January ushered in the start of our Remote Monitoring and Management Research project. This project funded by a $50,000 grant from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) allowed us to establish the feasibility of monitoring and managing complex packaging machines over the Internet. Our study showed a 52% savings to our industry partner and established a training platform to show companies how to leverage the Internet for competitive manufacturing advantage.
April again found Todd and I in Europe looking over the manufacturing horizon and bringing home ideas to advance the center. We became intimately familiar with motion control technology as attested to by the accompanying photo of us riding a Kuka robot at the Hannover Messe.
From Hannover, we traveled to Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfort and then on to Zurich for the World Didactic conference. This was an international meeting of stakeholders in technical education and was quite remarkable.
Todd and I attended as the guest of Festo Corporation along with our CIO, Jan Doebbert. At one point, we were participants in a meeting about Skills International.
The room held 40 people from 20+ different countries all conducting business in English. We next traveled to Salzburg,
Austria for a night of R and R. This was my favorite night of the entire trip. I hope to return there soon. The final leg of the trip took us to Stuttgart to visit the University of Stuttgart and discuss the possibility of CAMC as a SERCOS competency center for packaging in North America. All in all, it was a fascinating trip granting opportunities to meet some wonderful people.
This fall, we presented at the International Pack Expo in Chicago. This was a machine built by our students for Yaskawa and is featured elsewhere in this newsletter. I am tremendously proud of the students who made this happen.
While at the Expo, we learned that we will indeed be the SERCOS NA competency center for packaging and will play a role on the executive committee of OMAC Plug-and-Pack. If you are unfamiliar with either of these, check out the links on our web page. Both of these associations are distinct assets to us as a program. Look to hear from us on both fronts.
Well that’s enough rambling for now. Thank you to all who contacted us during the year to offer support at various levels. Our single strongest asset is you, our alumni and partners. Have a good year!
While we enjoy bright, energetic, and talented students every year, this has been an exceptional year. Several of the second year students have double or triple majors, majoring in both Manufacturing Engineering Technician (MET) and Fluid Power Technology (FPT). The third is the Machine Assembly Specialist (MAS) that requires an additional mechanical power transmission lab, plus an internship. A number of students will acquire both the diploma and the additional Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree. New this year is the Automation Systems Integration (ASI) certificate that is to be spread over the two years.
The second year MET students are very enthusiastic, besides taking two or three majors, volunteering for public school projects two times a week , and continuing their other duties or jobs outside of school, these students have taken on several extra activities and projects within CAMC. Three students will complete the additional (ASI) certificate within one year. While carrying a
heavy academic work load, 8 of the 13 students rearranged their schedules for a 4-day trip to the 2002 International Pack Expo in Chicago, IL, and a tour of the Yaskawa Electric America’s Inc. We recently handed out the 2002 PMMI Claude S. Breeden Scholarship Award. The awards went to students who all had multiple majors, with GPA’s above 3.8 and with the best communication skills. The President of the college, Larry Shellito, paid me a visit one day asking me if one of the MET students was a “genius” or if CAMC wasn’t teaching anything. “How could one student be taking 37 credits in one semester ?” After trying to explain, I simply stated that he does great time management and worked on school during his Christmas break. He may not get straight A’s, but he works for what he gets. President Shellito smiled, shook his head, and walked out.
On a personal note, my wife, daughters and I went to Australia and New Zealand last May immediately after graduation. I lost any residual pressure while snorkeling over the Great Barrier Reef, or was it dining with a couple bottles of wine with a full moon on Sydney Harbor. Since I cannot afford this pressure reducing component again this year, all projects and finals are due 3 weeks before graduation. Like I said earlier, the students will survive this pressure thing!