SME Grants $294,000 to California Polytechnic For High-Tech Labs and Student Outreach Program

    DEARBORN, Mich., July 20 A $294,000 grant from the SME
Education Foundation to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis
Obispo will help the university strengthen its manufacturing curriculum.
Improvements on the program will continue through the spring of 2003 and will
better prepare students to meet the needs of California manufacturers by
enhancing its electronics education, offering hands-on work opportunities,
creating leading-edge laboratories and updating other coursework.  SME has
awarded more than $1 million in grants to California schools since 1998.
    The Cal Poly program is supported by the State of California and the
contributions from a newly formed manufacturing consortium.  The consortium
includes Flextronics, Solar Turbines, Solectron, Raytheon, Mustang
Manufacturing, Orthodyne Electronics, and Melfred Borzall.
    Said Ray Adams, president of the SME Education Foundation, "We are
listening and responding to the needs of industry for a more skilled workforce
and we're funding advancements in manufacturing, engineering, science and
technology that are critical to creating economic growth."
    The Cal Poly program will help undergraduate students develop their
ability to tackle real-world challenges.  Students will become active paid
participants as employees at partner companies -- allowing them to "earn as
they learn," gaining work experience while securing industry contacts,
affirming career goals, learning about the needs of business and industry,
applying their formal learning to workplace problems, building confidence, and
earning competitive wages to help offset their educational costs.
    Said Dan Waldorf, assistant professor, Industrial and Manufacturing
Engineering at Cal Poly said, "Both potential employers and prospective
students will benefit from our efforts.  Our industrial partners include
regional manufacturers of everything from turbine generators to printed
circuit boards, to large boring equipment.  Students will receive a wide range
of real-life experience to prepare them for successful careers in
manufacturing engineering."
    For 2001, SME Education Foundation grant funding of nearly $1 million also
included Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, La.; $99,000, Oregon State
University, Corvallis, Ore., $185,000; University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla,
Mo., $182,000; and the University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas,
$191,000.
    Since its inception in 1979, SME's Education Foundation has given cash
grants of over $14 million to colleges and universities throughout North
America, more than any other professional engineering society.  This also
includes 27 major grants since 1998 totaling $5.45 million and funding to
three Minnesota colleges and universities for STEPS (Science, Technology
& Engineering Preview Summer camps for girls).
    For further information on the SME Education Foundation grant funding
program, please contact the SME Education Foundation at 313-271-1500.  The
application deadline for grants in the 2002 funding cycle is December 7, 2001.
    SME, headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., is the world's leading professional
society serving the manufacturing industries.  Through its publications,
expositions, professional development resources and member programs, SME
influences more than 500,000 manufacturing executives, managers and engineers.
Founded in 1932, SME has members in 70 countries and supports a network of
hundreds of chapters worldwide.
    SME background information, and news releases can be accessed on the SME
Home Page at http://www.sme.org .

    Media Contact:                        Grant-funding Contact:
    Barbara Gaston                        Steve Quinlan
    Corporate Communications              Grants Program Officer
    313-271-1500, ext. 1861               313-271-1500, ext. 1702
    Email: gastbar@sme.org                Email: quinste@sme.org


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