Partnership for Regional Innovation in Manufacturing Education

This project supports the development of seven new manufacturing degree programs in the Pittsburgh area through a coalition known as PRIME - Partnership for Regional Innovation in Manufacturing Education. These manufacturing programs address twelve core competencies as identified by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The coalition includes two-year and four-year institutions and approximately fifty industrial partners. The project consists of the adaptation of exemplary material from other manufacturing programs and the development of twenty modules in engineering materials, manufacturing processes, quality and metrology, computer applications in manufacturing, and programmable logic controllers. An active, collaborative learning approach of exploration, dialog, and application is being incorporated in the modules. Industry-supplied projects for collaborative student teams are being developed, and newly-equipped laboratory instrumentation is networked for cross-institutional use. Web-based conferencing facilitates regional collaborative teaming opportunities.