State House speaker, colleagues tour campus labs

Published 11.14.2019

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Welding & Metal Fabrication
Faculty & Staff
Polymer Engineering
Automated Manufacturing & Machining
Workforce Development

The group intently listens to President Gilmour in the college's welding addition. From left are Reed; Turzai; Borowicz; Owlett's wife, Lauren; and Owlett.David R. Cotner (second from right), dean of industrial, computing and engineering technologies, takes the group by the expanded facility's impressive new plasma equipment.John M. Good III, instructor of automation and computer integrated manufacturing, leads a tour in College Avenue Labs.The group pauses in front of a ProtoTrak lathe, among equipment purchased with a National Science Foundation grant to combat the skills gap in advanced manufacturing. From left are Owlett, Wheeland, Turzai, Yaw and Borowicz.Shannon M. Munro (in light blue), vice president for workforce development, discusses production activities in the Shell Polymers Rotational Molding Center of Excellence.The speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives was among state legislators who visited Penn College on Thursday afternoon, touring several academic laboratories in the School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies. Comprising the group were Speaker Michael C. Turzai (R-McCandless), Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Lock Haven), Rep. Clinton D. Owlett (R-Wellsboro), Rep. Jeff C. Wheeland (R-Williamsport) and Neil R. Lesher, Rep. Turzai's chief of staff. During the lawmakers' 90-minute stay, school administration and faculty – along with Workforce Development personnel – introduced them to welding and metal fabrication technologies, advanced manufacturing, and plastics and polymer engineering technologies. Facilitating the visit were President Davie Jane Gilmour; Michael J. Reed, vice president for academic affairs/provost; Patrick Marty, chief of staff and assistant to the president for college relations; and state Sen. Gene Yaw, chair of the college's board of directors. Others on the tour included Lycoming County Commissioner-elect Scott L. Metzger and Fisher Mining Co.'s John A. Blaschak, one of the college's corporate partners and a member of its Visionary Society.