News about Automated Manufacturing & Machining

PPL Electric Utilities recently offered a Live Line Electrical Safety Exhibit and demonstration for students and first responders at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

PPL, a Corporate Tomorrow Maker partner of the college, takes its mobile electrical safety exhibit across its service territory to teach first responders, contractors, businesses, school students and the public about the dangers of live wires and how to stay safe around them.

The exhibit is a scaled-down 7,200-volt electrical distribution system that features live electrical wires, utility poles and transformers. It was designed in 2016 by representatives from across PPL Electric Utilities’ operations who met in PPL’s Innovation Lab to brainstorm ways to present the information. PPL provides 100 such demonstrations to more than 10,000 people annually.

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For two years, Lauryn A. Stauffer has seen only male faces in her electronics classes at Pennsylvania College of Technology. This fall, she’ll at least see multiple women leaders within the School of Engineering Technologies.

The school devoted to careers rooted in science, technology, engineering and math boasts three female assistant deans.

Kathleen D. Chesmel and Ellyn A. Lester were hired in late spring to head the Materials Science and Engineering Technologies Division and the Construction and Architectural Technologies Division, respectively. They join longtime college employee Stacey C. Hampton, who is assistant dean of industrial and computer technologies.

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Lockheed Martin Corp. has awarded vocational scholarships of $6,600 each to nine Pennsylvania College of Technology students.

The students are among 150 to receive financial assistance toward their pursuit of associate degrees, credit-bearing certificates or industry-recognized credentials in cutting-edge technology and advanced manufacturing fields. Penn College had the second-highest number of awardees in the Lockheed Martin Vocational Training Scholarship program, a first of its kind within the aerospace and defense industries.

“I was pleased to see Lockheed Martin’s awarding of scholarships to so many Penn College students,” said Bradley M. Webb, dean of engineering technologies. “This recognizes the critical role the college plays in bolstering America’s skilled technical workforce, and the focus our students have on building the future.”

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“Because tomorrow begins today,” Penn College campuses welcomed scores of high school students for six more Pre-College Programs in recent days. (A variety of programs focused on more of the college’s academic majors were held in June.) The past week’s schedule included three new summer offerings – Diesel Truck & Heavy Equipment, Fundamentals of Emergency Response, and Thingamajig Fabricators – joining returning favorites Automotive Restoration; Design, Build & Grow Landscape & Horticulture; and Graphic Design Summer Studio. All told, the college hosted 211 high schoolers for two sessions of overnight camps this season and 40 middle schoolers during two weeks of My Tomorrow day camps.

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Suzanne Mayberry wants to connect her high school students with manufacturing. Thanks to Pennsylvania College of Technology, she has more tools to accomplish that goal.

Penn College recently hosted a Manufacturing Externship Camp for Mayberry and 16 other secondary school teachers and guidance counselors throughout the state. Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the weeklong educational experience used tours, presentations and hands-on activities to expose the nontechnical educators to the realities of modern manufacturing and the sector’s rewarding career opportunities.

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An entrepreneurial alumnus – a titan of the packaging industry who generously endowed the Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center at Pennsylvania College of Technology – returned to campus Wednesday to share his insight and inspiration during a pair of afternoon presentations in College Avenue Labs.

Ward passionately spoke to 17 high school teachers and counselors attending Teacher Externship Camp, a National Science Foundation-funded activity that provides participants with a real-world view of the advanced manufacturing field. He also met with young men and women in the Thingamajig Fabricators pre-college program, co-sponsored by the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajig Foundation and PMMI, which introduces students to the breadth of manufacturing from brainstorming an idea to selling an end product.

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Culminating a yearlong process, nine manufacturing engineering technology students completed impressive senior projects that reciprocate, rotate, automatically retract, measure force, automatically become buoyant, dispense and measure line cord, efficiently exhaust gases, and mold candies.

“How many people do you know who can make – or specify how to manufacture – just about anything?” asked John M. Good, instructor of automation and computer integrated manufacturing, in introducing the projects prior to the students’ capstone presentations. “These nine manufacturing engineering technology students are uniquely skilled.”

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A foundation that promotes skilled manufacturing careers has awarded more than a third of its scholarships for the Fall 2021 semester to Pennsylvania College of Technology students.

Eleven students from Penn College’s School of Engineering Technologies were among the 31 nationwide recipients of $1,500-$2,500 scholarships from Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs, the foundation of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International. Full-time students enrolled in an engineering or manufacturing-related course of study were eligible.

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More than a half-dozen Pre-College Programs attracted a knowledge-hungry host of teenagers to Penn College’s campuses in recent days, the season opener for high schoolers’ exposure to next-level academics. Campers were engaged and enlightened among the week’s bountiful offerings: Architecture Odyssey, Automotive, Aviation, Engineering, Future Restaurateurs, Health Careers and Information Technology. A second week – inviting more students to test the waters of collegiate opportunity through hands-on learning – will begin July 18.

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A partnership with ABB, a leading global technology company, is bringing an industrial robot and software licenses to Pennsylvania College of Technology for instructional use in manufacturing engineering programs.

ABB, based in Zurich, Switzerland, with U.S. operations headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, is providing $150,000 worth of software licenses for offline programming of its YuMi robot, which the college has purchased. This eliminates the need for programming at the robot itself using the teach pendant. The software can communicate with all ABB robots to download and upload files. Software benefits include freeing the robot for production or maintenance and allowing multiple programmers simultaneously to create and edit programs.  In manufacturing, today, most robot programs are created offline and “touched up” at production lines.

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After a year’s absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Baja SAE team returned to action with a flourish, posting four top-10 results at Baja SAE Louisville.

The recent Society of Automotive Engineers competition – hosted by the University of Louisville – required students to design and build a single-seat, all-terrain sporting vehicle to meet various challenges. Penn College topped several prominent colleges and universities in the 78-car field, including Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Auburn, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

In dynamic events, Penn College finished first (acceleration), fourth (suspension) and eighth (maneuverability) before capping the competition with a third-place showing in the endurance race, considered Baja SAE’s toughest test.

The overall performance was Penn College’s best in the team’s 16-year history.

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In two very different Pennsylvania College of Technology labs, students share a similar focus. Both are using science, technology and the skills they’ve honed to develop new ways to practice their crafts.

In Chef Frank Suchwala’s Introduction to the Modernist Kitchen course, culinary arts students add science and technology to tried-and-true techniques to create new ways of presenting food. In Spring 2021, they added new tools made in a lab two buildings away.

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For Thomas L. Snyder, his graduation at Pennsylvania College of Technology on May 16 will mark more than the end of a rigorous academic pursuit. It will close his family’s chapter at the college, which dates to the Kennedy Administration.

The Weedville native’s lineage is linked to the college’s evolution from a renowned postsecondary technical institute to the second community college in Pennsylvania to its current status as a national leader in applied technology education.

Snyder’s maternal grandfather, Thomas E. Foster, earned a machinist certificate from Williamsport Technical Institute in 1962, and his father, Troy L. Snyder, attended Williamsport Area Community College in the mid-1980s, just a few years before it became Penn College, a special mission affiliate of Penn State.

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An alumnus’s investment in the next generation of innovators, the literal future of American manufacturing, was spotlighted during the April 27 dedication of the Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Last year’s $1 million-plus donation from Ward, a 1966 graduate in engineering drafting technology, monumentally reshaped the expansive laboratory – one of the oldest on campus, dating to the benefactor’s days as a student at Williamsport Technical Institute and Williamsport Area Community College, the institution’s predecessors.

“A strong advocate for the future of manufacturing in America, Larry is committed to enhancing our automated manufacturing and machining curriculum, lab space and opportunities to prepare students for successful and sustaining careers,” college President Davie Jane Gilmour said. “It is this commitment that has transformed our machining lab, but Larry’s generosity does not stop there. He has donated materials and equipment, sponsored a commencement award for mechatronics students, and hired Penn College graduates and interns as his business grew.”

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Two retired faculty members at Pennsylvania College of Technology – each with decades of service to the institution – have been granted “emeritus” status.

The Penn College Board of Directors on Thursday authorized the faculty emeritus designation for Eric K. Albert, associate professor of automated manufacturing and engineering, who began his employment with the college in 1991, and Chef Craig A. Cian, associate professor of food and hospitality management/culinary arts, who started with the college in 1985. Both men retired in 2020.

“Eric and Craig’s expertise and selfless commitment have created countless long-term opportunities for our students,” said Michael J. Reed, vice president for academic affairs/provost. “Their mission focus and efficacy, coupled with genuine care and concern, brought out the best in our students and colleagues; we will always be grateful for their efforts and accomplishments. Congratulations, Dr. Albert and Chef Cian.”

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