Tim Griffin is an assistant professor of Mechanical Technology at SUNY Jamestown Community College, teaching machining, CAD design, solid modeling, dimensional metrology, electrical technology, and related subjects.
Griffin has taught at JCC since 2019. Before that, he was professional in the mechanical technology industry, most recently working at Dresser-Rand/Siemens in Olean.
Griffin each bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Tech and Virginia Tech, respectively.
What is your background and experience in mechanical technology?
Griffin: I am a mechanical engineer by training. I worked in industry for about 20 years designing and helping troubleshoot mechanical systems, including some large turbo machinery that was used at refineries and manufacturing plants around the world. I got to travel frequently as a part of my career.
I brought those skills to this job but have had to learn a lot of new ones along the way, too, to help teach students various things that are used in our fields of mechanical technology and industrial maintenance.
What inspired you to pursue mechanical engineering?
Griffin: I was fascinated as a teen with mechanical systems. I used to mow lawns as a business in high school, and I repaired a lot of lawnmower engines. Just seeing the intricacy of the mechanical components and how somebody had this idea to create something like that and made it real just fascinated me, and I wanted to be able to do similar things.
That inspired me to follow a passion for mechanical design, mechanical engineering, and that's how I got started.
Why did you decide to get into teaching?
Griffin: I went into teaching here at JCC because I enjoy the opportunity to share my knowledge with others, to help folks build the foundation for their future careers. There are so many opportunities here in this area for students who get connected with our programs to build their skills in a way that makes them ready for an entry-level job.
But also, we try to put them on a path of being continuous learners so that as technology evolves and advances that students know how to learn, and they know how to adapt and respond to the changes that our society faces. Ultimately, it's just very rewarding to help students get connected to these employment opportunities, and I like to make a difference in that way.
What is your favorite class to teach?
Griffin: I teach a few of our solid modeling courses. I enjoy doing that.
In my career, I didn't have a lot of opportunities to do solid modeling myself. I'm a mechanical engineer in my background, and I had teams of folks that I worked with that did that.
But now I get to dive into the tool myself so that I can teach that subject to our students, and it's just an exciting tool to be able to take an idea that's in your head and model it, make it a virtual thing in the computer, and then manufacture it, either 3D printing or machining or welding.
The idea just to take an idea in your head and make it real and solve a problem is so cool to me.
What is a notable project you’ve worked on with students?
Griffin: One project that I'm helping our Tech Club with currently is the design of some license plate frames that have JCC logo emblems.
Students have been solid modeling some concepts, and I've been helping them with that. We're looking to design and manufacture those, prototype them, evolve the design to a better product, and hopefully sell some of those to generate some funds for the Tech Club.
Why should a student interested in technology or manufacturing consider attending JCC?
Griffin: We have some amazing advanced manufacturing programs here at JCC in areas that include CAD design, machining, industrial maintenance, and welding. All of those fields are in demand in this area, and it's my expectation that in the future that will only continue to grow. I think joining us in these manufacturing programs is a great choice for those whose interests align with that.
We also have some cool new technology that we've added in the past few years. We have cutting-edge 3D printers that are multi-color machines, super-fast with automatic material systems. We have robotic systems for automation and industrial maintenance training. We have new CNC machine tools that we've added to the shop just in the past few months.
We have a robot, a cobot, a collaborative robot that automatically tends the CNC, one of the CNC mills that we just added, so you can get trained in that. We have welding robots that we've added recently. We have a CNC plasma cutter that's a part of our welding and fabrication programs.
We've been fortunate to be able to add technology to the programs that are instrumental to the value that students can get from them.
What does a quality education mean to you?
Griffin: Quality education to me means having training that is relevant for our students. A lot of our programs are very career focused. They're intended for students to come to JCC for a relatively short amount of time, one to two years, and leave with employable skills.
A quality education helps to build those skills and make sure that they're aligned to the industry needs in the area, and also helps the students to understand that they're not done learning, that there's things they'll need to learn on the job, and they need to be constantly staying on top of advances in technology.
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JCC offers Mechanical Technology Design and Mechanical Technology Machine Tool degree programs and Machine Tool Technology certificate as part of its Advanced Manufacturing offerings.
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