Students in the industrial and manufacturing engineering department will hone their skills in a state-of-the-art laboratory, thanks to a $50,000 donation from the Gene Haas Foundation.
The Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Haas Automation, an Oxnard-based company which produces computer numerical control tools.
Amy Hewes, the College of Engineering’s director of publications and communications, said Hass Automation has worked with the department.
“We have a long running relationship with Haas,” Hewes said. “We also have a very strong manufacturing engineering program at Cal Poly, and because of that, Haas has wanted to encourage the major. We need manufacturing jobs in this country, as we’ve lost a lot to overseas markets.”
The donation from Haas is also making other companies sit up and take notice of the department, according to industrial and manufacturing engineering department chair Jose Macedo.
“What’s interesting is that there is a snowball effect with these things,” Macedo said. “Several other companies are interested in giving us new equipment. It’s just taking on a life of its own. In a few years, we’ll have a state-of-the-art automation lab that no other university in the nation has, and it all started with Haas.”
This donation is not the first gift Haas has given to the university. Macedo said it donated scholarship money last year and offers students internships and projects, as well as offering up several engineers for the department’s advisory board.
“We’re very thankful to have them as an industry partner,” Macedo said. “They don’t expect any recognition, and they’ve been supportive of us for many years. The only way we can have a great program in engineering is with strong industry partners like Haas has been for us.”
Macedo said students from other engineering majors, such as aerospace engineering and construction management, sometimes take industrial and manufacturing engineering courses to help round out their degrees.
“We’re also talking to mechanical engineering about offering some of our manufacturing courses to help create better designers,” Macedo said. “They’re complementary.”
This donation from the Gene Haas Foundation will be split into two parts, Macedo said. The first $20,000 will be used to establish scholarships for students in the program.
The other $30,000 from the Haas Foundation is given directly to the department, which Macedo said will be used for equipment updates and for teaching students about automation.
“Automation is the ability to make processes and people more productive by removing human operators from things that are repetitive, menial or dangerous,” Macedo said.
Macedo said without automation, many factories still using primarily manual operations run the risk of being sent overseas.
“To keep jobs in the U.S. in manufacturing, engineers need to know how to program so those jobs can stay here,” Macedo said.