Preparing tomorrow’s plastics professionals starts today. Collaborations between academic institutions and the plastics industry are helping to give plastics engineering students the real-world experience they’ll need to be future innovators and problem solvers. Whether companies donate equipment or participate in research collaborations, industry partners gain brand exposure with future purchasers or employees, and benefit from fresh ideas coming from the lab. 

“Partnerships with industry are critical for plastics engineering programs,” says Robert Malloy, chairman of the University of Massachusetts–Lowell (UMass Lowell) Plastics Engineering Department. “We could not survive or be as effective without strong industry connections.”

Keeping Education Relevant

The UMass Lowell Plastics Engineering Dept. depends upon industry leaders to provide the advice and guidance that keeps the program relevant to industry needs. Many manufacturing, hardware, and software companies sponsor labs and donate or consign equipment for labs, providing state-of-the-art equipment for student training. Corporate partners established some of the department’s more than 50 endowed scholarships, which help ensure talented engineering students can complete their education program. 

“Our job as plastics educators is to ensure that the plastics industry has an adequate supply of trained plastics engineers,” says Malloy. “We could not do this effectively without the great industry support we receive.”

About 95% of the UMass Lowell plastics engineering students complete one or more co-ops as an undergraduate. “Students get a better feel for the aspects of the industry they like, and it helps them with their career path,” says Malloy. “We also feel the employers benefit, as the students bring a good skill set with them.”

Meanwhile, UMass Lowell has had a partnership with Moldflow simulation software since even before Autodesk acquired the company in 2008. Moldflow established an endowed scholarship, funded the renovation of the Moldflow computer lab, and provided simulation software for the lab. Since then, Autodesk upgraded the lab and contributed supplying additional funds to the scholarship endowment. The newly renovated lab provides students with access to the full suite of Autodesk software 

Technovel, a Japanese-based, multi-screw extruder manufacturer, placed both twin- and quad-screw compounding lines in UMass Lowell’s new Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center. The state-of-the-art, ultra-high speed compounding extruders operate at screw speeds as high as 4,500 rpm. “This investment by Technovel is very significant and gives our students the opportunity to work with equipment that is as sophisticated as any equipment they will encounter in industry,” says Malloy.

One of the newest collaborations for UMass Lowell involves a new Plastics Sustainability Research Lab sponsored by SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association. The lab will have a variety of equipment for mechanically recycling plastic materials, which SPI is procuring from its member companies. After being displayed in the “Zero Waste Zone” at NPE2015 in Orlando, Florida, the equipment will be shipped to UMass Lowell, where students will learn how to use it.

“We hope that this lab will help our students and graduates have a much better understanding of recycling processes and hopefully will work to enhance recycling rates for plastics,” says Malloy. “This lab will also give us an additional plastics recycling research capability that we have not really had in the past.”

Malloy sees a bright future for industry partnerships. “I repeatedly hear from employers that they are concerned about their aging workforce and are seeking new and young plastics engineering talent. Having a presence on campus is becoming almost a requirement if companies want the best and brightest graduates.”

“We Learn, and They Learn”

The University of Akron in Ohio partners with industry in many ways. For example, its National Polymer Innovation Center offers a place for companies to work with the university on a smaller scale to develop new processes. This exchange also gives the students who work in the center important insight into product development. 

“Companies come to us sometimes because of our expertise, sometimes because of our equipment, or they might have an idea of what they want and just need to work with someone on it,” says Eric Amis, dean of the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. “We learn, and they learn.” 

The Center’s unique equipment includes a very advanced roll-to-roll film processing line. Companies can try out products on the line with the idea that they might build a similar line, for example. “A lot of new products are tied to changes in processing characteristics, and this equipment allows companies to try out a lot of formulations or processing parameters,” says Robert Weiss, chair of the Department of Polymer Engineering. “That is a big advantage.”

Amis says the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering’s educational foundation is in synthesis, processing, measuring, and modeling, but the specific topics that it focuses on are of immediate importance. Right now, hot topics include functional materials as well as biomaterials.

For example, Prof. Matthew Becker at Akron was recently awarded $3 million from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative to collaborate with PolyOne, Lubrizol Corp., SNS NanoFiber, Viscus Biologics, and Austen BioInnovation Institute to accelerate the development of biomaterials and get them out of the lab and into real-world applications. The collaborators will contribute matching funds and will focus on the development of novel polymers, X-ray shielding materials, protective coatings for medical devices and catheters, and antimicrobial materials for wound healing. Ohio Third Frontier provides funding to Ohio companies and institutions to create new technology-based products, companies, industries, and jobs.

Like many academic institutions, the University of Akron places a lot of emphasis on developing intellectual property that can be licensed or used to launch spin-off companies. “Akron has been doing well with this, and the students are an important part of the teams who talk to the industry partners about how to implement technology,” says Coleen Pugh, chair of the Polymer Science Department. 

Companies also come to Akron to increase their technology portfolio. For example, Premix, which is now owned by the Composites Group, came for help in expanding their sustainable materials. “We developed a joint IP agreement with the company,” explains Pugh. “The students worked on projects that will increase their sustainable materials offerings, including scaling up materials.” 

Internships are another way that students get a chance to learn what it’s like to work in industry. This experience can help them decide on an academic or industry career path. Some of the University’s graduate students work for two days per week for one year, and students have also had internships at PolyOne and Omnova Solutions Inc.

Gaining Industry Experience

For students in the Plastics Engineering Technology and Rubber Engineering Technology programs at Ferris State University in Michigan, internships play a central part of their education. They’re required to take part in an internship, typically during the summers after their freshman and junior years. Companies providing these internships have included Nike, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Chrysler, and many Tier One automotive suppliers as well as major material suppliers.

“For the freshmen, our goal is for them to gain exposure to the industry and get an understanding of what goes on there, as well as what their interests are in terms of a technical career,” explains Robert Speirs, professor and program coordinator of the Plastics Engineering Program. “Many companies put them into a project environment where they are guaranteed success, and often a mentoring system is used to ensure the students have someone with them a majority of the time.”

When the students enter their second internship, they tend to drive projects such as cost-savings exercises, implementation projects, or quality or materials control programs, and they often save the company some significant money towards the end of their tenure. Companies frequently view this second internship as an extended interview, and thus many of the students leave with a career opportunity. Fifty to sixty percent of Ferris State students in the program receive a job offer in this way.

Speirs says that recent improvements in the economy are making companies more aggressive in recruiting students for internships. “Many are including housing as part of their recruiting package, even though the internships are paid,” says Speirs. One reason for this change is that hiring has been low since 2008-2009, so companies are dealing with an aging workforce. They need to hire talented young employees who can move up into leadership positions over the next 10 to 15 years.

The Plastics and Rubber Engineering Technology programs are relatively expensive to run, and thus they rely on industry assistance in the form of materials and machine donations. “Industry assistance is very important to keeping us in operation and helps keep us modern,” explains Speirs. “The students learn to use this equipment, and when they graduate and… get the opportunity to specify instruments, they will lean towards manufacturers they know.”

For example, Bekum America Corp., KraussMaffei, Maplan Rubber Machinery, and AEC all provide equipment to the Ferris State programs, and a variety of materials suppliers provide materials that students use in the laboratories. Companies also provide important insight into today’s trends through guest lecturers and other interactions with students.