Oakland University has been selected to receive the 2018David A. Harvey Memorial Scholarshipin recognition of the university’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Established in memory of the founding publisher ofAutomation Worldmagazine, the scholarship was created to encourage and support the growth of careers in industrial automation.
“We are extremely honored to be awarded the David A. Harvey Memorial Scholarship,” said Robert Van Til, Ph.D., Pawley professor of lean studies and chair of theISE Department. “I believe receiving the scholarship is a reflection on the quality of our students. We want to express our sincerest appreciation to David's family, friends, business colleagues and co-workers who created the scholarship, and to everyone at Automation World magazine for selecting us to receive it."
Educational institutions that prepare students for employment in manufacturing and automation are eligible for the award.
The $5,000 award is given to the institution, which in turn selects a student (or students) who are enrolled in a qualifying program. Funds are ultimately distributed to the student to be used to defray tuition or other educational costs.
Funding for the scholarship comes from several sources including the sponsors of the Automation Conference & Expo, PMMI Media Group and Automation World.
“David Greenfield, our editor-in chief, suggested Oakland University because of what he saw during a Siemens event he attended earlier this year which highlighted both how the ISE Department works with local manufacturers to ensure relevancy of their curriculum and with automation technology suppliers so that students can gain direct experience on the automation hardware and software technologies they’ll be working with in manufacturing,” said Kurt Belisle, publisher of Automation World.
From the beginning, ISE faculty at OU decided that a main focus of the department’s educational programs would be on digital manufacturing, leading to the department joining Siemens’ Global Opportunities in PLM (GO PLM) Program in 2011. GO PLM membership has led to the integration of Tecnomatix (Plant Simulation, Jack and Process Simulate) and Teamcenter softwares into several existing ISE courses. In these courses, students complete various assignments using the PLM tools following specific instructions for tool use.
The next step for the ISE Department involved developing and offering application focused courses where students learn how to use a particular PLM software tool while using the tool on several projects. Six application focused courses are currently being offered, including: PLM Applications - Product Data Management (using Teamcenter), PLM Applications - Robotics (Process Simulate Robotics), PLM Applications - Ergonomics (Jack), PLM Applications - Change Management (Teamcenter), PLM Applications - Discrete Event Systems (Plant Simulation) and PLM Applications - Manufacturing Process Planning (Teamcenter).
In addition to using the PLM tools in courses, they are also being used in a K-12 STEM outreach program. K-12 students visit the ISE Department and are given hands-on projects using Plant Simulation and Jack to help teach the students about careers in manufacturing.
“Dave had a passion for this business and for getting kids more involved in controls and automation,” said Joseph Anel, president of PMMI Media Group. “We are confident this scholarship will benefit (Oakland University’s) program.”
The scholarship presentation will be held on Wednesday, May 23 at the Chicago Marriott O'Hare in Chicago, Ill. For more information about the scholarship, visitpmmimediagroup.com/aw/david-harvey-memorial-scholarship.