By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – By the time this year’s seniors at Thompson High School walk across the stage, they may be wearing one of their classroom assignments on their fingers.

Brian Copes’ engineering class at THS recently received a 3D computer-assisted design program called Matrix after Copes brought the idea to the Alabaster School System’s central office staff.

“After I learned about it, I went to the Alabaster City Schools central office, and they were very excited about it,” Copes said during a Nov. 10 phone interview, noting he learned about the program from Isbell Jewelers off U.S. 280 in Inverness. “We are in the process of getting it installed now, and we hope to have students using by the first of the year.”

Matrix is an add-on to a computer-aided design program called Rhinoceros, and Copes said he believes THS is only the second high school in the nation to use the program.

Once installed, Matrix will allow students to design jewelry digitally using several methods. Students will be able to choose a gemstone, a shape and other criteria and build a ring based on their designs.

After designing the ring from scratch, the students will then be able to use one of the THS engineering department’s 3D printers to create a mockup of their jewelry, Copes said.

Once the kids get an accurate view of what their jewelry will look like through the 3D-printed model, they will then be able to use the school’s investment casting laboratory to create the finished product.

“They are going to see it go from art to part,” Copes said. “We’re hoping to have the students working with both sides of their brains – The artistic side and the mechanical side.”

Copes said he is looking for the Matrix software to draw more females into the school’s engineering program, and said students likely will use the process to create their own class rings.

“They will be able to design them and have something written on it, whether it’s athletics, academics or whatever project they are into,” Copes said. “If all goes well, they will be able to cast it right here in-house.”