Learning Factory Project Showcase will be Dec. 14

University Park, Pa. -- The Learning Factory Project Showcase will be held from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, in Alumni Hall, HUB-Robeson Center, University Park. The free event is the major exhibition of student projects in the College of Engineering. This showcase will feature industry-sponsored capstone design projects and first-year design projects.

The Learning Factory is an industry-university partnership to produce world-class engineers by integrating design, manufacturing and business realities into the engineering curriculum. Active learning, real-world problems and hands-on experience in a modern facility are the Learning Factory's primary teaching tools. The Learning Factory offers students in traditional engineering disciplines an experience that directly prepares them for careers in design, manufacturing, and product realization.

Students from the senior capstone design courses in mechanical, industrial, electrical, and computer science and engineering present their solutions to real-world engineering problems. Projects are sponsored by industrial clients such as Aerotech, Air Products, ARCCA, BAE Systems, Boeing, FMC Technologies, Flinchbaugh Co., Hershey Medical Center, Ingersoll-Rand, New Pig Corp., PPG, ProAct Inc., Roaring Spring Paper Co., Scientific Systems, Sentry First, Sikorsky and Valtech Corp. Projects will be judged for several awards sponsored by Lockheed Martin.

The first-year projects are sponsored by the Penn State Engineers for a Sustainable World. Some 100 students have been asked to select an appropriate power source and design a method of connecting and using that power source to drive two or more specified attachments for use by small-scale subsistence farmers in Kenya. They also are to design the system to permit transport of it to the farms.

The event is free to the public.

For a video about the event, check http://live.psu.edu/video/137