LASA traveled to Glenair in Glendale to consider manufacturing, technology, and labor in LA. Thanks so much to Ron Logan and Rob Tillman for hosting us, sharing their journeys to the jobs they hold, and giving us lunch.
Daniel P. shared, “Visiting Glenair was a wonderful experience. I was very amazed by the different devices Glenair created and how important they were.” Helen added, “I was especially interested in the second building we visited where they showed us some of the machinery for manufacturing the fiber glass cables. I thought it was cool to see the application of something like engineering in relation to space shuttles.”
LASA students paid particular attention to different aspects of the visit. Kim focused on process and noted that “everything in their facilities was organized and clean and sectioned off depending on what parts they were making and for what.” Maya D. liked the robots: “Seeing all the robotic arms was really fun, because a) robots are cool, but also b) it was a great way to see the production up close — like getting to hold the plastic joints as they came out and watching the arm pick up the bits.” And for Sarah, she was “intrigued by what they said about. . .steadily hiring more people since their conception, and their philosophy on replacing human manual labor with robots to allow humans to do more complex work, instead of just replacing humans completely.”
After lunch, we returned to The Huntington and listened to research presentations from two LASA graduates, Anna and Anusha. They successfully competed for summer funding for their work and shared both what they found and a bit about their processes. Silvia P. noted “how passionate they were about their topic on the LGBTQ community and old Chinatown. I was inspired to apply when the time comes and do research about something that I am passionate about.”