Very Fantastic YSU News

[Towntalk]

Siemens Chief Operating Officer Eric Spiegel said Thursday the $440 million grant his company donated to Youngstown State University will help shore up the training gap for students to work in the 3-D printing field.
 
Siemens, the electronics and electrical engineering company, on Wednesday donated $440 million to Youngstown State University students working with the National Additive Manufacturing Institute. Spiegel, a Poland Seminary High School graduate, announced the donation at a ceremony at YSU on Thursday.
"We have to get focused on where all the jobs are going to be in the future and what skills need to be developed," Spiegel said. "And we're trying to get all three of those entities together to say, hey lets solve this training gap. The skills gap will take care of itself."

The company donated the "in-kind grant" for students in the advanced manufacturing and engineering jobs that work with NAMII. The money will be used for lifecycle management software used by major companies.

The grant will specifically go to the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to provide its students with state-of-the-art product lifecycle management software and training, which will be implemented in classrooms next year.

The software will be used to prepare them for careers in additive manufacturing, computer-aided engineering, and robotics design for the automotive, defense, energy, high-tech electronics, machinery and aerospace industries.

"We think they'll be a major renaissance," Spiegel said. "All of these things came together."

YSU Dean of the STEM College Martin Abraham said the software training capabilities will attract employers worldwide.

"The companies will come looking for them because they don't have to retrain the students in new technology our students already know," Abraham said.