Next Generation Manufacturing

Educators: Externships

Externship Summary - 2005

RCNGM Leader: Fred D'Angelo, Manufacturing Technology
Manchester Community College

Externship: Pratt and Whitney, United Technologies, Corp.

Lessons Learned:

The most useful learning component of my externship was having an opportunity to analyze a complex problem and assess users' requirements. In developing software, the most crucial part of any project is understanding the users' needs. Without this understanding, delivering a product that provides the functions users need is impossible.

In addition, I had an opportunity to learn about the efforts a large, complex manufacturing company makes to define the skills its employees need, track their proficiency in these skills and setup training programs to improve proficiency in these skills.

In terms of actually working at the host company, Pratt & Whitney, the most challenging component of my externship was understanding how the data in the userâ€™s current system was organized and then developing a mechanism to extract it and put it in a format that could be loaded into the new system.

In terms of curriculum development, the most challenging component is expressing the key points of this experience in a way that beginning programming students can understand.

Impact on Student Learning

My experience at Pratt & Whitney had two components: One was related to using information technology. This aspect included analyzing user requirements and developing complex programs to extract data from Excel spreadsheets and put it into a format that could be loaded into a relational database. The other component was gaining an understanding of Pratt & Whitney's work environment and the skills employees need to function effectively there. Because of this I decided to create two curriculum activities: one for an introductory programming class; the other for an introductory engineering class.

For the programming class, I described my experience in working with users at Pratt & Whitney to analyze and understand their needs. I would like to believe that this discussion helped make the process of analyzing user requirements more tangible to them.

In addition, I abstracted one of the techniques I developed to manipulate Excel data and built two Excel files with VBA macros to demonstrate how programs process arrays. This is a difficult area for most students to understand. I would like to believe that this Excel application helped them more than watching me write examples on the whiteboard, but I cannot be certain. In addition, the externship provided me with material for discussing the role of information technology in managing employee skills assessment and training in a manufacturing environment.

For the engineering class, I developed a slide presentation on employees and skill tracking. The introductory engineering class seemed to respond with some enthusiasm., and I believe it helped them understand manufacturing environments. I actually made this presentation in someone else's course (Catherine Seaver's ). She told me that it supported and reinforced the material they were covering at the time and that it generated discussion afterwards.

Externship Sustainability

Returning to a real world work environment has given me the opportunity to acquire new experiences which will become both formal class presentation materials and anecdotes that give depth and texture to a lecture. This was certainly valuable in itself; however, an externship would provide even more value if it offered me the opportunity to learn new skills.

Two areas in which I have a definite interest and need to learn new skills are Assembly language programming and embedded systems programming with C/C++ or Java. I will teach Assembly language programming for the first time next and having an opportunity to sharpen my skills in it will have great value for me and my students.

Embedded systems are the area in which programs interact with and control mechanical equipment. Here programming meets manufacturing. I would like to explore developing a course in this at Manchester Community College so an externship would help me learn this area.

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Educators: Externships

Externship Summary - 2005