Jessica Thomas is the Executive Director of Ntma Kansas City Chapter. She is also a President at HEARTLAND FABRICATION & MACHINE INC KCMO-WBE MO-Dot – DBE.

The NTMA is a national association of about 1700 precision manufacturing companies with an average shop size of 28 employees. The association was formed to give a voice to small manufacturers and their collective agenda in the areas of trade, technology, legislation and marketing.

Paired with industry partners, student teams design, build and battle light-weight robots in a head-on competition. Through every step of the process, BotsKC students hone valuable STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) skills as well as the intangibles of teamwork, competitive spirit and the pride of ownership.

In partnership with industry experts, NTMA has developed NTMA-U, a fully online program of modules developed for precision machining and related occupations. Modules are available individually, in groups of three, or bulk for large groups of students ( through the purchase of a portal).