An Advanced Technological Education Project for High Value Manufacturing: Lessons Learned

Michael Johnson; Bimal P. Nepal

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: NSF Grantees: Workforce Development (ATE)
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34103
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34103
Download Count: 490

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Paper Authors

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Michael Johnson Texas A&M University orcid.org/0000-0001-5328-8763

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Dr. Michael D. Johnson is a professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas A&M, he was a senior product development engineer at the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on engineering education; design tools; specifically, the cost modeling and analysis of product development and manufacturing systems; and computer-aided design methodology.

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Bimal P. Nepal Texas A&M University

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Dr. Bimal Nepal is an Associate Professor in the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University. His research interests include integration of supply chain management with new product development decisions, distributor service portfolio optimization, pricing optimization, supply chain risk analysis, lean and six sigma, large scale optimization, and engineering education. He has authored over 100 refereed articles in leading journals and peer reviewed conference proceedings in these areas. He has B.S. in ME, and both M.S. and Ph.D. in IE. He is a member of ASEE, INFORMS, ASEM, and a senior member of IIE.

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Abstract

Projects rarely go according to plan, but this is especially true of those that involve multiple institutions and have a significant degree of complexity associated with them. This work relates the experiences an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project around high value manufacturing. The project was a collaboration with a large southwestern university and a local urban community college. The project comprised three main aspects: 1) the development of a certificate program in high value manufacturing; 2) offering professional development to working professionals in the area of high value manufacturing; and 3) educating teachers about advanced manufacturing with a goal of recruiting their students into manufacturing careers. This work describes the lessons learned through each of the project aspects.

The design of the High Value Manufacturing Certificate Program required close collaboration between both institutions. The issues that arose during this development process included personnel turnover, approval timelines and processes, and agreement on the course content. The authors will relay how they navigated these issues to get the program created and approved.

The creation of the professional development program did not involve the community college directly, but was very dependent on recruiting participants. This recruitment proved to be more difficult than the project team expected. The targeting of the professional development program and the development of the curriculum will be discussed. The author will also highlight the delivery changes they implemented over the two years of the offerings based on participant feedback.

The final aspect of the project is the teacher experience with advanced manufacturing. Hosting teachings and determining what content and activities they experience is a somewhat daunting task. The use of an existing University Program and the selection of collaborating faculty will be discussed. Overall, the lessons learned from this project can be an opportunity for new ATE principal investigators (PIs) to learn from the authors’ experiences. It can also help potential ATE PIs craft more realistic and practical proposals.

Citation
Format

Johnson, M., & Nepal, B. P. (2020, June), An Advanced Technological Education Project for High Value Manufacturing: Lessons Learned Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34103

TY - CPAPER
AB - Projects rarely go according to plan, but this is especially true of those that involve multiple institutions and have a significant degree of complexity associated with them. This work relates the experiences an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project around high value manufacturing. The project was a collaboration with a large southwestern university and a local urban community college. The project comprised three main aspects: 1) the development of a certificate program in high value manufacturing; 2) offering professional development to working professionals in the area of high value manufacturing; and 3) educating teachers about advanced manufacturing with a goal of recruiting their students into manufacturing careers. This work describes the lessons learned through each of the project aspects.

The design of the High Value Manufacturing Certificate Program required close collaboration between both institutions. The issues that arose during this development process included personnel turnover, approval timelines and processes, and agreement on the course content. The authors will relay how they navigated these issues to get the program created and approved.

The creation of the professional development program did not involve the community college directly, but was very dependent on recruiting participants. This recruitment proved to be more difficult than the project team expected. The targeting of the professional development program and the development of the curriculum will be discussed. The author will also highlight the delivery changes they implemented over the two years of the offerings based on participant feedback.

The final aspect of the project is the teacher experience with advanced manufacturing. Hosting teachings and determining what content and activities they experience is a somewhat daunting task. The use of an existing University Program and the selection of collaborating faculty will be discussed. Overall, the lessons learned from this project can be an opportunity for new ATE principal investigators (PIs) to learn from the authors’ experiences. It can also help potential ATE PIs craft more realistic and practical proposals.

AU - Michael Johnson
AU - Bimal P. Nepal
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - An Advanced Technological Education Project for High Value Manufacturing: Lessons Learned
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34103
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34103
ER -