Manufacturing is at a pivotal moment right now. It is advancing rapidly, there is more demand for goods, and the economic wellbeing of the nation, including the national defense, depends on it.
Prompted by this important time and the need for more skilled talent, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) has created a new educational committee. This committee is called, Strengthening the Talent for National Defense: Infusing Advanced Manufacturing (AM) in Engineering Education, and they have asked Associate Professor of mechanical engineering, Chinedum Okwudire, to be a member.
“We seek to facilitate the infusion of advanced manufacturing in engineering curricula across the nation,” said Okwudire, “to help strengthen the talent pool for the defense industrial base of the nation. It comes at an opportune time for our department, as our design and manufacturing faculty have been working together to modernize our curricula.”
Okwudire references two faculty proposals that have been funded by U-M Mechanical Engineering Department (U-M ME). One proposal is looking to improve the design and manufacturing capstone curriculum and the other is wanting to infuse experiential learning in advanced manufacturing across the department.
As these changes start to be adapted at U-M ME’s department level, this committee has goals to modernize the courses of the nation. This committee is charged to determine the extent to which AM technologies are present in undergraduate engineering capstone design courses and explore ways to foster the integration of such technologies into capstone design courses.
“A critical challenge faced by the U.S. manufacturing industry is the shortage of highly-skilled talent. Our work seeks to address this problem,” says Okwudire.
To read the full committee member list and more about their goals, click here.
