Purdue University Northwest engineering school instructors will get hands on experience to better understand workforce needs of Region manufacturers.
The college’s school of engineering has launched the PNW Engineering Faculty Internship Program.
“The program puts PNW engineering faculty to work in our Region’s manufacturing plants, in our community agencies, and at our industrial work sites, giving them an opportunity to share their expertise with their colleagues on the ground and also bring back to the classroom a better sense of what our engineering students need to learn and master before they graduate,” said Dietmar Rempfer, director of the school of engineering.
Faculty might be tasked to solve a specific engineering problem, or assist partners in reimagining how to do business in a fast-changing, competitive environment, PNW said. The goal of the program is to create stronger connections.
Yun (Tom) Liu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, was the first PNW instructor to serve the internship. He worked with engineers at Michigan City-based Dwyer Instruments to develop and improve a four-channel pilot tube sensor.
Liu’s expertise in experimental fluid mechanics led to a redesign of one of the company’s products, according to PNW.
“While Dwyer Instruments has excellent testing facilities for developing instrumentation, we sometimes encounter problems beyond our internal expertise,” said Robert Moss, director of engineering at Dwyer Instruments. “For these situations, we reach out to Purdue Northwest for the combination of Dr. Liu, a recognized expert in the field of measurement, and PNW’s state-of-the-art test facilities.”
Moss said the collaboration between PNW and the Dwyer design team led to a breakthrough solution for a problem that’s long existed in the test instrumentation market.
