BlackboardGrants Give Engineering Students Competitive Edge
For three years running, industrial engineering students at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have had a chance to work with the latest tools and techniques available in software. Their good fortune is no accident.
Through combined efforts of a team of engineering professors, who seek grants for the department of industrial engineering, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, which annually gives awards to deserving institutions, the FAMU-FSU College has received almost $1.5 million in hi-tech software. SME, a professional engineering organization since 1932, has an interest in developing superior programs that bring forward high-quality, well-trained students with an interest in manufacturing.
"We're glad to be able to do it," said Eugene Nelson, president of SME's Education Foundation, which is responsible for selecting the recipients of awards valued at $30 million last year. This year. the industrial engineering department has received software packages from SME ranging in value from $2,000 to $135,000, in addition to small cash grants. Software from professional organizations in SME falls into two main categories: computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing. Using it, both undergraduate and graduate students learn how to design an industrial part, while at the same time creating instructions for making the part.
The benefits for students are two-fold: They get to work with the latest manufacturing tools, and they are better prepared to enter the manufacturing work force after graduation. As a result of the grants, about 200 students are involved in designing new products, such as shipping boats and containers for industrial diesel engines. Some of them are also working on ways to develop new environmentally friendly processes to clean industrial equipment. In bygone college days, if a product failed to operate efficiently, manufacturing design students would have to scrap all their work and return to the drawing board. But with the software from SME, students now simply adjust weak areas in their design on a computer screen.
The college began applying for the SME grants four years ago. The grant group is encouraged by the results it has had over the past three years and is continuing to apply for another round of awards next year.
