements are available for incumbent workers enrolled in such programs. Goodwin will host their Business and Manufacturing Career Fair on May 19th.
April 24th saw the Northwest Career Fair hosted by EdAdvance in Litchfield. On May 6th, Quinnipiac School of Computing & Engineering will host their Projects Day where they will celebrate the hard work of their graduating seniors and their capstone projects & papers.
David Weinholtz, from MakerspaceCT, discussed their programs, and is seeking judges for their upcoming Maker Battle 2026 – Round 1 event on May 16th, and they hope to coordinate some visits from students at Tunxis.
And it was good to reconnect with Sondra Sanford, the District Coordinator of Career Pathways
and Community Partnerships at New Britain High School, as part of our project to clean up the Tech Committee roster and make it current. The NBHS Career Fair is also scheduled for May 19th (8:00 am – 10:00 am). If you are interested, please contact us for an invitation. Sondra said she would love for NESMA companies to tour the NBHS MET Academy, if they haven’t done so yet, and asks, in addition, if anyone can assist in hosting a Family Field Trip for 25 eighth graders, with parents, for an evening event.
In further networking through our roster, we connected with Nicole Porter, Workforce Development Program Manager with the Urban League of Greater Hartford, who will host their 26th Annual Employment Empowerment Expo on May 20th at Dunkin’ Park Yard Goats Club.
I’d like to briefly mention that development of the new SMI 204 course on beam (flat) springs and spring washers still continues and nears completion.
Our meeting closed with some comments from NESMA members. Markus Arnold commented that Wafios has developed machines that target younger manufacturers through the use of AI, which is a big topic right now, but the students need to show willingness to learn the industry. Lucas Karabin recommended getting students out to the plants early to learn about manufacturing, and Diane Hunter suggested that students still need improvement in soft skills, and need to learn to earn the right to move forward instead of just moving the students along and passing them.
The next Technical Development Committee meeting will be Wednesday, May 13th (2-3 PM). We would love to have you join.