Student learning at the University of Dayton Industrial Assessment Center

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy, through its Office of Industrial Technologies, funds twenty-six university-based Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) to train graduate and undergraduate engineering students to provide medium-sized manufacturers with energy, waste, and productivity assessments (http://www.oit.doe.gov/iac/). 1 Presently, the IAC Program uses a well-established database to track savings resulting from recommendations generated during IAC site assessments (Muller, Barnish, and Kasten, 1998) 2. However, additional benefits are not quantified by the database. One additional benefit, the subject of this paper, is student learning. The training and experiences that students receive through the IAC Program provides industry with engineers with significant and diverse industrial experiences. Students are introduced to manufacturing environments and must perform their job functions within these environments. When they graduate they have experience in several industries, understand energy efficiency and can implement lean manufacturing techniques. This paper will review the IAC program at The University of Dayton, its learning tools, and the skills that students acquire. Finally, the paper will review the results of follow-up questionnaires from over 130 IAC alumni that discuss the impact of the LAC program on their careers.