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12-03-99
GROUND BROKEN FOR ADVANCED
TRAINING CENTER AT KNOWLEDGE PARK
Educators and manufacturers in northwestern Pennsylvania have broken ground for the Advanced Training Center in Knowledge Park at Penn State Erie. Designed to meet the workforce training needs of the region, the center will bring together three partners(the Northwest Pennsylvania Technical Institute, the Regional Skills Center, and Penn State Erie(to develop manufacturing technology courses.
Penn State Erie has already taken the first step toward collaboration by creating a new associate degree in manufacturing technology. A two-year program initiated this fall and initially offered through Penn State's Center for Corporate and Adult Learning, this degree offers options in both general manufacturing and plastics processing. Both options were developed by Penn State Erie faculty and staff with input from representatives of industry. In addition to meeting the needs of traditional students, the program incorporates a flexible curriculum designed to meet the needs of those already employed in manufacturing who wish to upgrade their skills.
The next step will be adding two more options to the degree: metals and nanofabrication. The metals option, still under development, is expected to include options related to casting, machining, and tool and die work. Members of the northwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Foundrymen's Society (AFS) and members of Penn State Erie's Industrial Metalworking Advisory Committee have been working for more than a year to develop a metals option curriculum that will meet the needs of employers and the requirements of the University. The AFS also has a committee working to determine the equipment needed to implement the metals option and ways to obtain what is needed.
"As a society, we got involved to attract young people to the metals industry," said Jerry S. Sequeira, president of Performance Castings, Inc. and a member of the AFS. "By involving ourselves in obtaining equipment and developing a metals curriculum, we can ensure that the skills taught in these classes will be identical to the skills needed in the industry's workplace."
In addition to the efforts of the AFS, the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Penn State Erie has submitted a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation seeking $1.4 million to implement the metals option of the manufacturing technology degree at Penn State Erie and at two other Penn State locations.
Nanofabrication will be another option under the associate degree in manufacturing technology. Nanofabrication is a technology developed in the semiconductor industry and used for miniature sensor arrays in biology and medicine; miniature valves and turbines for fluidics; flat panel displays for computers and wall- hanging, picture-like TVs; and integrated-circuit microchips for electronics, computers, and communications. This technology has made integrated-circuit manufacturing the nation's largest industry(larger than the steel and automotive industries combined.
Students who choose the nanofabrication option at Penn State Erie will benefit from Penn State's affiliation with the National Science Foundation's National Nanofabrication Users Network (NUNN) and from the training offered at the Nanofabrication Facility at Penn State's University Park campus.
Graduates in the general manufacturing option of the two-year manufacturing technology program will qualify for positions involved with the manufacture and testing of products, supervisory management, technical sales, field service, maintenance, and plant operations. Graduates in the plastics processing option may become technicians in the plastics industry, and graduates in nanofabrication may qualify as technicians in the semi-conductor technology industry. Two-year graduates may also choose to continue their education and pursue a four-year engineering technology degree at Penn State.
"With the addition of the associate degree in manufacturing technology, Penn State Erie now offers courses that reach across the education and training spectrum from certificate programs to baccalaureate degrees," said Dr. Richard Progelhof, director of Penn State Erie's School of Engineering and Engineering Technology. "We have the resources needed to develop a strong workforce for the region."
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