PUC, Mitsubishi partner on lab
June 7, 2012 4:48PM
Updated: June 7, 2012 4:53PM
Purdue University Calumet offers one of the few, if not only, mechatronics engineering technology baccalaureate degree programs in the nation.
The program, which debuted in 2008, prepares students for job and career opportunities in the rapidly growing, multi-million dollar packaging industry.
Mechatronics engineering technology combines mechanical design, manufacturing and electrical control within a foundational context of packaging machinery. Students as prospective professionals learn to design, build and service the industry’s complex, high-speed machinery.
Doing so requires plenty of hands-on, applied learning — and the laboratory resources and equipment to enable that to happen. In response, a recently-developed partnership between PUC’s School of Technology and Mitsubishi Electric Automation has produced a new, campus-based, state-of-the-art laboratory.
The lab provides an environment of real-world equipment designed to get students up to speed with knowledge and experience attractive to employers, according to Niaz Latic, PUC dean of the School of Technology.
“This is a win-win partnership between industry and the university,” Latif said. “Students have the opportunity to learn in a modern automation laboratory, and Mitsubishi customers benefit through access to a training facility at a convenient location. This laboratory could not have been developed without the generous support and donation of Mitsubishi Electric Automation.”
The new lab features five automation simulation rack unit stations donated by MEAU. The cutting-edge technological units, each valued at $13,000 or more, include programmable logic controllers, human machine interfaces and PC-based icon-driven programming tools.
“Our involvement in the development of a world-class training facility utilizing Mitsubishi Electric hardware, software and training curriculum has been very rewarding,” said Mark Werthman Sr., Mitsubishi Electric Automation technical support group manager. “Working with the faculty of Purdue Calumet’s School of Technology has been a privilege.”
The Nick and Nancy Wilson Mechatronics Engineering Technology Laboratory: Earlier this spring, PUC named its original mechatronics laboratory after the owner of Morrison Container Handling Solutions, Nick Wilson, and his wife, Nancy, the company’s director of customer relations.
The naming gesture acknowledges the influence, encouragement and support the Wilsons have provided PUC and its mechatronics program.
Nick Wilson served as the catalyst behind a partnership of packaging industry leaders who helped PUC faculty develop a curriculum in mechatronics engineering technology. Subsequently, the Wilsons have been generous endowment supporters and personally involved in the university’s baccalaureate degree program.
$5,000 scholarship established: Thanks to a recent gift received from Summit Media Group, a $5,000 scholarship is available to PUC engineering technology students who demonstrate financial need, with a strong preference to those studying mechatronics engineering technology.
The David Harvey Memorial Scholarship has been established in memory and honor of the late entrepreneur, leader and founding publisher of
Automation World magazine.
For more information about the scholarship and the mechatronics engineering technology program, visit webs.purduecal.edu/et, or contact Ed Perosky, academic adviser, at 989-2484 or perosky@purduecal.edu.
