Learning at a distance

Manufacturing Engineering, May 1995

Military engineers and scientists in Easton, MD, and Black and Decker engineers and technical staff in Easton, Towson, and Hampstead, MD, and Tarboro, Fayetteville, and Asheboro, NC, can work toward a Master of Science in Industrial Technology at East Carolina University--without entering a classroom. The National Science Foundation, which funds this ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) Technology Reinvestment Project, calls it "the factory as a learning laboratory." In this case, six BD factories are the labs.

In Fayetteville (see photo), last fall's students in productivity and materials classes submitted projects for improving polyester resin applications to armature windings, for expanding bar coding to material handling, for substituting AISI 8620 for AISI 4320 to reduce nickel content and thus scrap, and for replacing zinc with less expensive ceramic-filled plastic in a circular saw dust chute. (Photo omitted) "These classes are over now," says Mike Humenik, program director at B&D Fayetteville, "but the student projects continue. They can save the plant considerable money."

Using interactive television, B&D's interactive video network, electronic data exchange modules, and E-mail, teachers from East Carolina University's Dept. of Industrial Technology, based at BD Fayetteville, teach employees and military staff at Easton via interactive video. Students spend three hours every Monday for 12 weeks in their distance classes for 12 credits, receiving EDI (electronic data interchange) modules for each course by mail.

Humenik says the programming delivered and the technology that delivers it "could well be the right strategy for serving the changing needs of a highly mobile workforce." For details, contact Dr. J. Barry DuVall, CMfgE, at East Carolina University: tel. (919) 328-4861; fax (919) 757-4250; Internet E-mail itduvall (at) homer.sit.ecu.edu.

In another MS-at-a-distance program, engineers can qualify for a Lehigh University Quality Engineering degree without ever leaving work to trek to the Bethlehem, PA, campus. Because digital satellite transmissions to students are live from campus, they can participate by phone or fax and communicate with teachers via fax and overnight mail.

Dr. John Adams of Lehigh's manufacturing systems engineering department calls distance learning ideal for on-the-job training. Satellite broadcasts, delivered live at corporate sites via a two-way audio, one-way video system, let students on campus and at work hear each other's questions and comments in real time. Students who miss a class because of business travel can see it on videotape. Universities see it as a cost-effective way to use their teaching staff--a class can be beamed to just one student at a given site, or to 20 or 30, without affecting numbers of class sections and instructors.

Adams points out that Lehigh distance students are equal to campus students in every regard but one: they meet the same admission requirements as everyone else; they take the same tests; their achievement is rated the same way. You may be able to tell them apart, he says, by their grades, which tend to be higher than those of on-campus students. For more information, program administrator, Peg Kercsmar, at (610) 758-6210.

Distance learning can also keep you up to date on developments in high tech areas. In March, an audience of over 500 heard Alan Peterson of 3-D Dimensional Services, Dr. Mo Damavandi of Ferriot Inc., David Tait of Laserform, and Mel Harbaugh of Toledo Molding Die explain what rapid prototyping did for their companies. The videoconference was developed by SME's Government Relations Div. and its Rapid Prototyping Assn. in National Technological University's Modem Manufacturing series. It resembles the approaches just described, in that everything happens live.

The audience can question the small-shop group and other speakers like Clint Atwood, who leads the RP effort at Sandia National Labs, or Thomas Sorovetz, who supervises Chrysler's RP lab. For a videotape, contact Ellen Hemstreet, director, National Technological University Manufacturing Extension Partnership; tel. (303) 495-6424; Internet e-mail Ellen.Hemstreet (at)ntupub. ntu.edu.

MORE ON RP?

Attend AUTOFACT Southeast's conference session in Charlotte, NC, on June 21 for Fundamentals of Rapid Prototyping; the course repeats in Chicago September 20 and in Denver, CO, September 28. Two new RP videos in the Manufacturing Insights series are available: Rapid Tooling, Rapid Parts and Rapid Prototyping for DFM. On the bookshelf: Rapid Prototyping Systems--Fast Track to Product Realization, a collection of examples from companies like Pitney-Bowes, Sunstrand, and Chrysler; Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing: Fundamentals of Stereo-Lithography, an introduction to the technology by Dr. P. Jacobs; or Automated Fabrication: Improving Productivity in Manufacturing, with lists of commercially available fabricators, materials, processes being developed, and information sources. To register for courses or order books and videos (including the NTU videoconference tape), call SME Customer Service, 1-800-733-4SME, 8 am-6 pm Eastern time, Monday through Friday.