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| In a recent article for
Railway Age trade journal, CNCIS Director Bob Gray
detailed his development of two courses for
undergraduates interested in working in the
transportation sector: Applied Systems Design and Remote
Diagnostics, and Manufacturing Related Topics in
Electrical Systems. The first introduces systems
engineering. The second presents reliability
engineering. They are rarely taught in undergraduate
engineering programs. Both grew out of his 20 years of
experience in the engineering field and desire to teach
students how to integrate what they learn in their
individual engineering courses into a sophisticated,
reliably functioning system. |
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Engineers at General
Electric Transportation Systems (GETS) in Erie provided
advice on course development, agreeing that newly
graduated engineering technology students possessed
strong problem-solving and leadership skills, but lacked
knowledge in systems and reliability engineering. The
courses address issues of business (minimizing
production costs and maximizing customer service),
engineering (ensuring smooth interactions among the
discrete parts of a system), and statistics (evaluating
and minimizing failure in a system and its production).
For example, in the systems engineering module of the
Applied Systems course, after instruction by faculty and
engineers from GETS, teams of electrical and mechanical
engineering students brainstorm new designs, compare
their designs to current products, and address
reliability, ease of use, cost, ease of manufacture, and
scheduling. The practicing engineers perform the
important function of providing validation of the use of
theory in the field.
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| The students then get
hands-on experience with locomotives and their
subsystems at the GETS facility. It includes performing
braking and traction tests on a locomotive on a test
track and conducting location tests with GPS and other
navigation equipment.
In another educational partnership, the GETS/Penn
State Technology Service Program keeps qualified
students in a learning environment throughout the year
with internships and sponsored senior design projects.
Assignments during internships include field service,
locomotive final assembly and testing, and maintenance
and diagnostics. Field assignments can be in Colorado,
Nebraska, or Montana, where students work alongside
field engineers, technicians, and customers, gaining a
greater understanding of customer service. Because of
the content and structure of the program and the quality
of the students completing it, the engineering
technology students are sometimes eligible of positions
labeled for an engineering degree only, which typically
involves a more theoretical approach to engineering.
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GETS has benefited from
this expanded access to Penn State Erie’s faculty and
resources, and to its best students. Engineers enjoy the
opportunity to teach and coach engineering students as a
way to contribute to the community. For Penn State Erie,
the collaboration with industry has provided a valuable
addition to the engineering technology program, helping
to attract students and making the students more
attractive to potential employers. Education and
outreach continue beyond the established courses and
programs, too. Eight undergraduates in the past three
years have worked on complex CNCIS problems for GETS.
Furthermore, CNCIS has created workshops for high school
students interested in learning about GPS, and
participated in Math Options, a program designed to
interest young women in math, science, and engineering
careers. Activities in the workshops have involved use
of hand-held GPS receivers and included navigating from
point to point, search and rescue, and measuring the
heights of campus buildings and distances between
landmarks. |
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