Manufacturin Engineering Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC

							           Manufacturing Engineering Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC)
                       Meeting Minutes of December 13, 2004

Where: Stevenson Center – Muskegon Michigan
When: Monday December 13, 2004 7:30 AM to 9:45 AM

Attendees:
       Industry: Rudy Shunta, Fred Norris, Ed Symanski, Carl Nelson
       MCC: Tom O’Brien
       WMU: David Meade, Deb Newson, John Patten

After introductions John provided an overview of the departmental activities (see
attached meeting agenda). The following represents the discussion of these items.

   1. Deb mentioned that there are about 6-8 new students that Joe Petro will see in
      January for advising, and there are about 10 students in the pipeline from MCC to
      matriculate into our program.
   2. Recruitment: Many ideas were discussed relative to recruitment, particularly high
      schools. The following represents a listing of existing and potential recruitment
      opportunities. (Note: We do not have a full/part time recruiter for the department,
      we primarily rely on Deb, Dave and John to perform these functions)
         a. Rockets Program – Dave is working with schools
         b. Tech Programs (HS): May be a potential source of students
         c. HS math and Science Programs
         d. Science Fairs (Grand Haven)-Possibly Exhibit and provide Brochures
         e. MiBiz and MM2M, Tom to introduce Dave to Bill Lowery: Pursue
             Collaboration and joint efforts to promote manufacturing education.
         f. Taste of Tomorrow Program: March 8
         g. Branch out to other area HS (outside of the immediate Muskegon region).
                  i. Deb sends our brochures to HS counselors every year.
                 ii. More direct, one on one, contact with counselors suggested,
                     especially the smaller schools in the rural areas.
                iii. Direct contact with Math and Science teachers was recommended,
                     along with Ind. Arts instructors and Career Tech Center staff at
                     MCC.
                iv. Interaction with Honor Societies and science and math related
                     clubs and organizations was suggested.
         h. The HS career pathways, Manufacturing, Science and Technology, may
             provide a viable recruitment path.
             There is a perceived disconnect between the HS and the MFE program
         which the community colleges, MCC in particular, help to fill.
             Tom mentioned that getting an audience of HS students is difficult due to
         the many requests that schools get and scheduling difficulty.
3. Ferris State University (FSU): Dave initiated contacts at FSU (he attended their
   Manufacturing Engineering Technology Advisory Board meeting recently. Dave
   and FSU are investigating the possibility of offering joint courses between WMU
   and FSU in Muskegon, to increase enrollment in courses. This would allow us to
   share resources (faculty and staff), reduce some costs, and hopefully allow us to
   offer more courses with increased frequency. The requirements for Adjunct
   Faculty status (faculty to teach these courses) will need to be reviewed to find a
   common ground (Min. Masters in Engineering, Science or Technology) for
   faculty appointments.
4. Community Colleges: Deb and John are pursuing partnerships, to attract students,
   from GRCC and WSCC. (Note: Tony DeRose in BC, Dave, John and the EUP
   Director in Lansing will also work with Jackson and Lansing CC to recruit
   students-primarily for BC).
5. Web Site:
       a. Provide a link to MCC and KCC from MFE web site: John will do.
       b. Check EUP/MFE links to each other (Deb and John); John will add EUP
           link on MFE web page.
       c. Investigate adding MFE and EUP links to KCC and MCC web pages.
       d. Investigate some prepared/packaged web based presentations for
           recruitment. John will have the SME student web page
           http://www.manufacturingiscool.com/cgi-
           bin/mfgcoolhtml.pl?/home.html& linked to MFE web page.
       e. Suggested that the MFE web page be expanded/enhanced with a web
           based presentation or canned program (perhaps interactive) to promote
           and recruit students. (Note: currently we Deb and John) are responsible
           for their own web site development).

       *The IAC was charged with looking over our respective web sites and
       providing feedback for possible improvements.

6. Web CT: The MFE department/program will begin developing courses using
   WebCT (Dave is developing MFE 360 using WebCT for delivery in the spring
   2005). Future use of web based course instruction will provide additional options
   for students to take courses on an as needed basis. This will be particularly useful
   for low enrollment courses. (Note: MCC uses BlackBoard, a similar web based
   course management/delivery software package).
7. Investigate additional opportunities to beam courses (for the MFE program)
   between the community colleges.
       a. In some cases only MCC or KCC offers the required course, and the other
           CC students take the WMU equivalent course.
       b. We planned to offer statistics at MCC and beam (CVIT) to KCC/BC
           students, but we didn’t have enough students in BC to make it a go.
8. Laboratories: The MFE department/program has no laboratories of its own (John
   submitted an SME proposal last year for $500,000 to purchase lab equipment, but
   the proposal was not funded). Laboratories issues have not been resolved.
      a. It was mentioned that previous students were exposed to six (6) laboratory
         exercises as part of some courses. (Note: Four to six laboratory exercises
         per semester/course is a reasonable number).
      b. For the fall 2004, Materials I, the instructor chose to have the students do
         “projects” instead of the usual lab due to a lack of adequate resources (the
         available equipment was felt to be inadequate).
      c. There are a few laboratories where MCC has sufficient laboratory
         equipment that is available for our use (PLC, CNC, Metrology, etc.)
      d. IAC members suggested that more automation equipment/laboratory
         exercises would be of value. The importance of hands-on training was
         mentioned a number of times by IAC members.
      e. We will need to identify laboratories where insufficient equipment is
         available and develop a plan to address this shortfall.
      f. The College had no equipment budget this year, and we do not expect to
         have equipment funding for the MFE program in the foreseeable future.
      g. The MFE department (David and John) are planning to develop “virtual
         laboratories” using software, web based tools, and the internet (tutorials),
         to supplement existing hardware resources. David will test this
         arrangement this spring with MFE 360, which is being broadcasted to BC
         from Muskegon.
      h. Classes with labs shared between Muskegon and BC create a unique
         challenge. During the spring 2004, MFE 120 was originated in BC, and
         the Muskegon students used a lab and instructor at MCC for the laboratory
         component of the course. (Note: Labs obviously require creative solutions
         and arrangements to do successively at a distance. There is no single or
         simple solution for all situations, there may not even be a single solution
         for a given situation!).
      i. Internships and co-ops provide a way to supplement the laboratory
         experiences of students, where the students are exposed to real world
         equipment and processes.
              i. As most of the MFE students work (mostly full time) the need for
                 hands-on laboratory exercises is partially met through their work
                 experiences.
             ii. All students should be encouraged (required?) to work in industry,
                 such as internships, co-ops or regular employees. Perhaps students
                 could participate in an internship as an elective
      j. Companies may also be able to assist with access to laboratory equipment
         or even contribute laboratory equipment to the program.
      k. The MFE Department (John, Dave, and Deb, with Tom’s help) should
         work closely with MCC Advisory Comm. To identify and secure
         appropriate laboratory equipment. (Note: Perhaps Dave or John could join
         the appropriate MCC IAC).
9. Budgets:
      a. Deb indicated that the break even enrollment is about 18 students/course,
         whereas it used to be 7-8 students/course.
        b. We will plan to use money from the MFE Education Foundation Account
            to cover some of the expenses (revenue shortfall) in the near term.
        c. In the long term, we hope to increase revenues, to meet expenses, through
            increased enrollment and additional state/university contributions.
10. IAC membership: John suggested that the IAC membership be expanded by at
    least two additional members, in addition to Dave Heatherton (Shape) and Paul
    Stylarski (General Dynamics).

    * The IAC was charged with helping to identify additional potential members.
11. SME Student Chapter: Dave has initiated conversations with SME to form a
    student chapter in Muskegon (to serve both MCC and WMU-MFE students).
        a. The previous student chapter number was U111 (a forming chapter).
        b. The new student chapter will come under the Grand Rapids senior chapter
            #38.
12. Fred emphasized the importance of ABET training for faculty
        a. It is suggested/recommended that Dave and John attend training.
        b. John mentioned that the college (CEAS) has an appointed ABET person,
            Edmund Tsang, Assoc. Dean of Education, who coordinates college
            ABET activity (Note: Edmund is our resident ABET guru).
13. Assessment and ABET Accreditation:
        a. John will begin work on the university assessment document in 2005.
        b. The department is currently beginning to collect and acquire
            documentation, such as course work, for future ABET accreditation
            (probably in 2010).
14. Student Employment:
        a. Carl mentioned that Howmet has 8 MFE students/graduates currently
            employed and they are looking for 3 co-ops for 20 hours/week.
        b. The students’ skill set and job title is important for future development.
        c. John mentioned that the college has a co-op/intern person, Larry Williams,
            who coordinates the college wide program. Anyone (company) that would
            like an intern or co-op should contact Larry directly, (269 276 3261).
        d. The university also has a placement office and our college contact person
            is Tracy Moon (269 276 3263), who works with students and employers to
            find suitable work experiences and jobs for students.
        e. There is also competition from other colleges in the area for internship
            positions, such as Baker College.
15. The need to expand out to other companies in the region was emphasized, to
    attract more employers to the MFE program and its students.
16. It was suggested that we invite the newly appointed Dean of Engineering (Tim
    Greene) to a future IAC activity; perhaps a social gathering would be more
    appropriate than an actual IAC meeting. John will arrange a meeting for spring or
    summer 2005 (Note: Dr. Greene will officially start at WMU 4-1-2004). This
    would also be a good opportunity to meet the new president of MCC (Deb and
    Tom could help to arrange this meeting).
17. Next Meeting: John will arrange the next meeting sometime in the spring or
    summer, or the fall at the latest.