Question for current Stanford Engineering student?

<p>I'm going to Stanford in the fall for bio/mechanical engineering; I have a mentor who is an accomplished metalworker, and I'd like to glean as much useful information from him as possible before I take off for college in August.
Would it be valuable for me to learn MIG and TIG welding for product realization labs, or is sheet metal/oxyacetylene usually used for prototyping? Are there any other intermediate or advanced metalworking skills that would be useful? How often is the AutoCAD put to use?
The only equipment list I could find for Stanford's PRL's was from the mid-nineties, so anything more updated than that would be awesome! Thanks :D</p>