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Engineering technologies programs developed in conjunction with industries

Area employers eager to hire engineering technology interns and graduates

Students working in the new fluid lab

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford opened its new George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building in January, and industry leaders have been touring and been impressed by it ever since.   

Several of those industries made gifts to the construction of the building and are eager to hire the graduates of the programs it is making possible – mechanical engineering technology and energy engineering technology.   

As experienced baby boomers retire, manufacturers are concerned about attracting new workers with the technical skills required in modern industry.   

“The problem we have is an economic problem,” Rick Esch, president of Pitt-Bradford, said to a group of executives from Zippo Manufacturing Co. who were touring the building. “These programs give the region an opportunity for us to grow our own workers with the knowledge and skills needed.”   

With that in mind, Pitt-Bradford worked with local industries when designing its two new engineering technology majors. Starting those majors, which enrolled their first students last fall, required the construction of a $24.5 million, 40,000 square-foot state-of-the-art building where students cannot only design items, but then fabricate and test them.   

A two-story atrium fills the center of the building and provides places for students to study and collaborate. From there, they can also see what is happening in the glass-walled makerspace and fabrication lab and an industrial-grade machine shop beyond.   

“We want students to be invited in just by seeing what’s going on,” Esch said.   

Having students work first-hand with their designs is at the heart of what Pitt-Bradford wants to accomplish with its new engineering technology degrees.   

“Our students will know not only how to design something, they will understand how it is manufactured and the machines that something is manufactured on,” said Dr. Matt Kropf, architect and director of the new engineering technology programs.   

As part of their studies, engineering technology students at Pitt-Bradford will take technical calculus and hands-on classes with labs in machine shop, electrical technology, fluid mechanics, strength of materials, computer-aided design, manufacturing and more. Classes are structured less around theory and more around applications.   

Timothy Van Horn is the executive vice president of operations at Zippo. “This is exactly what we need in this area,” he said of the engineering technology programs. “Some of the newer technology meshed with the traditional is fantastic.”   

Van Horn is anxious for Zippo to begin hosting interns from the programs – so anxious in fact that the company is already working with its first mechanical engineering technology intern from Pitt-Bradford.   

Interns are attractive, Van Horn explained because it gives a company a chance to see how they work with their peers and suppliers under pressure. “At times, projects don’t go as planned,” Van Horn said. “We want to know how these young engineers are going to interact.”

Zippo employs several dozen engineers currently, and Van Horn said automating areas of its manufacturing are part of its strategic plan. As technical workers with years of experience retire, the company will be looking for employees who can program and work with automation equipment and understand their capabilities and limitations.

Another Pitt-Bradford program benefiting area employers has moved into the Duke Building alongside the new engineering technology programs: computer information science and technology.

It is a program with a similar ethos of innovation, collaboration and just having fun tinkering with technology. Several of the information technology adjunct faculty have day jobs working in the university’s computing, telecommunications and media services office, which have also moved into a spacious new home in the Duke Building. 

The information technology graduates are now staffing, sometimes entirely, the technology services of local industries both in and out of the manufacturing sector. Pitt-Bradford information technology graduates are critical to the operation of not just McKean County’s largest employer,

Zippo, but also hospitals, schools, government offices and the university itself, where all of the employees of the computing, telecommunications and media services office are also alumni.

A dedication for the Duke Building will be held at 3 p.m. March 31, giving area residents the opportunity to tour the building. For more information on the new building or Pitt-Bradford’s engineering technology programs, visit www.upb.pitt.edu/engineeringbuilding

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