{"id":134122,"date":"2022-11-30T11:56:22","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T16:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=134122"},"modified":"2023-11-28T15:46:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T20:46:18","slug":"pros-who-know-bolster-epic-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2022\/11\/30\/pros-who-know-bolster-epic-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Pros Who Know Bolster EPIC Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Product Design & Manufacture students benefit from industry speakers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Patrick L. Kennedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to design a pump that works. It\u2019s quite another to choose the right materials, components, and manufacturing processes to ensure that thousands of identical pumps can be made efficiently, cost-effectively, and safely.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why BU\u2019s Product Design & Manufacture<\/a> curriculum features a steady stream of expertise in the form of guest speakers drawn from industry, including from corporate sponsors of the BU Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an entire process that happens after design,\u201d says Professor of the Practice Steve Chomyszak<\/a> (ME<\/a>), who has years of design and manufacturing experience under his own belt. \u201cIt\u2019s good for my students to hear from people in industry who have expertise in all these aspects of the process and can interject all of these details throughout the course. The speakers help bolster what I teach and give the course added credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, this fall, in the course Manufacturing Processes for Design and Production, Chomyszak\u2019s master\u2019s degree students\u2014who are tasked with redesigning a basic pump for various applications\u2014got a guest lecture from Jim Wilson, principal engineer at GE Aviation, on geometric dimensioning and tolerance, \u201cthe universal language that engineers use on their manufacturing drawings,\u201d says Chomyszak.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Ross Richardson, EVP for global engineering at SharkNinja, visited EPIC to deliver guest lectures on consumer product design. He discussed consumer touch points, how to do a teardown, and industrial design.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brianna Mikolich, a product training manager at aPriori Technologies, showed students how to use her company\u2019s software to predict the cost of every component of their pump given a host of variables. \u201cIt teaches them the impact of their design decisions,\u201d Chomyszak says. \u201cDecisions made early have consequences later on, and it can get super expensive to change your mind the further you go down the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toner Plastics CEO Steve Graham spoke about injection molding, which students are also gaining hands-on experience with in EPIC. The cutting-edge facility \u201chas just been a tremendous asset to the class,\u201d says Chomyszak.<\/p>\n

And Don Loughlin, senior technical director at Procter & Gamble, visited the class to discuss how to set up a production line. \u201cHe did a great job of relating this all back to the customer,\u201d says Chomyszak. \u201cWhat value does this component bring to the customer? That\u2019s something I\u2019m constantly harping on in my own lectures.\u201d<\/p>\n

EPIC Director and Professor of the Practice Anna Thornton (ME) hosted a guest lecture series at EPIC this fall, and she, too, appreciates it when a speaker dispenses advice that happens to echo her consistent lessons: \u201cThe students realize, \u2018Oh, wait, the reason Professor Thornton is always talking about this is that it\u2019s relevant to industry. She\u2019s not just teaching this out of a book.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond technical skills and general principles, Thornton hopes that hearing about professionals\u2019 evolving careers\u2014and staying in touch with them after the semester\u2014will help manufacturing students navigate their own journeys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to bring in speakers who talk about their arc,\u201d says Thornton. \u201cWhere did they start? What were their job titles along the way, and how did they leverage their experience from each job to get the next job? How did they use their network? What risks did they take? What projects did they take on that they think got them that next promotion? That\u2019s what makes you a successful person in industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Banner photo by\u00a0<\/span>Jake Belcher<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one thing to design a pump that works. It\u2019s quite another to choose the right materials, components, and manufacturing processes to ensure that thousands of identical pumps can be made efficiently, cost-effectively, and safely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":134226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,908,1],"tags":[646,251,927,926],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134122"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146940,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134122\/revisions\/146940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}