News about Industrial Design

On Tuesday evening, in a cooperative effort between the School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies and the School of Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies, students enrolled in Ergonomics and Kinesiology (BIX220) explored several aircraft at the Lumley Aviation Center. Jason P. Zielewicz teaches the course, which is a study of human factors as they relate to design. The industrial design students sat on the flight deck of Penn College’s Boeing 727 to delve into the complexity of its controls and how they correspond to the pilot’s seating position. The students also got a look at the flight deck of the school’s Dassault Falcon 20 business jet, and viewed several smaller airplanes and helicopters. They will use the knowledge gained at the aviation center to refine their design-concept assignments. At the end of the course, the students will build a full-scale design of an automobile, aircraft or spacecraft, and test it using anthropometric people.
Information and photo by Thomas D. Inman, associate professor of aviation

A foundation promoting manufacturing careers awarded one-third of its recent scholarships to Pennsylvania College of Technology students.

A dozen Penn College students were among 36 nationwide who received manufacturing scholarships from Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs. The scholarships, valued between $1,500 and $2,500, are for Fall 2019.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” said David R. Cotner, dean of Penn College’s School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies, which is home to the recipients’ majors. “To have the college dominate a national scholarship list speaks volumes about the quality of our students and our various academic programs.”

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Pennsylvania College of Technology engineering design students, as well as students from several other majors, distinguished themselves by passing prominent industry certification exams related to computer-aided design during the 2018-19 academic year.

Most of the students became certified SolidWorks associates, while two students added certifications for AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor, respectively.

“Encouraging students to obtain CAD certifications is a standard practice within our department,” said Katherine A. Walker, assistant professor of engineering design technology. “Their performance on the exams validates their skill sets, reflects their hard work in class and reveals their dedication to their future profession. The certifications help them stand out in the job market upon graduation.”

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A book written by a Penn College professor of industrial design has been chosen among the field’s 100 best works “of all time” by BookAuthority.

Thomas E. Ask’s “Engineering for Industrial Designers & Inventors: Fundamentals for Designers of Wonderful Things,” published in 2016 by O’Reilly Media, is ranked 25th on the recently compiled list.

BookAuthority is described as the leading site for nonfiction recommendations, curating the books recommended by the world’s most successful CEOs, business leaders and experts.

The industrial design major at Pennsylvania College of Technology is intended to elicit students’ creative potential. For three students on the cusp of graduation, that goal has been met, as evidenced by their senior projects.

Nicole Bamonte, of Williamsport; Nina M. Hadden, of Murrysville; and Abigail M. Meredick, of Danville, have spent countless hours during the past several months drawing on their education and practical experiences to develop prototypes of marketable products. The results are three inspired creations: a collapsible dresser, dog training system and surgical instrument.

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The empowering combination of applied technology education and financial support was celebrated Sunday afternoon, as Pennsylvania College of Technology hosted its second annual Scholarship Luncheon in the campus Field House.

“I am overwhelmed by the collective energies in this room to transform tomorrow,” President Davie Jane Gilmour said, addressing students, families and donors alike. Announcing that the coming academic year will include the largest total amount of scholarships awarded in any one year during the college’s history, she thanked attendees for their significant role in helping students succeed.

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Autodesk recognized the contributions of a Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty member to its support network during the recent Expert Elite Global Summit in Las Vegas.

The multinational software corporation honored J.D. Mather, assistant professor of engineering design technology, as 5-Year Top Expert Elite Autodesk Forums contributor for submitting nearly 500 screencast videos to the Autodesk Knowledge Network, a repository of educational content for the Autodesk community.

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Some people spend a lifetime searching for that elusive “dream job.” Thomas Proske spent a summer experiencing his, thanks to an internship at a prominent toy maker.

The Pennsylvania College of Technology industrial design student worked on the design team at K’NEX in Hatfield. A division of Basic Fun, K’NEX is the maker of iconic construction toys pieced together by colorful, interlocking plastic components.

“It was pretty much, ‘Here, go make stuff,’” said Proske, a sophomore from Laceyville. “I didn’t know that they were going to sit me down and have me build all day. It was such an awesome job.”

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A second gift of $500,000 from the Tamaqua-based John E. Morgan Foundation has boosted an endowed scholarship fund at Pennsylvania College of Technology to more than $1 million.

The John E. Morgan Scholarship gives first preference to graduates of Tamaqua Area High School who are pursuing “a degree that is not readily available from other institutions, at a comparable price, within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

Examples of such programs offered at Penn College include, but are not limited to, culinary arts and systems, web and interactive media, building science and sustainable design, health information management, industrial design, plastics and polymer engineering technology, emergency management technology, and aviation maintenance technology.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology alumnus Keith L. Jeffcoat recently returned to his roots to share advice and industry experience with the next generation of students.

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From the Fall 2018 Penn College Magazine: Three graduates’ craftsmanship wows audiences of more than a million a year at Sight & Sound Theatres. Read “Setting the Stage.”

Industrial design majors Nicole Bamonte and Abigail M. Meredick will discuss their June travels to Finland during a presentation at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, in Room 129 of College Avenue Labs. Bamonte, of Williamsport, and Meredick, of Danville, learned about and prototyped wearable technology among 80 students from 15 countries who attended the ninth annual International Summer School hosted by The Center for Ubiquitous Computing at the University of Oulu.

Designed by students and funded by a forward-thinking group of individual and industry benefactors, a space designed to inspire interdisciplinary innovation and collaboration has opened its doors at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Dedication ceremonies were held Aug. 14 for The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College, a facility constructed in the Carl Building Technologies Center on the main campus.

Donors – as well as members of the college’s Board of Directors, Corporate Advisory Board, the Penn College Foundation Board and the campus community – gathered in the makerspace to hear about its genesis and to view, in makerspace parlance, its spaces for “clean” (computers, 3D printers, sewing machines and vinyl cutters, etc.) and “dirty” (saws, drill presses, routers, lathes and CNC mills) activities to take place within.

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A makerspace, providing a fertile environment for innovation and imagination – and the tools with which students can turn visions into reality – was dedicated in Penn College’s Carl Building Technologies Center on Tuesday. The student-designed Dr. Welch Workshop memorializes Dr. Marshall Welch Jr., a local orthodontist and longtime philanthropist, who died in 2012. The Welch family, including son Marshall III, is the principal donor for the facility; George E. “Herman” Logue Jr. supported the so-called “dirty space” (the Logue Fabritorium) and Frederick T. Gilmour, faculty emeritus, made a commitment for the “clean space” (the Gilmour Tinkertorium). The ceremony spotlighted the students and faculty members who brainstormed the idea into existence, and included representative comments from Rob A. Wozniak, associate professor of architectural technology: “With the many students from various majors that will use this makerspace, it is hoped that they take the opportunity to collaborate with others. To create. To explore. To learn about the tools that they may otherwise never have been able to have access to. To try another way of doing something. To invent (and maybe even patent) something new! And, as a result, Penn College, the community and the world will all benefit … from this amazing collaborative effort.”

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The North Eastern Athletic Conference has selected Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Hanna Williams as its 2017-18 Female Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Member of the Year. She joins Keuka College’s Dakota Skinner, who was recognized as the NEAC Male SAAC Member of the Year earlier this week.

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