Summer school: Online education credits useful for engineering
-- Control Engineering, 6/30/2008
Cleveland, OH, and Concord, MA – OK, so it’s nearly July, and you told yourself you were going to brush up on a few things before fall. Several online options may help with engineering-related skill sets useful for automation, controls, and instrumentation for young people, those in college and, those in the workforce.Tooling U and OSU partner to provide CEUs: Tooling U and Ohio State University have announced a partnership that enables Tooling U users to earn continuing education units (CEUs) and to gain the skills to move up the career ladder to better jobs and higher salaries. Manufacturers should see gains from the program, as it develops a highly skilled and specialized workforce with cross-functional skills. For every seven Tooling U classes a student completes, Ohio State University Center for Corporate and Community Education will award one continuing education unit at minimal cost.
“Knowledge is being lost at an alarming rate as manufacturing employees retire,” said Gretchen Schultz, grant coordinator at Tooling U. “Continuous training opens many doors for manufacturers, as the learning curve is eliminated on a daily basis. This partnership continues a partnership between Tooling U and The Ohio State University. They are currently educational partners through the OSU Training To Go program.”
Tooling U provides a range of online training programs for people in the manufacturing industry. Courses are delivered through a Learning Management System (LMS) that allows companies to assess training needs and track performance. Tooling U offers training packages for manufacturing areas, including mill/lathe operators, press operators, assemblers, and maintenance professionals, as well as custom-created training material for Fortune 500 manufacturers.
SolidWorks Robotics University: (Interested students can request an invitation by sending an e-mail to SRURequest@solidworks.com.) School’s in for summer: An antidote to summer vacation boredom might be SolidWorks Robotics University (SRU). Sponsored by SolidWorks Corp., SRU went live June 1 with all the elements of a brick-and-mortar summer school – including a vibrant community.
An alternative to hanging out or playing video games, SRU is a free, online, independent study robotics academy for prospective, beginning, and experienced robotics enthusiasts. More than 1,400 middle school, high school, and college students had pre-registered for the academy by mid-May, accepting early admission invitations online. Many compete in BattleBots, FIRST, the MATE International ROV Competition, Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, RoboCup, or BattleCry@WPI robotics contests.
SRU comprises structured lessons, tutorials, event calendars, photos, videos, forums, blogs, chat, personal pages, and instruction for using SolidWorks 3D CAD software for robot design. The university has donated 1,400 scholarship copies of SolidWorks 2007-2008 Student Edition software to registrants.
“Summer ‘camp’ can sharpen your game for serious competition that begins in the fall,” said Ryan Koehler, a freshman mechanical engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He says students around the world learn from one another, engage in the robotics community, and occasionally talk about other stuff, too.
Students in SRU can learn the secrets of robot design, assembly, configuration, and operation. They can write or read reviews on the best parts, kits, and designs. They can share stories, pictures, and multimedia documenting their triumphs and defeats, and even make predictions about the upcoming competitive season.
“SolidWorks Robotics University is a refuge from an entirely unstructured summer vacation whether you’re a robotics competitor, somebody who wants to learn SolidWorks, somebody who likes robotics, or somebody who thinks they might like robotics,” said Marie Planchard, director of worldwide education markets for SolidWorks. “And you just might pick up some new math or science along the way.”
Also read: 3D Does It.
Safety instrumented systems: ISA and the Automation Standards Compliance Institute (ASCI) offers an online program for ISA84 Safety Instrumented Systems certification.
– Control Engineering News Desk
Register here and scroll down to select your choice of eNewsletters free.
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Sponsored Links
View All Blogs
Now Playing:
