CENTER FOR
INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS (CIMS)
(A cooperative venture between Terra Community College, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and area industrial partners)
Students in the manufacturing programs at Terra Community College are learning their craft in a miniature factory right on campus thanks to a very prestigious and generous grant.
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation selected Terra as one of four recipients of its 2002 grants geared to advance educational opportunities in manufacturing, engineering, science and technology.
“We have competed against much larger colleges and universities for these grants, so for Terra to be chosen is quite an honor,” said Tom Kissell, Dean of the Technology, Science and Communications Division. “This grant put us up there with the big boys, like Cal State, Tufts University and California Polytechnic University, just to name a few.”
While community colleges have been involved in the grant program since its inception in 1998, only one other – Erie Community College in 1998 – presented a stand-alone proposal. The others received the grants in partnership with universities.
The SME grant totaled $163,000, to be dispersed over two years. Area industry partners will also contribute more than $319,000 during those same two years while Terra will kick in about $271,000.
Technically, the grant will be used to develop a Center for Integrated Manufacturing Solutions, revise the current manufacturing curriculum and renovate technology labs. But, practically, it will provide second-year students the opportunity to work on industry projects while they work towards a certificate or degree in Engineering Design, Computer Automated Design (CAD), Integrated Manufacturing/Robotics or Industrial Electricity. Curriculum changes will allow the student to work for one full academic year on each project from design through implementation using the latest manufacturing processes and equipment.
“We want to bring reality to what they will be doing on the job,” Kissell said. “This whole new concept will shorten the gap between school and job.”
The program is designed to bring the co-op experience into the college lab. In the fourth, fifth and sixth quarters (second year), students work on real industrial projects supplied by Terra’s industrial partners. Students from each technology take a common class called the Capstone Seminar. The students focus on project management through three phases during the academic year: design in the fall, implementation in the winter and evaluation in the spring.
This program allows the students to become involved cross functionally, from electrical work to automation, as they would in industry. They learn more about the budget, project management, quality analysis and project presentation. It also allows students a chance to get a co-op experience right in the lab without having to quit their full-time job, as typically happens in a co-op situation.
What’s also unique is that the students are working on real projects from industrial partners. For example, this year the students are working on a prototype for the Whirlpool Corp., Clyde. They are designing a water solenoid valve tester that will allow the company to test water solenoids on each washing machine while it is being assembled.
The CIMS at Terra is a cooperative effort of 14 industrial partners and the college’s faculty and staff. The industrial partners are: Delphi, Sandusky; EDS Unigraphics, St. Louis, Mo.; Gosinger Machine, Cleveland; McNaughton-McKay, Fremont; Motion Controls Plus, Fremont; National Machinery, Tiffin; Norton Manufacturing/Callies Performance Products, Fostoria; PEPCO/Siemens Automation, Toledo; Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley, Toledo; StyleCrest Manufacturing, Fremont; Tenneco Automotive, Milan; TRW, Fremont; Visteon, Sandusky; and Whirlpool Corporation, Clyde division.
“It’s a tremendous commitment of time, money and personnel resources, but the industrial partners receive benefits as well,” Kissell said. “They can get a tier of projects done within their budgets, they get a chance to work and evaluate students who may be potential employees and their industry gets better trained employees.”
For more information on the CIMS at Terra Community College, contact Tom Kissell, Dean of the Technology, Science and Communications Division, at 419-334-8400, ext. 414, or by email at tkissell@terra.edu
Students can apply to Terra Community College now to begin their studies in these programs in September 2004. Call Enrollment Services at 866-AT-TERRA, ext. 149, stop by the first floor of Roy Klay Hall (Building A), 2830 Napoleon Road, Fremont; or register online at www.terra.edu
To learn more about the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and its Manufacturing Education Plan grants, check out their Web site at www.sme.org
