Caterpillar made a $40,000 donation to the Technology & Engineering department at South Milwaukee High School, which used the funds to purchase a new CNC milling machine.
The donation from Caterpillar will also be used to fund the future purchase of a 3D printer, design laptops, field trips, engineering kits, and professional development opportunities for teachers. The equipment will be used to create a new rapid prototype lab for students to manufacture their design projects.
Caterpillar sponsors and their engineers lead South Milwaukee High School’s FIRST Robotics Team.
Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc. has a significant presence in South Milwaukee. As of the end of the second quarter, the company had 800 production and office employees in South Milwaukee and 1,300 total employees in Wisconsin.
In October, the company announced to its employees that it plans to close its Oak Creek corporate office complex and move the 250 jobs there to South Milwaukee in the first half of 2016. The positions that will be relocating include salaried professionals who work in finance, human resources, legal and marketing. Many of those jobs were previously based in South Milwaukee at 1100 Milwaukee Ave., a Caterpillar facility that was formerly the headquarters of Bucyrus International Inc.
