This planning grant will fund department level reform the manufacturing program at the University of Cincinnati. The approach is to place students in a virtual corporate setting, where classes are linked to job functions and the curriculum becomes a form of job rotation exposing students to traditional theory with links to practical applications. The central hypothesis and of the proposed activities is that a virtual manufacturing corporation can unify and energize the curricula motivating students and faculty to learn, provide a mechanism for addressing industry wants and needs, and can be marketed to K-12 students and teachers.
In this planning project, the goal is to restructure the entire manufacturing curriculum so that it can be mapped into a virtual corporate structure supported by an information technology based integration mechanism. A corporate oversight panel will be established, along with a framework for eliciting and integrating corporate and K-12 suggestions and feedback, taking advantage of the existing Co-Op program. Finally, evaluation and accountability guidelines will be developed along with activities to prepare other faculty members for strategy implementation.
