We can’t help boasting a little by reporting about one of our current collaborations with Oregon State University. Our design and engineering team has been working with students from the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering in a setting that mirrors the standard design process we use with actual industrial design firms to develop new lab equipment. This is a win-win situation. We are covering two avenues that are extremely important to our industry’s future and our passion: Staying on top of the laboratory equipment technological curve and giving back to the industrial and educational community. For the OSU students involved, the classroom setting to real world application is proving to be a valuable tool.
“This collaboration with Sheldon has been a wonderful opportunity for the students involved to both use the technical training they have received and to also gain new skills in effectively interacting with manufacturing personnel and industrial vendors,” reports Professor John Parmigiani, Ph.D., P.E., OSU School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering, and overall project manager and technical consultant (Pictured above on the right).
The students follow a very structured, formulaic process that has all the expected steps, giving them a real world application to their studies. They are graded every step of the way and have a built-in accountability for their work.
The collaboration came about through the OSU alumni association and Sheldon Manufacturing’s President (OSU alum) Dan Sheldon. “Great concepts come out these projects and are viewed as a launching point for our engineers to take and implement into the equipment,” says Sheldon. “In our experience with senior design projects, the results can be more innovative than the conventional design counterparts,” he continues, “We also see intrinsic value in the collaboration. This is part of Sheldon giving back to the science/technology and local education communities.”
Thus far, the joint effort has developed a green technology incubator, a hands-free, automated door opener for shaking incubators, and a heated door design for large CO2 incubators. As an added benefit, the incubator(s) will be used by the OSU Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics once the project is complete.
